Thank you for joining us for this live stream (or recording, as the case may be) of Sunday worship. May it bless you! You may need to click “Play” to launch the stream, which will be live around 9:50 AM.
This service includes the celebration of Holy Communion. If you will be worshiping from home, please prepare and have ready some bread or other staple food and grape juice or another beverage for that portion of the service.
Welcome to the live stream of worship from Church of the Holy Cross for Sunday, October 4, 2026. You will find the service outline below, and you may download and print the PDF to follow more easily.
Service of Worship October 4, 2026
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
World Communion Sunday
Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor
WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD
Please note that audio and video of this service are being live streamed on the Internet and will be recorded. The right rear section of the sanctuary will not be captured by any cameras. Please be aware that in other sections you may be visible at times.
Prelude: Near to the Heart of God Kayleen Yuda
Lighting of the Candles
Ringing of the Bell
Welcome: Rev. Eric S. Anderson
* Call to Worship (based on Exodus 20:1-20) Joyce Nakamoto
Leader: God spoke to the people in ancient days and gave them commandments.
People: We strive to place God first, to keep from idols, to speak God’s name reverently.
Leader: God set a day of rest, and God told us to honor our parents.
People: God told us to refrain from violence, unfaithfulness, and theft.
Leader: God commanded us to tell the truth, and not to covet the belongings of our neighbors.
People: We have heard these commandments and we strive to obey.
All: Let us worship God!
* Hymn #222: My Song Is Love Unknown (v. 1 – 5)
* Invocation (based on Psalm 19) Joyce Nakamoto
The heavens tell your glory, O God, and all Creation echoes with praise. The speechless world rejoices like a bride and groom on their wedding day. Renew in us our love for you and for your ways, O God. May your commandments enlighten our eyes and hearts. In thought and in deed, may we keep to your ways, O God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
WE SHARE THE WORD OF GOD
Anthem: Just As I Am Kayleen Yuda
Time with the Children Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Scripture: Joyce Nakamoto
Isaiah 5:1-7
I will sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded rotten grapes.
And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.
What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield rotten grapes?
And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
but heard a cry!
Philippians 3:4b-14
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Sermon: Beyond Achievement Rev. Eric S. Anderson
WE RESPOND IN WORD AND DEED
Pastoral Prayer Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Call to Offering Joyce Nakamoto
Complete righteousness is a long way off from any of us. We make our way toward that goal of faithful love for all people in different ways each day. Let us take this opportunity to love our neighbors and praise our God. Whether you share your gift here in the church today, through a gift online, or via an envelope in the mail, let the offering now be received.
Offertory: Conzonet Kayleen Yuda
* Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Amen
* Offertory Prayer Joyce Nakamoto
In love for you we bring these gifts, O God. In faithfulness to your call to share we bring these gifts, O God. In hope of a world in which we share as easily as we breathe, we bring these gifts, O God. Amen.
* Hymn #349: I Come with Joy (v. 1-5)
Invitation
Rev. Anderson: It was on a Sunday that Jesus Christ was raised from death by the power of God, appearing to several of his followers and friends. Mary Magdalene saw him and so did Simon Peter. Jesus walked the road to Emmaus with two of his disciples, but they did not recognize him until they joined him at a table where Jesus Christ broke bread.
On this World Communion Sunday, come from the four corners of the world to gather about this table. Come brief in days and long in years. Come from your loves and successes and from your losses and sorrows. Come aware that the mountain is holy and the ocean is holy and the growing things are holy and the birds of the air are holy. Come to learn once more that Jesus of Nazareth called his disciples to name as holy the most common food and the most common drink, to remember is life, death, and resurrection.
Consecrating the Bread and Cup
Rev. Anderson: On this World Communion Sunday, let us come to God for the breaking of the bread. Let us pray:
People: God of vast creation, God of heaven and earth, we thank you for the bread of life.
Rev. Anderson: We recall the time when you preserved the children of Israel by leading them to Egypt, where your prophet Joseph had gathered grain.
People: There on our Communion table, O God, is bread baked from wheat to keep us whole and sound.
Rev. Anderson: We recall the time when they fled slavery into a barren land, and you fed them with your manna.
People: There on our Communion table, O God, is rice, which nourishes so many hungry people every day.
Rev. Anderson: We recall the time your people found a promised land, rejoicing in its plenty.
People: There on our Communion table, O God, is banana bread, in which we taste the sweetness of life.
Rev. Anderson: We recall the time when Israel received its law from you, a law that extended justice to the stranger and sojourner.
People: There on our Communion table, O God, is tortilla, which is the bread of so many newcomers to our nation.
Rev. Anderson: We recall the time when Israel was taken into exile, and they sought to worship you in a new land.
People: There on our Communion table, O God, is ulu, breadfruit, which has nourished Polynesian peoples wherever they have traveled.
Rev. Anderson: We recall that in your wisdom and mercy, O God, you have never left your people hungry when your Spirit might provide.
