Two books emerge from East Honolulu ministries
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Two books have emerged this year from two East Honolulu ministries — one by a priest, one by a deacon.
Oratorian Father Halbert Weidner, the pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Kuliouou, has written “Grief, Loss and Death — The Shadow Side of Ministry” (Hayworth Pastoral Press, 2006).
Deacon Andrew J. Gerakas, of Star of the Sea Parish in Waialae-Kahala, has written “The Origin and Development of the Holy Eucharist: East and West” (St. Pauls, 2006).
Both slim volumes — Father Weidner’s is 81 pages, Gerakas’ is 136 — emerged from the authors’ personal experiences.
As a veteran pastor of a large suburban parish, Father Weidner deals with his parishioners’ crosses, and his own, on a near daily basis. His book addresses a hidden side of ministry.
For Deacon Gerakas, who was baptized and confirmed in the Orthodox Church and has been a Roman Catholic deacon for 25 years, his long-time dream has been for unity between the “Churches of the East and West.” His book explains why.
Father Weidner begins his work with a punch. He writes:
“The shadow side of ministry shoots a bullet through the brain that does not kill or prevent thinking or feeling. But the bullet creates a hole, a long hollow, empty wound that thinking and feeling must somehow bypass.”
“The shadow side of ministry is simply our human side,” he explains, the side that takes up the cross and inevitably falls under its weight along the way.
Father Weidner makes his points by recounting experiences from his three decades of priesthood. All the names have been changed except for that of Liz Kekoa, a much-loved “do-everything” pastoral worker at Holy Trinity parish who died in a tragic traffic accident a few years ago on the H-1 freeway.
As the priest called to the hospital where Liz lay dead, Father Weidner was stunned when a pastoral trainee commented how difficult it must be to “separate” the “roles” he must play in the tragedy.
“Roles?” writes the flabbergasted pastor. “Roles are for plays and movies. This was life.”
And in Kekoa’s death, life had struck Father Weidner a severe personal blow.
He describes the relationship, the loss, and how it affected him. And so the book goes, remaining personal and reflective, straightforward, honest, and often blunt, all the way through.
He is not one to avoid casting a critical eye at his own church. “Outsiders say that the church is the only army that shoots its own wounded,” he says, questioning the church’s practice of casting aside its imperfect, repentant ministers.
“This book is not about solutions or coping,” he writes further on, “but living through the shadow life.”
Father Weidner does offer “resources for the shadow side” in a generous appendix. It’s not your expected list of self-help books, but again a personal collection of movies, poems, novels, essays and memoirs. “The human experience of the shadow is the standard material of artists and thinkers,” he says.
Gerakas’ book turns academic after a preface relating an experience from his Greek Orthodox childhood, using meticulous research to trace the early development of the Eucharist up through the views of modern theologians, both Orthodox and Catholic.
Gerakas demonstrates how the Eucharist was prefigured in the Old and New Testaments. He also gives a nod to Christianity’s Jewish and Greek heritage.
He offers a generous portion of his book over the explication of the Lord’s Supper, through all four Gospel accounts, and as it is evoked in the early church.
Both east and west were one church for Christianity’s first millennium. The author explains the political, cultural and theological factors that led to the split between Rome and Constantinople.
Gerakas also compares the theology and practice of receiving Holy Communion in both churches and touches on other forms of eucharistic worship.
The deacon ends his book with what he describes as a “Pauline styled letter” addressed to both churches, urging “that there be no divisions among you,” to quote St. Paul himself.
He writes the eucharistic unity is possible because of both churches’ devotion to Mary, who is Theotokos, the “instrument of God” through whom the Word became flesh and the Eucharist became possible.
“We love our Holy Mother so much that we will accede to her wishes, resolve our differences, seek forgiveness from each other, and ‘break bread’ together at the same table again,” he writes.
Both books are available at the Pauline Book and Media Center in Honolulu.