By Pat Gee Episcopal Bishop Steven Charleston, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Okla­homa, said he once struggled to reconcile his Christian faith with the culture of his Native American roots — a challenge with which some Native Hawaiians and other indigenous people can identify.
By Pat Gee During his 33 years of teaching religion, recalled Alfred Bloom, the first question always asked by his students was, "What's going to happen to me after I die?"
By Star-Advertiser staff The Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii Betsuin will celebrate "Gotan-e," the birthday of Shinran Shonin, founder of the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist sect, with special services May 19 and 20.
By Pat Gee Faith leaders, Hawaiian cultural teachers and other community leaders are holding a conference and retreat on Oahu this month to discuss what it means to have a just life, foster a spirit of connectedness and live in harmony, organizers say.
By Pat Gee One image stands out in Natalie Mun-Takata's memories of her family's annual Ching Ming pilgrimage to Manoa Chinese Cemetery: her father and uncles carrying a whole roasted pig on a red wooden tray down to her grandmother's grave in the green valley.
By Associated Press HUTCHINSON, Kan. » The tradition of ministers offering a Christian prayer before Reno County Commission meetings could come to an end after the commission received a letter from a national organization saying a resident had complained about the practice.
By Pat Gee with the Dalai Lama, he would ask what he and others could do as individuals to make world peace a reality.
By Pat Gee Having a spiritual icon like the Dalai Lama shine a spotlight on a new community peace-building event is like having a rock star in the islands, said Kelvin Taketa, president and CEO of the Hawaii Community Foundation.
By Pat Gee Classical music, an integral part of worship at Lutheran Church of Hono­lulu for the past 40 years, will heighten the drama of the last three days of Holy Week that culminate in Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday.
By Pat Gee A beloved custom more than 20 years old at Central Union Church — involving a donkey coming down the main aisle of the sanctuary and a procession of singing children — will be re-enacted once again for Palm Sunday.
By Pat Gee Attending Temple Emanu-El's annual Hono­lulu Community Passover Seder service and dinner April 7 is a valuable teaching tool for younger generations, says Marcia Klompus, an organizer of the event.
By Pat Gee During the past 10 to 15 years, nearly half of all Americans rejected established highways to heaven and took to open roads in their search for a welcoming God, according to a survey.
By Pat Gee Blessed Mother Marianne Cope succeeded St. Damien de Veuster in his merciful care of leprosy patients banished to Molokai, but to the Sisters of St. Francis, she has earned sainthood in her own right.
By Pat Gee Allene Ishikawa, a parishioner at Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church, chokes up each time she takes part in the weekly Stations of the Cross devotion, which traces Jesus Christ's agonizing footsteps to his death by crucifixion.
By Pat Gee Since civil unions became legal in Hawaii on Jan. 1, at least two-thirds of the 153 couples who have been joined in civil unions have opted for ceremonies outside the religious mainstream, choosing instead nondenominational officiants or judges, state data show.
By Pat Gee Rabbi Peter Schaktman and Imam Ismail Elshikh held a public dialogue Sunday in the interest of helping their audience understand their respective faiths and to foster more peace and justice in the world.
By Pat Gee Just as people have the freedom of worship, they should be free to decide how to end their own lives under certain conditions, says John Heidel, president of the Interfaith Alliance Hawaii and founder of Religious Leaders for Assisted Dying.
By Pat Gee Making the teachings of Jesus relevant to the daily challenges of raising young families has fueled the tremendous growth of New Hope Leeward, says senior Pastor Mike Lwin. The evangelical church has long outgrown its space and is searching for other accommodations.
By Pat Gee Joaquin "Kin" Borja, newly elected president of Aloha Life Advocates, has personal reasons for his convictions.
By Pat Gee Organizers of the 24th annual celebration of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday Monday are adding their voices to the Occupy Wall Street movement's cry for economic justice.
By Star-Advertiser Photographers
By Star-Advertiser staff The Most Rev. Larry Silva, Bishop of Honolulu, will speak on the value of a Catholic education and the special needs of parish schools at “Breakfast with the Bishop,” a fundraising event Jan. 22 for St. John Vianney School in Kailua.
By Star-Advertiser staff Church of the Crossroads has selected Nancy Aleck, executive director of the Hawaii People’s Fund, as the recipient of its Peacemaker Award for 2011.
By Pat Gee In Hawaii's multicultural society, the celebration of the new year has a predominantly Japanese flavor for which local people have definitely acquired a taste, no matter what their ancestry.
By Pat Gee Windward United Church of Christ members will be introduced to a Moravian love feast Christmas morning that has little to do with indulging in decadence, though the service is meant to induce feelings of warmth toward one's fellow man.
By Star-Advertiser staff In Japan the most important seasonal celebration is "hatsumode," which centers around celebrating New Year's Day with a visit to a Shinto shrine during the first three days of the new year, according to a news release from the Hawaii Kotohira Jinsha-Hawaii Dazaifu Tenmangu, a Shinto shrine.
By Pat Gee For more than five miles, students of the Pacific Buddhist Academy walked alongside Buddhist ministers in a Bodhi Day Walk for Peace this week in which they encouraged each other to finish the course and got to converse outside the formal trappings of a temple.
By Pat Gee Bodhi Day on Dec. 8 is recognized as the day Buddha attained the enlightenment that led to the founding of the religion in India in the fifth century B.C.E.
