Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings | Page 124

August 6, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Jonathan Hawaii Napela

“The moment I entered into the house of this native and saw him and his two friends, I felt convinced that I had met the men for whom I had been looking. The man who owned the house was a judge and a leading man in that section. His name was Jonatana H Napela.”

“His companions’ names were Uaua and Kaleohano. They were all three afterwards baptized and ordained to be Elders, and all are still members of the Church. They were graduates of the high school in the country, fine speakers and reasoners, and were men of standing and influence in the community.”

“Napela was very anxious to know my belief, and wherein our doctrines differed from those taught by the missionaries in their midst I explained to him, so well as I could, our principles, with which he seemed very well satisfied.” (Cannon; Millennial Star, April 10, 1882)

Let’s look back …

Two decades after the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in 1830, Mormonism was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands.

In the fall of 1850, Elder Charles C Rich of the LDS Church Council of the Twelve Apostles called on a company of LDS (Mormon) gold miners working on the American River near Sacramento, California.

The miners had been sent from Utah the previous year on a “gold mission,” an unusual decision in light of the fact that church president Brigham Young was strongly opposed to the Saints running off to California in the pursuit of riches.

Yet he was willing to make an exception, for it was agreed that the Mormon missionaries would bring home to Utah whatever treasure they gleaned. (Woods)

Ten men accepted the call to preach Mormonism in what came to be known as the Sandwich Islands Mission. Embarking from San Francisco on November 12, they landed in Honolulu on December 12, 1850.

Elder George Q Cannon was called to serve in the Sandwich Islands, in October 1849 while fulfilling a unique assignment in California: He was mining for gold; it was not his favorite assignment. “I heartily despised the work of digging gold. … There is no honorable occupation that I would rather not follow than hunting and digging gold.” (Livingston; DeseretNews)

One of the early baptisms was Jonathan Hawai‘i Napela, who is considered by many to be the most influential Hawaiian convert to Mormonism. Descending from the ali‘i, Napela was born September 11, 1813, in Honokōwai on the island of Maui, to his father, Hawai‘iwa‘a‘ole, and his mother, Wikiokalani.

In 1831 at the age of 18, Jonathan began his formal education on Maui among the first group of 43 students to attend the Protestant school called Lahainaluna.

From this academic foundation, Jonathan developed a keen mind and went on to practice law. He later served as a district judge in Wailuku during the years 1848–51.

On August 3, 1843, Jonathan married Kitty Kelii-Kuaaina Richardson (half-Hawaiian and half-Caucasian), who was also from ali‘i blood. From them came one known child, Hattie Panana Kaiwaokalani Napela.

Napela was introduced to the Mormon Church by Cannon (who would later serve as a counselor in the LDS Church First Presidency.) (Woods)

Cannon first came into contact with the influential Hawaiian judge on March 8, 1851. He said Napela was “the most intelligent man I have seen on the Islands.” (and further noted the quotes at the beginning of this summary.) During their island years together, Napela and Cannon enjoyed a warm friendship.

Less than two weeks after their first meeting, Cannon noted, “I was invited by Napela to come and stay with (him.) I having told (him) I wanted to find somebody to learn me Hawaiian and I would him English; he told (me) he wanted (to learn) & to stay with him.” Ten months after their first meeting, Cannon recorded that he baptized Napela on January 5, 1852.

Not only did they learn each other’s language, but Napela, while also learning the principles of Mormonism from Cannon, was able to show Cannon and eventually other Utah missionaries a greater dimension of faith. (Woods)

Napela dedicated himself to building Mormonism in the islands and thus had a great influence in furthering the work in his native homeland. Not only did he collaborate with Cannon on the translation of the Book of Mormon (1852–1853,) Napela also deserves credit for having first suggested the idea of a missionary training center. (Woods)

Then in 1873, tragedy struck the Napela household; his wife Kitty contracted leprosy. She faced confinement on the island of Molokai at the settlement of Kalaupapa. Napela joined her as her kōkua (helper.) (This was the same year that Father Damien volunteered and started to serve at Kalaupapa.)

