EPIC evolution

In its 10th year, the Hawaii Catholic ministry for young adults continues to grow

By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald

On Kuhio Day, a group of about 20 young adults and a few children gathered on the covered lanai next to EPIC Ministry’s new Kaneohe headquarters. They chatted, grilled hot dogs, said grace, and loaded up on movie snacks before settling on the lawn to watch a film as the sun set on Kaneohe Bay behind them.

Community nights like this are a monthly fixture in the local Catholic young adult ministry’s line-up, along with eucharistic adoration, faith sharing and speakers. There’s often a hike, a visit to a restaurant or brewery, or a service project thrown into the mix.

“When people are having a good time is often when they are most open to talking about Jesus,” said EPIC’s executive director, Malcolm Zara.

Since its founding in 2013, EPIC has expanded from fewer than 10 members to a larger nonprofit organization recognized by the Diocese of Honolulu. It has three chapters, two on Oahu and one on Maui, and about 40 active participants, with many more occasional attendees.

EPIC has managed to do something that many parish young adult groups haven’t: keep going and growing.

How did they do it?

Kainoa Fukumoto, principal of St. Michael School in Waialua on Oahu’s North Shore, a music minister, and founder of EPIC, explained that the group started as a reboot of another young adult ministry at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Wahiawa. A few years after that earlier ministry had faded away, other young adults asked Fukumoto if he’d start up a group again.

After some hesitation and prayer, “I thought it was something God was urging me to do,” Fukumoto explained.

Our Lady of Sorrows’ then-pastor, Sacred Hearts Father Clyde Guerreiro, supported the idea, and a new group formed in 2013 with about six to eight core members.

EPIC, which stands for “Ever Present in Christ,” was the name chosen by members via a Facebook poll. It beat out GLU, which had the nice meaning of “God Loves You,” but that overall “didn’t stick,” Fukumoto said with a chuckle.

Four pillars of EPIC arose: a focus on Scripture, guest speakers and witness talks, catechesis, and fellowship and community building.

As the group partnered with other local Catholic organizations, more people began to hear about it. A September 2013 Kalaupapa retreat seemed to light a fire under many lukewarm members. The group doubled in size in about a year and continued to grow from there.

Why it’s needed

The “young adult” Catholic category is broad and typically encompasses ages 18-39 with singles, couples, college students and working professionals all in the mix.

Zara cites recent Pew research showing “that 31% of people raised Christian become unaffiliated between ages 15 to 29.”

“So, this is the time to catch them,” he said. However, such a broad age and demographic range can be hard to serve. “You have to come up with something that everyone can participate in.”

Zara says that young adults can be afraid to commit to a group or activity, but “at the same time they are searching.”

“This age more than any other is really trying to find and identify their place in life. ‘Am I doing life right?’”

This is where EPIC can help.

Monthly adoration, faith sharing, speakers and community nights are well-organized and promoted on social media and in the group’s e-newsletters and website. Even more important, many members say, is personally inviting people to come to events.

A range of EPIC members attended the recent community movie night in Kaneohe.

Married couple Maile and Lester Orsino came with their twin 3-year-olds, Titus and Talitha. The couple has have been involved in EPIC for many years. As the twins bounced around and ate, the Orsinos spoke a little about how the ministry was among those that supported them when Maile had a health crisis while pregnant with the twins, and throughout her recovery.

One of the EPIC Windward chapter’s co-coordinators, Jacob Cobb-Adams, 28, said that he fell away from Catholicism in college but was eventually searching for a way to reconnect with other Catholic people his age.

After COVID-19 caused difficulties in maintaining the young adult ministry he and a few others had started at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Kailua, they got connected with EPIC.

“My hope for the ministry long term is that we pass it on down to the next generation to transition and have a legacy of young adults that become strong in the Catholic faith and in the church,” Cobb-Adams said.

Matthew Bicoy, 33, a parishioner at St. Ann in Kaneohe, was a member of EPIC around 2014 before moving to the mainland for several years. After moving back, he says he’s seen how EPIC has grown but also kept its mission.

Long-term thinking

“It’s a bunch of regular young adults that share that Catholic faith as very important in their life and who are just trying to help each other out,” he said. And you don’t even have to be Catholic to participate, he added. “It’s a genuine group of people.”

Several of EPIC’s leaders pointed out that while young adult ministries at parishes can initially be a success, they can disintegrate as original leaders or members leave.

To avoid this with EPIC, the group wanted a long-term strategy that would support the ministry beyond changes in leaders. Fukumoto said that his business training helped.

“I wanted to make the organization like running a business, something that wasn’t going to fall apart when someone wasn’t there.”

That is why he no longer has a formal leadership position with the group, though he remains on its board of directors.

As its original members and leaders have approached aging out of the “young adult” category, they’ve continued to bring in newer and younger chapter leaders.

In 2016, EPIC became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and in 2018 Bishop Larry Silva made it an “association of the faithful” under the Diocese of Honolulu.

