About Our Ministries
The Altar Guild is a quiet yet vital ministry to the church. Members prepare the church for services, mostly behind the scenes: polishing silver, filling candles, laundering linen, setting up for and cleaning up after the Eucharist and baking bread. Some of us arrange the flowers at the altar. We also make sure that the church is especially festive for celebrations such as Christmas and Easter. COVID hasn't changed much except that we have replaced the homemade bread with the traditional wafers.
New members are always welcome. The commitment is for one Sunday a month. Please talk to Sandy Souza at the 8:00 a.m. service or Beth Fincke at the 10:15 service, even if you are just curious. Anyone can make a donation for flowers. They are a wonderful way to remember a loved one or celebrate a special occasion. And don't forget to help with the greening of the church before Christmas. 
Reading Between the Lines (formerly known as the Bible Workbench) is a weekly conversation built around scripture and a collection of short texts (a few pages of reading for each meeting). RBTLs allows participants to engage with one of the lectionary readings of the week, presents a central theme of that reading, and connects the biblical text to other writings on that theme. Participants take turns introducing the material and inviting responses, such as how the theme relates to events in the world and in participants’ own lives.
The focus is exploratory; we “make room” for asking questions and offering interpretations and observations. Each reading is put into the context of history or the larger Bible story it is part of, considered through a series of open-ended questions, and then put in conversation with (excerpts from) poems, essays, novels, and other creative works. It provides an opportunity for spiritual growth and fellowship through conversation and reflection. New members are welcomed, anytime. You can support RBTLs by trying it out if it sounds potentially appealing, or mentioning it to others who might be interested. 
Ushers are usually the first to arrive before the services and prepare the church to greet and welcome everyone who enters. The early service ushers open the doors, turn on the microphone and lights, and put out the offering plate. Pre-COVID, we gave the service bulletins to the parishioners and collected the offering. For now, there are no service bulletins, and the offering plate is placed on a stand in the middle of the center aisle near the last pews. The late service ushers do the reverse – close the doors, turn off the microphones and lights, and return the offering plate. In addition, they lock up the church and the Chapel of Peace. Both service ushers put away the offering for the counters. Please come and join our quiet ministry.
The Food Distribution Ministry was established about 25 years ago to help people who might be running out of food toward the end of the month. In the past, on the 3rd Saturday of each month we distributed grocery bags and served a hot lunch. COVID has put an end to the fellowship of the chili and rice lunch and has created a growing demand for our grocery bags.
Fortunately, St. Clement's is a Hawaii Food Bank agency partner. Volunteers with trucks shop at the Food Bank one to two times a week to pick up a variety of canned and packaged food. Sometimes our food expeditions include a trip to Costco to buy items if the Food Bank doesn't have it. To prepare the grocery bags, volunteers make up individual bags of rice and pack the grocery bags. Other volunteers hand out the bags every Wednesday from 10 AM to noon. As you can see, our Food Ministry relies heavily on volunteers. Please consider helping. Please email us to learn more about how you can contribute your time and talents! Also, donations of canned goods such as pork and beans, corn, chili, Vienna sausages, soup and Spam are always appreciated to supplement what we buy from the Food Bank. Every little bit helps! 
The Makiki Farmers' Market serves our community every Thursday, beginning at 4:30PM and ending at 7PM (or whenever our vendors sell out). We get anywhere from 300 to 500 customers each Thursday!
The Farmers' Market has a variety of food, ranging from fresh produce, to bentos, sushi, Thai and Mexican foods. We are in need of volunteers to help open and close the Market. If you’re interested in helping out down the line, let us know! 
The Family Ministries team provides Sunday school for children aged 6 months and up. In Sunday school your kids can make friends for life, learn about Jesus Christ and the Scriptures, sing hymns and have lots of fun!
Here are some images of the art projects that our Sunday school students have been working on lately. Parents - not to worry. Due to COVID, we have moved our Sunday school classes outdoors and have increased health and cleaning protocols, which include but are not limited to extra cleaning supplies, touchless thermometers, mask-wearing and contact tracing |
The Adult Discussion Group meets weekly between the Sunday services usually via Zoom. The Group is moderated by Rev. George Clifford, Priest Associate of the Parish of St. Clement Church. Discussions are based on print and film media sources. The church obtains the books and participants purchase them prior to discussions, and usually one chapter is discussed each Sunday.
This Group is open to anyone who wants to explore and expand understanding of religion and spirituality by reading or watching selected non-Biblical sources, and then discussing these in depth. This forum is considered a protected place where everyone can express personal viewpoints without censure or judgment. We have been blessed to have participants with a wide variety of backgrounds in literature, education, science, theology, and the arts who recommend books for the group and keep our conversations lively. We welcome anyone with ideas to share who is willing to spend an hour on Sunday mornings. Because of the COVID pandemic, the group has decided to meet virtually on Zoom. An unforeseen benefit of Zoom was the capability of participation of individuals outside the state. We were privileged to have three authors zoom in for discussions: Elaine Pagels of Princeton University, Abbot Christopher Jamison from Sussex, England, and John J. Collins of Yale Divinity School 
The lectors play an important role in each Sunday service. Depending on our needs, they’ll usually read the lesson and the prayers of the people. The lector team is always in need of volunteers, and we’d love to have new faces join us! Contact the church office if you’re interested.
RYSE is a safe haven supporting youth 24 hours a day. RYSE offers not only a place to sleep safely, but food, education, medical and mental health services, employment assistance and much more.
St. Clements’ helps by providing chili and mac salad once a month. It matters because many of these young people have not had a home cooked meal in years, if ever. We show our care by preparing the food from scratch and decorating the mac salad like we would for a banquet. The residents notice and appreciate this. What can you do to help? We cook the last Wednesday of every month at 10 a.m. Our volunteer team is very small. We could use more help. At Thanksgiving we need turkeys and pies. Donations of young adult clothing are also appreciated. If you have questions, please contact us. 
The creation of the Peace and Butterfly Garden, a work still in progress, has prompted the creation of a Gardening Ministry. We have a wonderful property, but many parts of it need a lot of TLC. If you are interested in creating lovely garden spaces and maintaining them, please contact Beth Fincke.
KIVA is a US-non-profit that allows individual people and groups like us to lend money via the Internet to low-income entrepreneurs and students in 77 countries, including the US. Using “bundles” of small loans (“crowdfunds”) made by several and often dozens of lenders like us, KIVA expands financial access to underserved communities and the people who live in them who do not qualify for loans from traditional financial institutions.
The results are amazing. In addition to improving lives, because KIVA works with field representatives who qualify borrowers and underwrite loans, our repayment rate is a whopping 95.5 percent, with only 4.5 percent of our borrowers defaulting. Family Ministries has been making loans through KIVA with funds our ministry raised for over 5 years. To date, Family Ministries has loaned $2325 to our neighbors through KIVA and is in the process of lending $500 more by the end of 2021. |
