"Where Do We Go From Here?" — Episcopal Diocese Keynote

The 24th Annual Meeting of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii convened at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu over the weekend of October 1992, with a central focus on racism. The Saturday morning program opened at 8 a.m. with a keynote address by Lauren Ekroth of the University of Hawaii-Manoa, titled “Where Do We Go From Here?” Following the address, attendees broke into smaller groups for discussion of racism. The afternoon session addressed resolutions; a dinner at the Ala Moana Hotel closed the day.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s listing identified Ekroth as affiliated with “the University of Hawaii-Manoa” — confirming he was still at UH in late 1992, with retirement coming sometime in the following year or two. His talk title echoed the language of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1967 book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, addressing systemic racism for an audience of Episcopal clergy and laity rather than an academic or humanistic psychology crowd.

Ekroth was not Episcopal — his documented church associations ran from the Church of the Crossroads (Congregational) through the New Thought movement and later the First Unitarian Church. His selection as keynote speaker at a diocesan convention reflects his standing as a recognized voice on social justice in Honolulu, carrying forward an activist commitment that had begun with the Bachman Hall sit-in in 1968.