YearEnd

2024: Birds and Music

/ Rev. Eric Anderson / 3 Comments

After three years of living a very different existence, in the midst of and in the decline of a global pandemic, I found much of it rather exhausting. 2024 felt like playing “catch up” on projects and plans that had been deferred while managing COVID-19. Frankly, that wasn’t easy.

Church of the Holy Cross was able to give energy and focus to things we hadn’t. We resumed welcoming people into membership, and we launched an Open and Affirming committee. We continued to live stream worship via YouTube, since it serves both people who live at a distance and people who cannot attend worship. Video did not replace people in a sanctuary, and it won’t. It’s a different experience, and still worthwhile.

I completed my service as Chair of the Hawai’i Conference Council in June, presiding over an in-person ‘Aha Pae’aina for the first time. The meeting included a lengthy debate over an issue that continues to trouble the Conference: what financial support the Conference should give toward a position in one of the Associations. During my four years, the delegates chose both to fund it and not to fund it by narrow margins. I’m pretty sure that it will take more time and discussion before people consider it resolved.

To my sorrow, I found myself returning to the Chair of the Hawai’i Island Association Committee on Ministry, from which I’d stepped down when elected as Conference Council Chair. I returned to the Committee in May in great part because of the shortage of ordained ministers on Hawai’i Island. During the summer our Chair, the Rev. Larry Walter, died. The Association asked me to fill in, and then elected me to continue the work in the fall. The Committee was further marked by tragedy when one of the lay members, David Williams, died unexpectedly in October.

I continued to make a lot of music. I wrote eight songs in 2024, and all eight are available at 2024: The Songs. The instrument count remained the same (this year’s major expense category was cameras). I sang the spring and fall seasons of the Big Island Singers, which was both great fun and a huge amount of work. The fall concert included my solo performance of “Creature of this World,” which is now two years old. I continued the weekly “Song from Church of the Holy Cross” and the monthly Community Sings. I decided to reduce my solo Community Concerts, however, to four times a year. As the year closed, the musical community of east Hawai’i made its way to Church of the Holy Cross the sing Handel’s Messiah together.

I continued to write weekly LectionPrayers here on my blog, and also contributed to The Living Psalms project of the UCC. Preparing for worship I wrote liturgical materials, sermons, and stories. In the fall, I was welcomed onto the Board of the UCC Media Justice Ministry, my first appointment to a national ministry of the denomination.

I didn’t have a lot of visitors this year – and after welcoming my brother by getting a stomach bug and my cousin by having my water heater break I don’t blame them. Ben and Dee Anderson (no relation) came to Hawai’i in February and Ben did a dialogue sermon with me in church that Sunday.

Kilauea summit, April 1, 2024.

My primary outlet this year (and the most expensive) has been photography. I returned to many of my favorite subjects in 2024, including flowers, sunrises, the occasional sunset, landscapes, and natural shapes. A couple of my favorite images this year were black-and-white. I gave a lot of my attention, however, to birds. I can no longer claim I am not a birder.

Selected Favorite Birds 2024 - 1 of 59

I not only pointed my camera at birds, I made plans to go photograph them. Rather foolishly, I promised a friend I’d take a picture of a bird I hadn’t seen in eight years (the i’iwi, a distinctive Hawaiian honeycreeper with a distinctive long curved orange beak). I got a photo, and I even liked it. I even saw (and got a bad photo of) a bird I hadn’t even heard of, the ‘akiapola’au, thanks to two birders who were seeking it by the trail.

Next year, I plan to spend some time on other islands, and yes, I’ll bring my camera.

I didn’t do a lot of traveling in 2024. I made three trips to O’ahu as part of my Conference work, and flew to the northeast in July/August to visit my more-scattered family in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York. I could have added Maine to that list, but I spent too much time in the rental car as it was. With driving being my primary activity, my photos tended to be of people I love, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I will say that the day Paul Bryant-Smith and I kayaked down a river in New York State was great fun and amazing birding – I saw great blue herons and bald eagles veery closely – but fortunately for my camera, I didn’t bring it along to share my dips in the creek.

2025 will bring something I’ve been waiting for this year: the second sabbatical of my career. Expect to see less new writing, as I’ve got a project for the time, but also expect to see some more photographs.

I suspect that a number of them will be of birds.

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2023: What will Normal Be?

/ Rev. Eric Anderson / 2 Comments

January 2023 started with an eruption in Halema’uma’u Crater at the summit of Kilauea. The new lava continued to raise the crater floor. As it happened, two more eruptions would do the same during 2023, adding bit by bit to the island of Hawai’i.

