June 1967 CONTENTS Constitution and By-laws iii Purpose and Dedication iv The Why and How of this Book v 1 PART ONE - Setting the Church in Motion First 24 Years as a Mission: 1922-1946 Introduction 1 2 Beginning of the Trail 2 3 Kawaiaha’o Church 3 4 Woman’s Board of Missions for the Pacifi c Islands 3 5 Start of the Manoa Mission 4 6 Manoa School 5 7 Central Union Church 6 8 1940: Rev. Ernest Fujinaga 8 9 Summary 9 Map, Manoa Valley 10 10 PART TWO - Growth, Change Fifty Years as a Church: 1946-1996 From Mission to Church 11 11 1954: Rev. Nelson Kwon 12 12 1962: Rev. Don Adams 14 13 1964: Rev. Hiro Higuchi 15 Contemplations by Hirotoshi Yamamoto, Yoshiji Aoki, Gloria Tamashiro 14 1971: Rev. Michio Oyakawa 20 15 1979: Rev. Donald Asman 21 16 Sunday School 23 17 Youth Program Highlights: Rev. Beth Plumbo 23 18 Retrospections 26 Karine Nakashima, Ron Hashiro, Dorothy Murakami, Peg Renard, Vanessa Miller, Dan Fujikawa, Thelma Izu, Betsy Komatsu, Jane Otake, Don Shimazu, Randall Fujikawa, Charlotte Walters, Bette Uyeda. i 19 PART TWO - Loose Ends Soul of the Church Church Signs 41 20 Hero? Steamroller? Legend? 41 21 Monday Men 43 22 Men/Women Fellowships 43 23 Budget Crackers 44 24 The Building Program 44 Of Lava Rock and Fancy Swirls A building as a memorial And the church as an institution Secretaries . Child Care . Youth Workers . Boy Scout Troup 11 25 PART FOUR - Next Seventy Five Keep on being Faithful Monarch butterflies! A Word About Rev. Asman 47 26 Of Omar and Hyakutake 47 It’s hard to imagine that at this 27 Pictures 48a & b 28 Looking to the Future 49 beginning, they were wormlike creatures we call a catepillar. Yet APPENDICES A. Mission Statement 53 in this beauty and grace they are B. Timeline 54 forever new - as a reminder being C. 50th Anniversary Program 65 D. “There’s A Church In The Valley” 66 imparted by Shelly Hamada in her E. Membership Roster 1997 67 drawing in the inside back cover. F. Certifi cate of Dedication 69 INSIDE BACK COVER Drawing by Shelly Hamada ii CONSTITUTION and BY - LAWS of the Manoa Valley Church adopted on November 3, 1946 Constitution of the Church Article I. Name Article II. Covenant Article III. Polity Article IV. Membership Article V. Life and Work Article VI. Amendments This page is a summary depiction By-Laws of (1) the contents of the original I. Membership Constitution and By-Laws adopted II. Services and Meetings by the church on November 3, 1946 III. Offi cers and (2) the follow-up action three weeks later on November 24 when IV. Finances it was offi cially constituted by the V. Auxiliary Organizations Oahu Evangelical Association. This VI. Amendments is the basis around which our 50th Anniversary Celebration revolves. MANOA VALLEY CHURCH The original is a 15-page Constituted Sunday, November 24, 1946 handwritten document on fi le in the by the church offi ce. Oahu Evangelical Association (signed) Edward Kahale, Moderator Allen Hackett, Pastor, Central Union Church J. Leslie Dunstan, Hawaiian Board of Missions CHARTER MEMBERS Ernest Sota Fujinaga, Yasu Fujinaga, Carl Hisashi Inokuchi, Thelma Izu, Betsy Nakamura Komatsu, Jean Nakamura, Joan Nakamura, David Nekotani, Ruth Taeko Nose, Yutaka Nose, Richard Oide, Nancy Oshiro, Marie Otaguro, Betty Tanga, Gilbert Yamabayashi, Amy Takahashi Yamamoto, Hirotoshi Yamamoto iii Purpose and Dedication The task of writing this history of the church is being undertaken not only because it seems appropriate to the occasion but also to update the only available document of this nature, a 12-page study published in May 1966 by member Mae E. Mull titled “From Mission To Community Church – A Study Of Manoa Valley Church.” We are indebted to Mrs. Mull for her introductory work. This second effort would never have gotten off the ground lacking the basic information contained in her study - the initial roles played Kawaiahao Church, The Woman’s Board of Missions for the Pacifi c Islands, Central Union Church and others in the early development of the mission church in the valley. As to format, our basic aim is to portray the experiences of the church’s seventy-fi ve years in the valley in as simple a telling as possible; as Sid Hormel from Waiokeola Church used to paraphrase when singing the hymn “I Love To Tell The Story”: “I love to tell the story of my church, not yours.” Kidding aside, the following selection from Walt Whitman’s “Sea Drift” (from Leaves Of Grass) is, for instance, more to the point of what’s on our mind: Up through the darkness,/ While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading,/Lower sullen and fast athwart and down the Sky,/ Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east,/Ascends