FAITH BRIEFS
Churches offer holiday music

Advertiser Staff

You've already cracked the "Nut"? Want some more Christmas music? Get a handle on Handel with several choices this holiday season:

• Central Union Church's 100-voice Oratorio Choir and Handel Festival Chamber Orchestra will perform its 56th annual "Messiah" at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30 at the church, 1660 S. Beretania St.; 941-0957.
• The Windward Coalition of Churches is having a "Messiah" sing-in at 2 p.m. Dec. 7 at Christ Church Uniting Disciples and Presbyterians, 1300 Kailua Road; 262-6911.

Volunteers collect gift shoeboxes

As part of Operation Christmas Child, people are filling shoeboxes with assorted gifts of school supplies, hygiene items and toys for distribution to needy children. Last year in Hawai'i, 3,900 shoeboxes were created.

Completed shoeboxes are being collected this weekend (10 a.m.-6 p.m. today; 1-6 p.m. tomorrow) at Nu'uanu Congregational Church, 2651 Pali Highway, or Joy of Christ Lutheran Church, 784 Kamehameha Highway in Pearl City.

The Alliance of Christian Motorcyclists will deliver shoeboxes today to collection points. Riders will meet at 9 a.m. today at Fleet Reserve Association, 891 Valkenburgh St., for route and instructions.

For information: www.samaritanspurse.org, Aprill Wilson at 265-2838.

Gay bishop topic of free lectures

The Rev. Robert Fitzpatrick, canon to the ordinary of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawai'i, will review the action around the confirmation and consecration of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, a gay man in a committed relationship, as bishop of New Hampshire and discuss it in light of the evolution of the understanding of Scripture, tradition and reason within the Episcopal Church.

Three free lectures will be offered from 7 to 9 p.m. Sundays and Wednesdays at two locations:

• Sundays (Nov. 30, Dec. 7, Dec. 14): St. Christopher's Episcopal Church, 93 N. Kainalu Drive, Kailua.
• Wednesdays (Dec. 3, Dec. 10, Dec. 17): St. Luke's Episcopal Church, 45 N. Judd St.

For information: 536-7776.

Special ministry at Calvary Chapel

The "beloved" ministry at Calvary Chapel, 1190 Nu'uanu Ave., meets the first Saturday every month for a special cause: "If you are a Christian woman praying for your husband to come to the faith in Christ, please join us ... " starts the notice in the weekly bulletin.

Linda Fulton is among the four in the core group of wives praying for their husbands to come to the faith, as well as praying for "fruitful marriages," she said. The group, which next year enters its fourth year of existence, averages about 10 to 12 women, she said.

But don't mistake this as a form of wifely tough love.

"We love and respect and honor our husbands," said Fulton. "We pray for them, but it's not a failure if they don't" come to church.

Information: 524-0844.