Funding mostly comes from private donations, “especially from our young adults,” Zara said. The six Oahu parishes and eight Maui parishes that have formal partnerships with EPIC also support the ministry financially.

In 2018, EPIC was able to fund a paid executive director position, which is now filled by Zara. It eventually added other paid, part-time roles that have evolved into the existing operations and logistics vice director and programs and services vice director positions.

In 2022, EPIC leased the former convent at the Sacred Hearts Sisters’ Paewalani property in Kaneohe as its new headquarters. The property has served in the past as a place of formation for the sisters, a retreat site, and for guests of the order.

Now a handful of young adults live in the old convent at an affordable rental rate, including Zara and his wife, Kristen.

She says those that live in the house are more than just roommates. They pray together and have more faith-based discussions over meals or just hanging out.

Bishop Silva permitted the Blessed Sacrament to be kept in a tabernacle in Paewalani’s chapel, which is also furnished with the altar, chairs and other items that came from the Daughters of St. Paul’s recently closed Honolulu store and chapel.

‘Solidly Catholic’ community

Faith is a part of every peer-led event the group does. A planned April 16 Easter gathering for members and their families was to include an Easter egg hunt, pool time and a potluck but also time to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet as a group in honor of that day being Divine Mercy Sunday.

Another example of EPIC’s attention to being a faithful Catholic organization came at its recent movie night.

After socializing, Zara led a blessing before the meal and then mentioned the movie the group would be watching that night. It had been prescreened by some board members and cleared by EPIC’s spiritual director, Sacred Hearts Father Richard McNally, as acceptable viewing. A few issues that might give viewers pause were mentioned and Zara said they could put on an alternative movie inside if anyone preferred.

For Holy Week 2023, the ministry also brought back its Holy Thursday evening adoration pilgrimage with stops at different churches on Oahu to reflect on the “Seven Last Words of Jesus.”

Father McNally was introduced to EPIC when he took over as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Wahiawa around the time EPIC was coalescing.

“EPIC is a wonderful community for young adult Catholics to be part of,” Father McNally said. “It’s a good, open community, welcoming community. But it’s also solidly Catholic. The faith sharing is solid. The prayer is solid. The commitment to the faith of the EPIC folks is solid.”

“Parents say to me, ‘The church has nothing for young adults.’ And I always say, ‘Yes we do.’”

Bishop Silva is very supportive of EPIC, Father McNally said. The bishop made a brief speech at EPIC’s Christmas banquet in December 2022, praising the organization and saying he often talks up the group when speaking with other bishops or leaders in mainland dioceses.

Father McNally also praised the group for remaining active throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. EPIC held online faith sharing, testimonials and trivia nights, and helped coordinate donations to the Kupuna Needs Project, which brought groceries, toiletries and other supplies to the elderly on lockdown.

“It’s just a refreshing group to be with, and when I’m with them it always gives me hope,” Father McNally added.

Lisa Gomes, the diocese’s Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry director, is also on EPIC’s board as its secretary. She was honored at EPIC’s Christmas banquet as its first EPIC Award recipient in honor of her many years of serving youth and young adults in Hawaii.

“I think what works about the way it’s set up is that it’s very grassroots,” Gomes said. “It’s the people who participate, who do the inviting of their friends or people they meet, Catholic, non-Catholic, non-practicing.”

She attributes EPIC’s longevity to its “Christ-centered” nature.

“Everything they do comes from that,” Gomes said. “The people who are leading it, I don’t think any of them ever say, ‘Come because of me.’ I think it’s always an invitation of ‘Come because of Christ.’”

The future

Fukumoto said one of the biggest challenges for EPIC has been to maintain “brand consistency” as it grows and spreads out geographically in Hawaii. There are now chapters in Central Oahu, Windward Oahu, and Maui, with talks about creating one in Honolulu.

“Ultimately I want to make sure our chapters are healthy and vibrant,” he said.

He’d also like to see EPIC be able to produce publications and resources that could be used for young adult ministry. The group already is more than willing to consult with parishes about what they can do for their young adults.

“EPIC ministry is not just for the people who are involved in it,” Fukumoto said. “I think the broader vision for us is to be a part of our local church that helps the entire community.”

EPIC works to partner with other local ministries that support the young like Catholic Beer Club and Couples for Christ and Singles for Christ.

Fukumoto, who now has three daughters, says building strong Catholic families is something that has naturally evolved in the ministry as its young adult members marry and have kids.

“We hope that those who are involved in EPIC are going back to their parishes and contributing to them and their missions to help build them up too,” he said.

Along those lines, EPIC recently received a diocesan grant to develop a Young Catholic Leaders program that would be similar to the diocese’s Christian Leadership Institute, which trains Catholic high schoolers to be parish leaders.

Fukumoto thinks EPIC has given hope to older Catholics that “there is still a possibility the church will continue to grow and thrive” through active young adult members.