Stolen symbol recovered

For just over a year, parishioners of a small Maili church prayed for the return of the 3-foot-tall cross that had graced its altar for five decades.

"I was devastated, as well as my children, when we found out (in 2010) it was stolen," said May Holokai, 70, a member of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church for more than 50 years.

On July 19, Holokai went, for the first time, into a small Maili shop on Farrington Highway that sells memorabilia and collectibles.

"It’s like something was drawing me there," she said, adding she had passed by the shop, Mom and Pop’s Garage Sale, for years without ever stopping. "It was like something saying, ‘Come in here.’"

While browsing through memorabilia, she glanced down and gasped, she said, when she saw the missing cross up for sale for $500.

"A sensation washed over me, but I didn’t say anything," she said.

She phoned a senior warden of the church, Honolulu Assistant Police Chief Debora Tandal, who went with Holokai and retrieved the nickel-plated brass or copper cross July 24 after returning from a trip.

Tandal said the shop owners explained they had purchased the cross for $18 at a Nanakuli garage sale and voluntarily and willingly returned it when told it had been taken during a burglary of a church.

Tandal said she offered to pay for it, but that the couple refused. "They said it belonged to the church," she said.

Police have no leads, but the case remains open.

Holokai said she believes divine guidance was responsible for the cross’s return to St. Philip’s, a struggling ministry with a small congregation of 65 that has had to fight to stay open.

"The cross — it’s a symbol — it’s our faith in the Lord that keeps us together as a family," she said.

The cross was last seen during the June 27, 2010, service, and parishioners think it was stolen the night of July 3, 2010.

To replace the classical Episcopal-style cross that has been with the church since the 1950s would have cost between $1,200 and $2,000, Pastor Karen Perkins said.

After the theft was publicized, St. Philips’ accepted the loan of a cross from the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and later a gift of a smaller brass cross from St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Aiea. It turned down another Episcopal church’s offer to buy a cross as well as donation offers from people who learned of the theft.

"I’m not grateful that it happened, but I’m grateful for the outpouring of love as a result," Perkins said. "I think the person or people who stole it clearly had something going on in their lives where they needed care, too."

St. Philip’s will hold a special service Sunday to rededicate the cross and give thanks.

Eva Kum, 80, who has been with St. Philip’s longer than anyone, had regularly brought the cross home to polish it.

"This Sunday, I will see it and caress it," she said.