Author Archive: admin

LCH Bids Farewell to Vicar Andy

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Saturday evening party in honor of Vicar AndyLCH bid farewell to Vicar Andy Flatt-Kuntze over the weekend of July 13 and 14. The congregation celebrated with Vicar Andy and his husband Justin on the completion of his year as pastoral intern with the congregation. The internship was the last part of his studies at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in preparation for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The festivities began on Saturday evening with a catered dinner in Hörmann Courtyard. In typical LCH style, the delicious food was accompanied by LCH-labeled wine and cold beer. Following dinner, members of the vicar’s lay committee, on behalf of the congregation, presented gift, including a red Hawaiian-style clergy shirt, LCH T-shirts, and a hand-made cross. The photo on the right shows Josie Bidgood, president of the church council, presenting the cross, which was made by former pastor Don Johnson. (Click on the photo, and others not this page, to see a larger version.)

God speed for Andy and JustinFollowing Sunday morning worship, the congregation made their final farewells with a service of ”God speed” (shown in the photo at left), lei for both Andy and Justin, and more gifts. Andy was given a green Hawaiian-style clergy shirt (since the red season is so short) and a distinctive Hawai‘i-themed stole that is reserved for clergy associated with LCH (shown in the photo below). Andy told the congregation that he will wear the stole for his ordination.

Saturday evening party in honor of Vicar Andy

Karol’s Karolers Summer Concert · June 13, 6:30 pm

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choir graphicKarol’s Karolers presents their summer concert of songs from around the world at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. Songs in this concert deal different types of love, longing, loss, coming to terms with the hardships of life, and finding ways to be at peace with our struggles and suffering. The earliest is from 15th century Germany, and the most recent is by a UH graduate. Admission is free, and donations (unfortunately, not tax-deductible) are welcome. Several LCH members sing in this choral group, they hope to see you in the audience!

Karol’s Karolers, founded in 2012, is an organization devoted to producing professional level a cappella concerts. Originally known for spreading Christmas cheer with their caroling programs, the group has extended its repertoire and scope of musical projects beyond the holiday season and have self-produced nearly a hundred concerts and performances around the island of O‘ahu, on the Big Island, and in the summer of 2018, throughout Europe, performing in Italy, France, Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland. Over the years, the group has benefited from the collaboration of over three dozen diverse singers, each of whom contributed their voice and unique musical background to the ensemble.

LCH Website Maintenance and Refresh

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The LCH website had its last refresh in 2013, so it’s time for some behind-the-scenes maintenance and and a tune up. That maintenance, which will begin on June 11 (the Kamehameha Day holiday, when our webmaster has the day off), gives us the opportunity to bring the software behind our pages up to current standards. However, to make that happen, we will need to switch templates, and that will change the look of the website and disrupt the formatting of our pages for a period of time. Details about the the reasons for this and what will happen will follow for those interested. For everyone else, be assured that the content and structure will not change, but formatting will be disrupted at times. Formatting issues will be particularly noticeable for “fancy” pages like the list of readings, hymns, and special music. We thank you for your patience and apologize for any inconvenience.

Background—The software behind the LCH website

The LCH website runs on a platform called WordPress that allows people to create web pages without needing to do coding. In the old days, people would write code in a markup language called HTML. This required them to “markup” the different parts of their pages with “tags” (e.g., <h1>...</h1> around the first-level headline, <p>...</p> around a paragraph, etc.), and then a viewer’s browser would ”render” the page in accordance with a “stylesheet” the coder created to specify what each part should look like. As websites became more common, people wanted to be able to create them without having to learn code, and so ”open source” software like WordPress was developed to make that possible. WordPress runs on top of software called PHP, another open source program, that generates dynamic web pages that change depending on conditions specified by the person creating the page. Both of these programs are maintained by communities of individuals and available freely across the web. As with all programs, they are continually revised and updated to deliver better service and remain secure.