Church of the Holy Cross UCC began the year with a gathered congregation and continued to live stream the service to those, far and near, who needed to worship from their homes. In the spring we ceased to require masking for those attending service. A number of people continue to do so. We experienced a few members falling ill with COVID-19 during 2023, but nobody reported a serious bout with the disease. I kept up with my vaccines as best I could.

I switched cameras this year, joining the ranks of mirrorless photographers. Even with pretty basic lenses I’ve been very pleased with the results.

Japanese lanterns at Liliuokalani Gardens, Hilo.

This photo comes from February in Lili’uokalani Gardens in Hilo. It’s one of my favorite images of the year.

In addition to appearing on-camera live each Sunday morning, I continued to offer a song each Wednesday, and a reflection piece (What I’m Thinking) each Tuesday (a change in schedule). Another change was to resume the Community Sing, a gathering for people to choose songs for everyone to sing together. Because copyright issues would rapidly arise, those gatherings haven’t been streamed or recorded, but I did change the Community Concert series so that it includes both a live audience and a live stream.

I wrote seven songs this year, but only six have been recorded. The seventh piece is designed for background music during worship. I wrote it for the first gathered ‘Aha Mokupuni of the Hawai’i Island Association in May. The other six, however, have all been sung during one of the Wednesday performances, and like last year, I plan to create a “Songs of 2023” post shortly. I didn’t buy any new instruments in 2023, and for this grace I breathe a sigh of relief.

I sang with a new singing group in the area for two concert series. Big Island Singers, led by Holy Cross’ choir director Doug Albertson, performed in April, just after Easter, and in November, just before Thanksgiving. The music was lovely, varied, and definitely challenging. As 2024 arrives, my calendar already has rehearsal times marked on it.

I did have visitors, but not as hoped or expected either time. In March my brother Chris and his wife Linda visited, and I came down with a nasty stomach bug the day they got on the plane for Hawai’i. They ended up staying at a local hotel, and I wasn’t up to spending time with them until the last couple days of their visit. They put a lot of miles on my car, though, and I was glad to be at least a little of a decent host.

My cousin Peter and his wife Diane visited in September. The good news is that as they arrived Kilauea had a spectacular summit eruption. The bad news is that I had no hot water in my house. Again, they stayed in a local hotel until I had a water heater that worked. They discovered that there are tours down into Waipio Valley, which I hadn’t known, and I was really happy to join them on the tour and see a part of the island that I hadn’t seen before.

My own travel consisted of a trip to Indianapolis, Indiana, for General Synod, and about ten days vacation in New England afterward. It was a simple delight to see my friend Karen Georgia Thompson raised to become General Minister and President of the UCC and to see my daughter Rebekah taking part in worship leadership during the closing service. My schedule was that of a delegate (though I had voice only, no vote), which was more than challenging. I hope I’m able to return to the next Synod in my former guise as a reporter and photographer.

My trip east included my friend John Madsen-Bibeau’s retirement party and a gathering of former employees of the Connecticut Conference, for which I was most grateful. I also enjoyed time with my brother and sister-in-law, who were very gracious considering that I hadn’t hosted them all that well, with Paul and Kimberly Bryant-Smith, lots of the extended family, and of course Brendan and Bekah.

Those two have both moved since last July to their old college haunts. Bekah now lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Brendan in Burlington, Vermont. Bekah continues to work for the Julian Way, an organization working on the intersections between theology and disability, and Brendan started a post with the University of Vermont Medical School in December. I have informed them that visits from Dad will now take place in the summer.

Toward the end of the year, one of my stories appeared in Act Fast, a Lenten devotional published by the United Church of Canada, which is quite exciting.

I spent the year as Chair of the Hawai’i Conference Council and on the Board of Directors of the Hawai’i Conference Foundation; the first leads to the second. As 2024 approaches, we plan to do some review and evaluation of our work toward achieving goals set out in a six year old strategic plan. Since three of those years included a global pandemic, we have had plenty to distract us. In November I actually chaired an in-person meeting of the Council, the first since I received the position in October 2020. I found myself wondering if I knew how to chair a meeting with people present rather than small rectangles on a screen… I am looking forward to passing the gavel to someone else next June, but before I do, I also hope to lead an in-person ‘Aha Pae’aina.

I continued to serve on the Committee on Ministry of the Hawai’i Island Association this year, work I have been very glad of. During the fall I was asked to become mentor and advisor to Keoki Kiwaha, who was entering the ordination process and had been licensed as Kahu of Puka’ana Congregational Church UCC. That is one of the real highlights of my year.

On to 2024!

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