large and calm the lord-star Jupiter,/ And nigh at hand, only a very little above,/ Swim the delicate sisters the Pleiades. In that perception of glory and beauty we dedicate this publication to not only the souls who have gone before us but all of you for your contributions in making the church what it has come to be: You began and held to the belief that man and religion belong to each other – Up through the darkness. And that has given us something to celebrate. A parallel aim has been to publish this document at the least cost so it can be made available to all members free of charge. Hence the spiral binding... but more consequential, all the work has been done in-church. Finally, in the hope that it would fi nd a practical and useful end aside from historical context, wide margins have been purposefully set so you can add in your own unbridled sense of voice and feel - pictures, autographs, messages, whatever - as your expression of God’s gift to one and all. iv The Why and How of this Book The task: As part of the celebration, write a short history of the past fi fty years, or seventy-fi ve years. Just crank out a few pages of stuff about “the church in the valley” in time for dinner, the anniversary dinner, that is. That’s the way it started in committee, a Rembrandt simple, modest proposal. Can do? All nod their heads. Good idea. The Storm on Months go by. Nothing happens. How to get the ball rolling? Do the Sea of it. Galilee So at last we’ve got some kind of a movement going. But, like Oil on canvas Topsy, the collective effort keeps growing. Not simple anymore. And of course it’s the fi rst time a publication like this has ever been attempted...in-house. Fingers are crossed as to whether it will even work. And for sure, it could not have been done without the expertise of Dan Fujikawa and Peggy Cha on their electronic keyboards and the art of Maddie Oshiro and Bette Uyeda on layouts. Not to overlook Catherine Miyahira in the offi ce and Ron Hashiro’s advice on pictures and anything technical. Talents galore. Others, including Rev. Asman, come through with stories and editorial help. Rev. Kwon mutters under his breath that he’s not a poet, but read his vignettes and you be the judge. Rev. Mitch Oyakawa also comes through, from across the big pond. So does Rev. Beth Plumbo. And members up and down the line. Auwe! This is more than we bargained for. And missed deadlines. First the January annual meeting date. Then Pro Bowl Sunday in February; wish we could feel like the guy who kicked that 30-yard fi eld goal for a million bucks. Ours, we missed, of course. And so on. But we’re here at last. Hope you enjoy the tales your fellow members have spun for you. And thanks for being so patient. On behalf of the committee, one fi nal word, from John 16:33 - Be of good cheer. Ben Tamashiro, editor. August 1997. v vi PART ONE - Setting the Church in Motion First 24 Years as a Mission: 1922-1946 1. Introduction So another point in the life of our church is upon us - the 50th Anniversary of the signing of its Charter, on November 24, 1946; the date its status changed from Mission to Church. It was followed a decade later by its next big step, the incorporation of the church on November 7, 1956 (the seal is exhibited to the right), meaning that it could now hold title to property. And with that, another decade later, it began its building program culminating in the dedication, in August 1967 of the sanctuary and the Education Building, which we today call the Manoa Valley Church. The life of the church, however, has its roots deep in the Manoa Mission dating back to September 1922. This connection brings up the primary purpose of this document: To refresh ourselves by recalling how Christianity fi rst came to Hawaii, and then to review the subsequent story of how our church itself came into being and the main points that have transpired over its run of nearly 75 years as the Manoa Mission/Manoa Valley Church. Call these points “lightning marks,” if you will, a term taken from the book, Pilgrim At Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard. It’s a story of her life in and around Tinker Creek in Virginia’s Blue Ridge - God’s country. Published in 1974, it’s been described as a book “which, on any page, offers a passage one can scarcely wait to share with a friend.” And in one of those passages, Dillard tells about the practice of certain Indians who used to “carve long grooves along the wooden shafts of their arrows” which they called “lightning marks” because they resembled the curved fi ssure lightning slices down the trunk of trees.