Easter sermon to be last for kahu
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Today, Kahu Samuel Makaneole Saffery Jr. will give his last sermon as pastor of Lili'uokalani Protestant Church in Hale'iwa.
After 22 years of ministry, Kahu Samuel Makaneole Saffery Jr. will leave his post after today's sermon.
The 93-year-old kahu has earned a place in the history books as the oldest active pastor in the United Church of Christ Hawai'i Conference — perhaps even the entire denomination, suspects the Rev. Kekapa Lee, who heads the UCC's Association of Hawaiian Evangelical Churches.
If it were up to Saffery, he'd be preaching forever, but the church voted in January to seek a full-time minister. The congregation chose Easter for his last sermon to capitalize on the joyousness of his years of service, so that Saffery will give this last sermon on a high note.
"Easter time is special because I've been blessed abundantly by the Lord God these many years," he said. But Saffery is not worried about giving a sermon today: "Easter is one of the easiest sermons to give, because you know the rest of the story."
The kahu says he is inspired by the promise of Jesus' resurrection on Easter, which to him is a source of health and power.
Saffery was a late bloomer, taking up the ministry in 1982 after retiring from the city parks department. However, his kahu father (who headed the church for 31 years, from 1940 to 1971) had planted the idea back in the 1930s.
The suggestion didn't stick. At first.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
"When I was a young boy, I was rascal," Saffery says, remembering the times he played hooky from school to go surfing with the beach boys. "I mellowed with age."
Samuel Makaneole Saffery Jr., kahu at Lili'uokalani Protestant Church in Hale'iwa, says having to leave his post will be hard.
At first, he thought his father was cut from a different cloth, but once the elder Saffery died from cancer in 1971, "the things he said started to make sense to me. I tried to change my life around."
Over time, the junior Saffery's sermons came to be much like his father's: simple, grounded in the Bible, illustrated with examples from daily life and good-humored, according to comments from the late Rachel Chun, a church member who knew father and son.
His son, Buddy Saffery, now retired himself, drives his nonagenarian father to his ministerial appointments — blessing houses, officiating at weddings and saying funerals — as well as the hour-and-a-half-long roundtrip from the family home in Kalihi to the church, across the street from Matsumoto Shave Ice.
Their pickup bears a handicapped placard, "but it's for my mom," who is 86, says Buddy Saffery. Then he looks hard at his dad.
"Your mind is like a computer," he marvels, then returns his gaze to a visitor. "Sure, his eyes don't see as clear. But his checking account is (balanced), zero (discrepancy), every month."
Having to leave his post has been hard for Saffery. "They forced me out," he says. "Christ didn't retire. Peter didn't retire."
The kahu has seen amazing changes in his near century of living — the advent of the television, computer and airplane: "In my day, when we had to travel, we had to go by boat. If I wanted to go to Hilo, we'd leave at 4 in the afternoon and get there 6 p.m. next day. Now, 25 minutes and you're there."
• Born: In 1911 to Miulan and the Rev. Samuel M. Saffery Sr., a Hawaiian minister. • Married: In 1936 to Vivian Macy, a tennis star. Two sons, 13 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. • On giving Easter sermons: "This will be a special Easter sermon for me. It was through the Lord God's resurrection, he gave us a promise. ... I use him as my source of all health and power." As for today's sermon: "I don't know right now what I'm going to say. Sometimes, when I'm sleeping, I get a premonition. We propose, God disposes."
He worries about changes in the church, wondering if ministers will stay as spiritually minded as the Hawaiian kahu of his day, rather than materially minded.
The Rev. Samuel Makaneole Saffery Jr.
"I've seen good days and bad days," he said. "My wife's father got killed Dec. 7 (1941) at Hickam. I think our nation is not worshipping God like our founding fathers did. They're turning everything around. We changed, God didn't."
It's been a colorful 22 years' ministry for Saffery, who has been something of a kahu to the stars, officiating at a renewal of vows ceremony for David Hasselhoff and Pamela Bach-Hasselhoff of "Baywatch" and blessings for the "Pearl Harbor" movie. Other blasts from the past: blessings for the William Conrad of "Jake & the Fat Man" TV show as well as for golf legends Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer and Chi Chi Rodriguez.
Some of Saffery's own fans, such as Meredith Youngdale, who volunteers in the back hall of church with the Waikiki Health Center's Ho'ola Like Program, stopped by to pay their respects last week during his office hours, which start about the time the sun rises above the magnificent keawe tree at the historic North Shore church.
"Kahu's been a big inspiration," says Francine Dudoit-Tagupa, one of Ho'ola Like's officials. "Without Kahu Saffery, I don't think we would have been accepted by the community as graciously as we have been. He's a remarkable man, and we hate to see him go."
And Saffery is not the only minister who is giving his last sermon today. The Rev. Dr. Ted Robinson, 64, is retiring after 19 years as Central Union Church's senior minister.
After he retires from Lili'uokalani Protestant Church, Saffery intends to continue answering the calls of people seeking a kahu for blessings and ceremonies. But he's taking it characteristically easy.
"I'll still be doing the Lord's work," said Saffery. "If I worried about everything, I'd be dead and buried by now."
Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8035.