In the October conference at Laie, the members, reluctant to see him leave, sorrowfully sustained Brother Napela as the branch president of the Kalaupapa branch of the Church. His return to a conference in Laie the following year was his last opportunity to be blessed by a gathering of the Saints in a conference. (Spurrier; LDS)

He returned to Kalaupapa and served the settlement there. Notwithstanding their differences in religiosity and ethnicity, one resident in the Kalaupapa settlement noted that Jonathan and Father Damien “were the best of friends.”

In 1877, a Utah missionary who visited the Saints in this remote peninsula during the time of Jonathan’s spiritual supervision wrote, “At this place we found brother Napela, who is taking care of his wife and presiding over the Saints there; he is full of faith, and is still that good-natured, honorable soul.”

Napela contracted leprosy, and like Damien, literally gave his life to service, dying from Hansen’s disease on August 6, 1879. (Welch) Kitty passed away just over two weeks later from complications related to the same illness. (Woods)

The Hawaiian Studies Center at Brigham Young University Hawai‘i is named after Napela. In 2010, the Roman Catholic Church presented the Polynesian Cultural Center with a certificate commemorating Napelaʻs cooperation with Saint Damien. (NPS)

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Jonathan Napela and Elder George Q. Cannon Statue-BYUH

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George Q Cannon-Woods

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Bishop Silva presented PCC (LDS) a Certificate of Appreciation on May 7, 2010 for Napela’s cooperation

August 5, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

‘And a Little Child Shall Lead Them’

Kalanimōkū was a trusted and loyal advisor to Kamehameha I, Liholiho (Kamehameha II) and Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III.)

Kalanimōkū was born at Ka‘uiki, Hāna, Maui, around 1768. His father was Kekuamanohā and his mother was Kamakahukilani. Through his father, he was a grandson of Kekaulike, the King Maui. He was a cousin of Kaʻahumanu, Kamehameha’s wife.

He had great natural abilities in both governmental and business affairs. He was well liked and respected by foreigners, who learned from experience to rely on his word.

Captain George Vancouver described Kalanimōkū as someone possessing “vivacity, and sensibility of countenance, modest behavior, evenness of temper, quick conception.”

Kalanimōkū was one of several chiefs who treated Kamehameha as his illness worsened, and was present when Kamehameha died (May 8, 1819.).

Following the wishes of Kamehameha’s sacred wife, Keōpūolani, Kalanimōkū took charge of matters, deciding who might remain with the body, and dispatching messengers to spread the news to all islands.

For his strong leadership and strength in a time of great turmoil, Keōpūolani declared Kalanimōkū the “iwikuamo‘o” (literally the spine or backbone,) defined as “a near and trusted relative of a chief who attended to his personal needs and possessions and executed private orders.”

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.) There were seven American couples sent by the ABCFM to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity in this first company.

These included two Ordained Preachers, Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Doctor, Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; and a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

When the missionaries first anchored at Kawaihae, it was Kalanimōku who first met the missionaries aboard the Thaddeus and sailed with them from Kawaihae to Kailua-Kona to confer with the king – he was instrumental in the decision of the king to permit the missionaries to land.

“In dress and manners he appeared with the dignity of a man of culture. He was first introduced to the gentlemen, with whom he shook hands in the most cordial manner.”

“He then turned to the ladies, to whom, while yet at a distance, he respectfully bowed, then came near, and being introduced, presented to each his hand. The effects of that first warm appreciating clasp, I feel even now.” (Lucy Thurston)

Reportedly, Kalanimōkū developed an immediate and sincere liking for the New England missionaries. Throughout his life, they turned to him for assistance and their requests invariably met with positive results.