People: There on our Communion table, O God, is poi from taro root, which keeps our bodies rooted in the land.
Rev. Anderson: And we recall, O God, that when your people were starved for your Spirit, you sent us Jesus, to fill us and make us whole.
People: There on our Communion table, O God, is an empty bowl, which reminds of the hungry we still yearn to feed, and reminds us of the love of Christ which fills our souls from depth to height.
Rev. Anderson: God, bless the meeting of hunger and generosity in all places. Bless the memories of all that is Holy Land, the place of Jesus’ lineage and Passover custom, the land under our feet, all land remembered, all land honored, all land with justice.
Bless all that is Communion but especially what we take into body and spirit, so that you can live and walk, sit, roll with us. Fill our bodies and spirits with strength, guidance, inspiration, and love, through this holy meal. Amen.
Through the broken bread we participate in the Body of Christ. In Jesus’ name, we give you this bread.
Through the cup which we bless we participate in the new life Christ brings. In Jesus’ name, we give you this cup.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Rev. Anderson: God, we thank you for refreshing us at your table by granting us the presence of Jesus Christ. Strengthen our faith, increase our love for one another, and send us forth into the world in courage and in peace, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen.
* Hymn #314: Community of Christ (v. 1 – 4)
Please be seated
Announcements Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Benediction Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Postlude: Fanfare and Voluntary on Darwall’s 148th Kayleen Yuda
* Please stand if you are able.
Permissions
Near to the Heart of God
Tune by Cleland B. McFee
Arr. by Albin Whitworth
© 1982, 2003 by Belwin Mills Publishing Co.
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
My Song is Love Unknown
Text by Samuel Crossman, 1644
Tune RHOSYMEDRE by John D. Edwards, 1840
Public Domain
Just As I Am
by William Bradbury
© 1942 Theodore Presser Co.
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
I Come with Joy
Text by Brian Wren, 1968
© 1971 Hope Publishing Company
Tune DOVE OF PEACE from Southern Harmony, 1835
Arr. Austin Lovelace, 1977
© 1977 Hope Publishing Company
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Conzonet
by Steward Landon
© 1949 Lorenz Publishing Co.
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Community of Christ
Text by Shirley Erena Murray, 1985
© 1992 Hope Publishing Company
Tune LEONI, trad. Hebrew melody
Public Domain
Streamed by permission CCLI License #1595965
Fanfare and Voluntary on Darwall’s 148th
Tune by John Darwall
Arr. by George Blake
© 2023 Lorenz Publishing Co.
Streamed by permission ONELICENSE A-735890
Important Dates and Announcements
Today, October 4 – Board of Trustees meeting after Worship service in the Lounge.
Friday, October 16, 7:00 PM – Shakespeare Ere Modern, Voci Waimea Concert, CHC Sanctuary. Visit KamaainaConcertSeries.com for more info.
Sunday, October 25 – All Saints Worship Service. To include a name of a loved one who had died in the past year, please notify the church office.
Sundays, 8:30 AM – Join our choir, Holy Cross Singers, at rehearsals in the Lounge.
Wednesdays, 5 PM – Bible Study in person, in Pastor’s Study or via Zoom (see The Weekly Chime for the link)
Fridays, 9 AM – Bell Choir rehearsals in the Building of Faith meeting room
Other Faith Groups that meet at Church of the Holy Cross
- The United Church of Christ, Pohnpei – Sanctuary, 12 noon
- Rev. Bensis Henry
- Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa – Sanctuary, 2:00 p.m.
- Rev. Sitau Ofoia, Jr.
- The Bedesta Church – Sanctuary, 4 p.m.
- Rev. Edmes Edwin
Leading Worship this Morning
Pastor Rev. Eric S. Anderson
Moderator Lorraine Davis
Vice Moderator Elwood Kita
Lay Reader Joyce Nakamoto
Chapel Decorations Amy Shiroma & Clarice Suzuki
in memory of Tommy Shiroma
Organist/Pianist Kayleen Yuda
Music Director-Accompanist Bob Grove
Na Kani O Kalani (Bells) Director Evan Montemayor
IYAA Choir Director Stuart Mori
Sunday School Teacher Gloria Kobayashi
Sunday School Aide Johanna Narruhn
Image Artist Sue Smith
Live Stream Director Ruth Niino-DuPonte
Sound Engineer & Assistant Director Ben Yamaki
Videographers Eric Tanouye, Mace Peng, Bob
Smith, Cindy Debus, Woody Kita
Office Manager Kahealani Mahone-Brooks
We welcome you to worship this day. Church of the Holy Cross seeks to help its members, friends, and visitors follow the guidance of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, encouraging all people to love one another according to the teachings of Jesus. We live and teach the faith, speak good news, minister to people near and far, and work with other households of faith and helping agencies to improve our community and our world. To support our ministries, please visit our Donate Page.
