Visiting an Episcopal Church While on Vacation

I’ve always enjoyed being able to drop into an Episcopal church when I’m traveling. Here’s a fun little story, but first a little background.

Fr. Frank Chun is a good friend of my parents (they met him at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Hawaii while he was preparing for the ministry). I first met him when he was a chaplain at a church summer camp in Hawaii (our family had gone to Hawaii for an extended visit that summer). He was also somewhat on his honeymoon, having just gotten married a few weeks earlier.

Frank has had a long full career, including serving as chaplain for St. Andrew’s Priory School for Girls, and most recently, being rector at Epiphany Episcopal Church in Kaimuki, a neighborhood in the outskirts of Honolulu.

Our family was in town for an 88th birthday celebration for my Aunt Dorothy. While there, we thought we would stop in to attend service and surprise Frank and his family. Frank had been rector at Epiphany for several years and had planned to retire from there.

We showed up a few minutes early and were greeted by several church members. We saw a few folks vested but did not see Frank. Hmmm, maybe he was still preparing for the service. Katherine Wong introduced herself to us and welcomed us as visitors. We informed her that we had attended Epiphany a couple of years ago, knew Frank, and wanted to visit again. Katherine told us that Frank had, in fact, retired last fall and they had a new rector. Oh well!

Fr. David Jackson, the new rector, is a dynamic speaker. You know you’re in an Episcopal church when it’s cool to include Harry Potter in the sermon in a positive light. One of his analogies to Christianity was how much the power of love played a part in Harry Potter’s life. (Harry was actually saved from an evil wizard because of the love of his parents. If you have any questions, check with Tricia or Joseph Henry {BG} ).

As part of the announcements after communion, members are asked to introduce visitors. Being the summer season, several members had relatives in town. As it turned out, we had sat next to Frank’s daughter, Carrie-Anne. She informed the congregation that we were the Marks visiting from the mainland. We had planned to attend service to surprise her parents, but the surprise was on us! We were still warmly welcomed, though.

As has been my experience at many Episcopal churches, the members are very warm and welcoming. Epiphany was no different. While chatting with Marilyn and Steven Wong, it turned out that she was familiar with my Aunt Dorothy (whose birthday we would be celebrating) and her late husband, Uncle Ken. Also, apparently Aunt Dorothy’s daughter, my cousin, Colleen, lives right around the corner from Marilyn’s mother’s place – it’s a small world!

So, even though we were on vacation, I’m glad we were able to take some time to attend service Sunday morning. Although I’m six time-zones away (nine hours by plane), I still feel like I’m home when I step inside an Episcopal church!

Steve Mark