Briefs
Advertiser Staff
Gala honors parishioners
Conrad Passas and Robert M. Arrell were among the 85 Roman Catholic parishioners honored at last night's seventh annual Island Treasures Hawai'i gala.
They and others were honored for sharing "their talents and gifts with much love and compassion, respecting the God-given life and dignity of each person."
Honorees were chosen as exemplary parishioners from eight vicariates, representing parishes statewide, as well as ethnic parishes, military parishes and Catholic organizations.
Catholic Charities sponsored last night's banquet.
After open-heart surgery 10 years ago, Passas became his church's hospital minister and has served on the pastoral council and carnival committee. He's also a lector, usher and eucharistic minister.
A member of Sacred Heart church since 1959, Arrell worked in religious education, was an altar server, cleaned the church and parish buildings, dug graves and did minor repairs.
He started the parish's Knights of Columbus, had a hand in organizing the church's Legion of Mary, started a credit union for the parish and led the parish tithing program. He was the parish's first eucharistic minister.
For more than 10 years, he and his wife visited a nursing home in Leeward O'ahu and set up eucharistic services bringing communion every Friday to people confined to bed.
Seminars offer interfaith view
The Tendai Institute will host a three-day interfaith seminar on "Interfaith Paths to Emptiness."
The free series of discussions will take place at the institute, 23 Jack Lane. The schedule:
• 7 p.m. May 22 — Eastern Asian experiences of mysticism and apophatic (emptying) prayer; with Pure-Land, Zen and the Tantric schools of Buddhism.
• 7 p.m. May 23 — Sufi, Taoist and South Asian forms of popular and hermetic prayer, compared with the great Christian mystic traditions.
• 8 a.m. May 24 — the Agni-hottri Fire Rite as apophatic emptying.
Light refreshments will be served after the evening presentations, and a vegetarian Zen breakfast will be served after the early presentation.
For more information, call 595-2556.
Roundtable talks planned
The University of Hawai'i Outreach College offers two free roundtable discussions with local religious leaders and academics to explore radical fundamentalism and violence committed in the name of God, as well as the common virtues of the world's single-deity faith groups.
Both programs will be held on the UH Manoa campus in the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics Auditorium.
"Religions, Religious Fundamentalism, and Domestic Terrorism" will be 7-8:30 p.m. May 28. The speakers will be Keli'i Akina, executive director of Hawai'i Youth For Christ; Tamara Albertini, an associate UH professor of philosophy; Ibrahim Aoude, a UH professor of ethnic studies; Rabbi Avi Magid of Temple Emanu-El; Hakim Ouansafi, president of the Hawai'i Muslim Association. Their talks will deal with the relationship between major religious traditions and violence done by extremists claiming to represent those traditions.
"World Religions, World Peace: Finding Common Ground" will be 7-8:30 p.m. June 4. A panel will explore various belief systems. Speakers will nclude author Saleem Ahmed and Cromwell Crawford, head of the UH-Manoa religion department.
For information call 956-3836 or visit the Web site at www.outreach.hawaii.edu.
Christian leaders meet with Bush
Two Hawai'i Christian leaders have made trips to the nation's capital to meet with President Bush and his advisers on different matters.
Bill Stonebraker, pastor of Calvary Chapel, was at the White House in April when evangelical leaders from 50 states gathered for a briefing on the war in Iraq.
"What I came away with was great confidence in the integrity and diligence in our president," Stonebraker said.
In May, Wayne Cordiero, pastor of New Hope Christian fellowship, was invited with several others to discuss research for HIV.
Harvest Crusade to be this summer
Greg Laurie will bring a Harvest Crusades to Hawai'i this summer.
The crusades use skateboarding demos, alternative and rock music and live Webcasts.
Founded in 1990, the Harvest Crusades have drawn more than 2.8 million people to arenas and stadiums across America and Australia.
There will be a Harvest at the Shell on July 19 on O'ahu and a Harvest Maui at the Lahaina Civic Center on July 20.
For more information, visit the Web site at www.harvest.org.