By Pat Gee For a few short hours, children who haven't seen their mothers for months, even years, will try to forget the prison bars that separate them and celebrate Christmas together, thanks to a Catholic program known as Star Light, Star Bright!
By Pat Gee It’s been 8 1⁄2 months since a monstrous earthquake and tsunami ravaged northern Japan, but members of Makiki Christian Church haven’t forgotten the victims and their arduous steps toward recovery.
By Pat Gee The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, which brought the first Catholic missionaries to Hawaii in 1827, formally merged its Hawaii chapter with a mainland contingent this week to expand its resources and invigorate its ministries.
By Pat Gee Christian, Buddhist, Baha'i, Jewish and Unitarian congregations are planning a Thanksgiving service under one roof to recognize 50 years of neighborliness in a community proud of its diversity of faith traditions.
By Pat Gee Growing up as a Muslim in Pakistan, Azeema Faizunnisa said she never felt like a second-class citizen because she was a woman.
By Star-Advertiser staff The public is invited to attend an installation service for the Rev. Darren T. Galindo as senior pastor of the United Church of Christ-Judd Street at 4 p.m. Nov. 6 in the sanctuary.
By Star-Advertiser staff Swami Bhaskarananda, spiritual guide for the Vedanta Society of Hawaii, will give talks on topics each Sunday in November.
By Pat Gee As the head of an architectural firm specializing in historic preservation, Lorraine Minatoishi Palumbo always looks for the story of a people in the bones and features of a building.
By Pat Gee A fundraising tea today at First Unitarian Church of Honolulu will support a loan program that helps low-income women gain access to abortion services.
By Pat Gee Rachel's Vineyard Ministries Hawaii, under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, is holding a weekend retreat Oct. 21-23 for women and men struggling with emotional and spiritual pain in the aftermath of an abortion.
By Pat Gee The Interfaith Alliance of Hawaii celebrated more than 40 years of hospice care in Hawaii on Sunday at its ninth annual awards dinner, recognizing St. Francis Hospice and five other organizations in the field with its "Healing Role in Hawaii" honor.
By Star-Advertiser staff Registration is being accepted through Monday for the American Association of Pastoral Counselors Pacific Region's fall conference, Oct. 28-30 at St. Anthony's Retreat Center at 3351 Kalihi St.
By Star-Advertiser staff The Hawaii Pastors Roundtable is seeking assistance from churches with preparations for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference next month, and with collecting donations for nonprofit agencies.
By Star-Advertiser staff The First Unitarian Church of Honolulu welcomed its new minister, the Rev. Jonipher Kwong, last month.
By Pat Gee When the shofar, or ram's horn, is blown in the traditional heralding of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur — the highest of Jewish holy days — it emits a sound likened to a child's cry, says Pearl Krasnjansky, a teacher and spokeswoman for Chabad of Hawaii.
By Star-Advertiser staff The Muslim Association of Hawaii will hold its third annual Islam Day festival today from 3 to 9 p.m. at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, 2454 S. Beretania St. in Moiliili.
By Star-Advertiser staff The Gandhi International Institute for Peace is celebrating the 142nd birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, a worldwide pioneer of resistance through nonviolent civil disobedience.
By Pat Gee In contrast to the revelry of traditional New Year celebrations, the upcoming Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, is marked by days of deep self-examination, the making of amends and a commitment to putting things right with God.
By Star-Advertiser staff Children's Rosh Hashana Fair is chance for kids to make religious ram's horn
By Pat Gee In the 10 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, anti-Muslim sentiment has been fueled throughout the nation by fear and intolerance of what is unfamiliar. So say representatives of the All Believers Network, an interfaith group that is sponsoring a symposium today on promoting peace through the common thread in all religions.
By Star-Advertiser Staff and News Services Buddhist teachers on hand for 'talk story' event • IInterfaith activities increase among U.S. churches
By Pat Gee Michael North was flying to New York for a meeting at the World Trade Center when Islamic terrorists slammed two planes into the Twin Towers.
By Pat Gee In line with the approach that it takes a village to raise a child, the broader Catholic community has to contribute to strengthening its school system.
By Star-Advertiser staff Prajwal Ratna Vajra­charya, a Nepalese priest who founded Dance Mandal, the Foundation for Sacred Buddhist Arts of Nepal, is presenting a series of events in Honolulu beginning tomorrow.
By Pat Gee Religious intolerance often results when people believe their God is the one, true God. The All Believers Network is encouraging people of faith to look for common threads in all religions for the sake of world harmony.
By Pat Gee Tenrikyo Hawaii's 20 churches and 15 mission sites on Oahu are putting together the 41st annual Tenrikyo Bazaar, Aug. 28 at the Tenri Cultural Center in Nuuanu.
By Pat Gee When their mother went to prison in 2006, siblings Deidreana and Daniel saw their family further shattered when their father abandoned them.
By Pat Gee The prison ministry at First Assembly of God Red Hill recently returned from a visit to the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., where it held 10 services over three days and attended a graduation ceremony for 19 prisoners taking part in a Christian studies program, said Bulla Eastman, a prison ministry leader.
By Pat Gee There's still evidence of the old "Rocky" Souza from Pauoa Valley — a girl who danced at the prom and loved to surf — in Sister Joan of Arc Souza, the principal of Saint Francis School, who most likely saved her alma mater from extinction.
By Pat Gee Bishop Larry Silva of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu will head a pilgrimage of more than 150 Hawaii people, most of them young adults, to attend the 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, Aug. 16-21.