“We honored the king, but we loved the cultivated manhood of Kalanimōku … Kalanimōku was prime minister of the king, and the most powerful executive man in the nation:

“Now the great warrior was among us, learning the English alphabet with the docility of a child.” (Lucy Thurston)

“Kalanimōku embraced Christianity soon, for he became a pupil of little Daniel Chamberlain Jr, the seven-year-old son of missionary Daniel Chamberlain.” (Taylor)

“He often turned to it, and as often his favorite teacher, Daniel Chamberlain (Jr) … ‘And a little child shall lead them.’ (a line Lucy takes for Isaiah 11:6)” (Thurston)

August 5, 1822, “Monday, Krimokoo (Kalanimōku) declared his intention of having all about him furnished with books. Tuesday Kohoomanoo (Ka‘ahumanu) took hold of the alphabet – learned six letters.” (Sybil Bingham)

“She had all along so entirely rejected the idea of learning herself, that I could scarcely believe the reality of my enrollment while leaning upon her pillow and asking her the name of this and the other letter.

At a meeting of the chiefs and school teachers, Kaʻahumanu and Kalanimōku declared their determination to “adhere to the instructions of the missionaries, to attend to learning, observe the Sabbath, Worship God, and obey his law, and have all their people instructed.”

Following the death of Liholiho, “The important intelligence received at Honolulu (1825,) Kalanimōku communicated by letter to Kaahumanu, who, with other chiefs, was then at Manoa, a retired and picturesque valley between the mountains, in the rear of Waikiki, and about five miles north-east of Honolulu.”

“At the close of that day, I attended evening prayers with the young prince, and also with Kalanimōku; the latter I found pleasantly and diligently teaching a number of chiefs, who sat around his table, some passages of Scripture which we had furnished him in manuscript.” (Hiram Bingham)

Kalanimōkū died at Kamakahonu (the former home of Kamehameha I) in Kailua Kona, Hawai‘i Island on February 7, 1827. He had only one son, William Pitt Leleiōhoku I, who married Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani.

The arrival of the first company of American missionaries in Hawai¬ʻi in 1820 marked the beginning of Hawaiʻi’s phenomenal rise to literacy. The missionaries established schools associated with their missions across the Islands.

The chiefs became proponents for education and edicts were enacted by the King and the council of chiefs to stimulate the people to reading and writing.

By 1831, in just eleven years from the first arrival of the missionaries, Hawaiians had built 1,103 schoolhouses. This covered every district throughout the eight major islands and serviced an estimated 52,882 students. (Laimana)

The proliferation of schoolhouses was augmented by the printing of 140,000 copies of the pī¬ʻāpā (elementary Hawaiian spelling book) by 1829 and the staffing of the schools with 1,000-plus Hawaiian teachers. (Laimana)

The 1840 educational law mandated compulsory attendance for children ages four to fourteen. Any village that had fifteen or more school-age children was required to provide a school for their students.

By 1832, the literacy rate of Hawaiians (at the time it was 78 percent) had surpassed that of Americans on the continent. The literacy rate of the adult Hawaiian population skyrocketed from near zero in 1820 to a conservative estimate of 91 percent – and perhaps as high as 95 percent – by 1834. (Laimana)

From 1820 to 1832, in which Hawaiian literacy grew by 91 percent, the literacy rate on the US continent grew by only 6 percent and did not exceed the 90 percent level until 1902 – three hundred years after the first settlers landed in Jamestown. By way of comparison, it is significant that overall European literacy rates in 1850 had not risen much above 50 percent. (Laimana)

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July 30, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Indians, then Hawaiians

“God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.” (Psalm lxvii)

‘I love my friends – I love my country – I love the church at Home … these very blessings bestowed on me make it my duty to impart them on others … For the opportunity to ‘do good’ confers the obligation to ‘do good.’” (Hiram Bingham; Wagner)

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was organized under Calvinist ecumenical auspices at Bradford, Massachusetts by the General Association of Massachusetts, on the June 29, 1810.

