Church for Teen-Agers

On Sundays, when adult Episcopalians in the Honolulu suburb of Aina Haina arrive for services at Holy Nativity Church, their teen-age children are not among them. The kids have their own church to worship in: the neigh boring, virtually autonomous church of Halepule Opio, where the congregation of 180, plus all of the lay readers, ushers, acolytes and wardens, are youths ranging in age from 12 to 18. Normally the only adult present is the church's minister, the Rev. Fred Minuth, 41, a curate of Holy Nativity.

Halepule Opio (Hawaiian for "house of prayer for youth") is one solution to the pastor's age-old problem of how to make spiritual contact with youths sitting bored and unmoved through sermons aimed at adults. The Rev. John Morrett, now dean of Honolulu's Episcopal cathedral, founded Halepule Opio in 1956 with special teen-age services in a Holy Nativity chapel. Two years later the parish financed for the project a $160,000 building that included the church (easily convertible to a gym), a kitchen and meeting rooms. The youthful congregation was in on the planning from the start; one was on the parish building committee that helped design the church.

Operating on a yearly budget of $2,000, Halepule Opio's congregation pays its fair share of Holy Nativity's utility bills, runs its own dances and athletic events, sponsors its own charitable campaigns for overseas missions. Last year it raised $1,250 to help buy a fishing boat for a village in Formosa. So far, Father Minuth or his rector has presided at all the services, but Minuth would like to get his bishop's permission for some of his parishioners to try their hand at delivering the Sunday sermons.

Some Episcopalians think that Halepule Opio is no more than playing House of God, but its founder, Dean Morrett, argues that "church can be made a happy environment for youngsters, and if they have a happy environment, their chances of following through with religion later are good." Holy Nativity's adults and Halepule Opio's teen-agers agree. Says Parishioner Piliahoha Tanner, 15: "This way you have a feeling of wanting to come to church because you're needed. If the youth service were not held, I wouldn't be as likely to go to church."

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