World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, will be hosted in the Islands by the Lutheran Church of Honolulu in collaboration with The Names Project Foundation, Hawai'i Islands Chapter. Sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display.

Events include a 10 a.m. service led by the Rev. Jeff Lilley; a 5 p.m. performance by the Hawai'i Vocal Arts Ensemble; a 6 p.m. performance by St. Mark's Saintly Singers; a sunset candlelighting vigil and reading of names at 7 p.m.

On Dec. 2, the quilt will be displayed during Sunday services.

Information: Ray Herradura, 375-2889 or world.aids.day@lchwelcome.org.

LESSONS AND CAROLS ON DEC. 2

Saint Andrew's Cathedral will host a free Advent Lessons and Carols at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 2.

The event — an Anglican Christmas tradition that weaves carols and hymns together with readings from scripture, telling the Christmas story in words and music — replaces the usual first Sunday Evensong.

This year, Saint Andrew's will present another free Lessons and Carols service. The Jan. 6 service will celebrate Epiphany, the culmination of the Christmas season in the arrival of the wise men.

Both will be directed by John Renke and feature the Cathedral choir as well as Hawai'i's largest pipe organ.

Both services begin at 5:30 pm.

Information: 524-2822, ext. 217.

JODO MISSIONS CHOOSES BISHOP

The Hawaii Council of Jodo Missions recently elected the Rev. Wajira Wansa as its first non-Japanese bishop.

Wansa of Kurtistown and Hakalau Jodo Mission on the Big Island was chosen during the group's 36th annual convention on Sept. 22.

Outgoing Bishop Ryokan Nakamura will remain at the betsuin as a researcher for the Jodo Missions of Hawaii Research Center.

Wansa, born in Sri Lanka in 1950, became a novice monk at age 13. At 18, he went to Japan and lived at Amidaji Temple in Kobe, where he studied the chants and scriptures of Jodo-shu Buddhism from the Rev. Shunjo Tosa. He graduated from Bukkyo University in Kyoto.

After being ordained a Jodo-shu Buddhist priest at the Chion-in Temple, the headquarter temple of Jodo-shu in Japan, Wansa came to Hawai'i in 1978 as a minister at Jodo Mission of Hawaii.

In 1979, he was assigned to Kurtistown Jodo Mission and also has been serving as minister for Hakalau Jodo Mission since 2000.

Wansa's wife Aruni recently graduated from the college of business at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo. Son Evan is in the seventh grade.