Basic Christian Community of Hawaii 40th Anniversary Celebration, Aug 30

2025 marks the 40th anniversary of Basic Christian Community of Hawaii. Since our first retreat in Kalihi Valley in the summer of 1985, we have been working hard to change lives through spiritual retreat experiences. And now it's time to celebrate! All of you played a crucial role in the enduring history of the community and we invite you to share in the celebration this year.

The BCCH 40th Anniversary Celebration will be held on Saturday, August 30, 2025 at Armed-Forces Association of Hawaii, Incorporated located at 891 Valkenburgh Street, Honolulu. Free parking is available across the street from the venue. The night's festivities include dinner, door prizes, music.

5 p.m. Reception

6 p.m. Dinner includes Hawaiian food plate, dessert and soft drinks. No host bar available.

Basic Christian Community of Hawaii is a lay movement of the Roman Catholic Church, operating with full Diocesan approval. Our spiritual guides and advisors are the Very Reverend Msgr. Gary Secor and Sr. Meristella Umdor, Missionary Sister of Mary Help of Christians. It is designed to bring together small groups of people to support one another (community), to study and know Jesus’ Word (the message), and to live more fully the life of a believer (the mission).

When you stop and think about it, community has always been an essential part of the Christian life, right from those wondrous days recounted in the New Testament. Just as fish swim together in schools for protection against their predators, we too need the strength of one another to shield us from worldly temptation and to help us continue on our own spiritual journeys.

The Basic Christian Community of Hawaii (BCCH) was organized in 1985 and it has been growing ever since. It is modeled after a success-proven format that is some 2000 years old. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples were the original basic Christian community. After they were banned from using the temples for their meeting place, they met in homes to continue the spreading of His Word. This format must have worked, because those original twelve disciples have now grown to some two billion Christians in the world. Now, that’s a success story!

BCCH is nothing more than an attempt to recreate the closeness of such small communities, to recapture some of the fire of the apostles, and to spread the Good News, both through personal witnessing and lifestyle changes. Community is very important to our relationships, too. We cannot separate how we relate to God from how we relate to one another, because the very things that keep us from forming closer relationships with our neighbors also separate us from God. The goal of Basic Christian Community of Hawaii is for us all to develop deeper ties with both the Living God and His people.

BCCH holds six retreats each year and we welcome anyone who wants to experience God’s love in a more powerful way. The presence of His Spirit is truly felt, and you can honestly see Him in the face of others, so we encourage new members to use these weekends as both an introduction and a jump-start to their own BCCH experience. Although most new BCCH members attend one of our retreats first, our weekly small groups are open to all who wish to experience their faith more fully. Our weekly meetings then provide a continuation of the brotherhood experienced at the weekend as we give praise and thanks to God, share what He has done in our lives, and study His Word.

Host or Publisher Basic Christian Community of Hawaii