St. Joseph Samoan Luau

I take a lot of pictures for my parish and as I am downloading tonight's gallery, I thought I would post a couple here. Tonight was the annual Samoan Luau at my church, put on by the Samoan community within our parish. I think it is quite unusual to find Catholic Samoans, since so many of the Pacific Islanders were converted courtesy of Protestants and Mormons. It was an absolute delight and packed with people from the St. Joseph parish.

In addition to Samoan food (I passed on the taro root), there was also Samoan and Polynesian dance, like this fine fellow:

Or this one . . . um, not a Samoan, but our own devoted pastor, Fr. John Moneypenny, who graciously donned the lavalava skirt given to him by the Samoans and attempted to hula (he would be the first to admit, at 6'4" and all angles, dancing is not his forte)!

This just isn't something that they teach you in the seminary! Our pastor is always the target of jokes by the parishioners that he takes with extreme good humor.

Events like this make me proud of my parish. At. St. Joseph, we are made up of three groups: Anglo, Latino and Samoan. We support each other - we both pray together and play together, all the while keeping Christ Jesus as our center. Again, for anyone who finds themselves in Santa Ana, CA, you are always welcome to come and worship with us . . . and afterwards, stay for the fun!