Background—Special considerations for the LCH website

Each WordPress website uses a “template” that specifies what individual pages will look like, and there are hundreds of templates available. Back in 2013, when LCH switched from hand-coded pages to WordPress, the web developer selected a template, customized it with the LCH logo, and copied over the content of the main pages from the old website or with new content. We then created the rest of the pages on our site in WordPress. However, because many of our pages use special formatting (particularly content displayed in tables—things like the music list mentioned above or the listing of worship participants or the calendar in the HeartBeat, to name a few), we had to add a lot of extra code to the stylesheet in our template. All this special formatting allows us to display information attractively, but once we start the maintenance process, the special formatting will disappear and formatting issues will pop up.

The maintenance process

We anticipate the following steps:

  1. Switch our website to a different template so that our current template can be updated. This will completely change the look of our website and introduce a host of formatting issues. We hope to copy over the parts of the stylesheet and fix most of the formatting issues fairly quickly. However, you should be prepared for new colors, some strange formatting, etc. The new template will remain in place until step 2 has been completed. Because this work needs to be done in webmaster’s free time, the alternative template may be in place for a couple of weeks.
  2. Install newer versions of PHP, WordPress, and our current template. Depending on a number of factors, this could take several days.
  3. Switch back to the updated version of our current template. This will require customization of the template and its stylesheet, so you should be prepared for an unfamiliar look and strange formatting for several days while that work is done.

When all this has been completed, the familiar look and feel of our website should be restored, but it will be running on top of up-to-date software.

Adult Form Discusses Resiliency • June 9 @ 10:45 am

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Matthew Gonser

Matthew Gonser will discuss the work of the city Office of Climate Change, Sustainability, and Resiliency. This Adult Forum session follows the summer service, and will run until about 12:00 noon. Mr. Gonser will describe what his office is doing to help residents of O‘ahu care for the earth and cope with natural disasters. He will also share ideas of what we can do, as individuals or as a congregation, to reduce our ecological footprint.

All are welcome.

Summer Worship Schedule Begins June 2

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Our summer worship schedule begins on June 2. We will have one morning worship each Sunday morning at 9:15 am. This communion service incorporates elements from both the 8:00 and 10:30 services.

Watch the calendar, ENews, and HeartBeat for fellowship and education opportunities following worship around 10:45.

Compline concluded on May 19 with a service featuring a piece written by Benjamin Leonid, a member of the Men’s Schola. Regular Compline will resume the first Sunday of September.

Think Outside the Bach (Saturday, May 25)

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concert graphic with pictures of various Bachs

Fabulous music from the Bach family tree
Saturday + May 25, 2019 + 7:30 pm

LCH Choir and soloists Bach Chamber Orchestra
Scott Fikse, conductor + Mark D. Wong, organ + Katherine Crosier, harpsichord

Suggested Donation: $20 (by cash or check at the concert or using the “Donate” button below)





Johann Sebastian Bach belonged to a family whose members were almost universally gifted with a passion and skill in music. While we seldom hear the works of these other Bachs, they possess great beauty and ingenuity. Join us for the varied works of Carl Phillip Emmanuel, Johann Michael, Johann Christian, Johann Ernst, PDQ, and others who bore the famous name, Bach.

Program
Domine ad adjuvandum me

Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782)
Unsere Trübsal

Johann Ludwig Bach (1677–1731)
Quintet in A, Op. 11, No. 5

Johann Christian Bach
Das du den Hirten Freude sangst, Passionsoratorium

Johann Ernst Bach (1722–1777)
Violin Sonata in D Minor

Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (1714–1788)
Halt, was du hast

Johann Michael Bach (1648–1694)
Concerto for Viola and Pianoforte, Mvt. ii

J. C. Friederich Bach (1732–1795)
My Bonnie Lass She Smelleth

PDQ Bach (1807–1742)?
The Ground Rounds

PDQ Bach
Herr, wende Dich und sei mir gnädig

Johann Christoph Bach (1642–1703)