ABCFM had its origin in the desire of several young men in the Andover Theological Seminary to preach the gospel in the heathen world. (The term ‘heathen’ (without the knowledge of Jesus Christ and God) was a term in use at the time (200-years ago.))

In 1812, the first missionary enterprise of the ABCFM (Adoniram Judson, Samuel Newell, Gordon Hall, Samuel Nott and Luther Rice, together with their wives) embarked to Western India; the first station was at Bombay.

“Christians have wanted some grand object to seize their hearts and engage all their powers … The spread of the gospel and the conversion of the world constitute the very object wanted – the common cause which ought to unite … the great family of Christians.” (Leonard Woods; Wagner)

Letters from Bombay convinced the ABCFM and friends of the mission that “the missionary work is great, painful and arduous, and requires primitive self-devotion, invincible perseverance and bounteous liberality; but they made it appear that if the work be conducted with the true spirit, in the right manner, and with adequate means, accompanied with the promised influence and blessings of Heaven, the Gospel … may spread through the heathen world.” (Wagner)

“The general purpose of these devoted young men was fixed. Sometimes they talked of ‘cutting a path through the moral wilderness of the West to the Pacific.’ Sometimes they thought of South America; then of Africa. Their object was the salvation of the heathen; but no specific shape was given to their plans, till the formation of the American Board of Foreign Missions.” (Worcester)

By 1816, however, contributions to the ABCFM had declined. There were several reasons including post-War of 1812 recession and the fact that India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) were too remote to hold public interest. (Wagner)

Among the targets of ABCFM were American Indians. Their souls, members believed, could be saved by religious conversion and their futures by education. (OKHistory)

The years following the War of 1812 brought demands for Indian land cessions. Among the factors complicating the issue of Indian relations and policy were the differing perceptions of the problem among settlers and missionaries.

Folks saw a couple options: bring Indian youth into white communities and teach them there, or go out to them and teach them in their own communities. They chose the former.

The Foreign Mission School, in Cornwall, Connecticut, was founded in 1816 by ABCFM and in operation from 1817 to 1826; the school hosted over one-hundred students from China, Hawai‘i, India, the South Pacific, Europe and several Native American nations (speaking at least twenty-four different languages.) (NPS)

The object of the school was the education, in the US country, of heathen youth, so that they might be qualified to become useful missionaries, physicians, surgeons, schoolmasters or interpreters, and to communicate to the heathen nations such knowledge in agriculture and the arts, as might prove the means of promoting Christianity and civilization. (ABCFM)

It is important to note that in the early nineteenth century all land west of the Ohio Valley was considered foreign territory. Westward continental expansion bled into the Pacific and beyond. (NPS)

The ABCFM developed a strong emphasis on missions to American Indians. They first ministered to Cherokees in Tennessee, and then followed displaced southeastern tribes to Michigan, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Minnesota and Oregon.

“It is not to be forgotten, that the Board desire to establish, as soon as possible, a mission, or missions, among the Indians of our wilderness. The committee have this subject constantly in view, and hope they shall soon be able to engage suitable agents to explore this field, and to collect such information as will lead to an immediate prosecution of the design. Missions to the heathen on our own continent, if conducted on the proper scale, will not be less expensive than any other.” (Worcester)

During Indian uprisings, missionaries attended to Indians in jail or sent on exile. They produced Bibles, dictionaries and schoolbooks in Dakota and Ojibwe when there were no print versions of these languages. They trained indigenous preachers and leaders. (Philanthropyroundtable)

The mission field in Indian Territory proved fertile. The ABCFM concentrated on establishing permanent educational centers. Although the early competition included the Baptists, Methodists and Moravians, the ABCFM established more mission stations and branches in Indian Territory than the combined number established by those three denominations. (OKHistory)

But President Andrew Jackson’s program of ‘Indian removal’ – forced marches to lands across the Mississippi – soon led to a confrontation between the ABCFM and the US government.

In 1830, ABCFM missionaries Samuel Worcester and Elizur Butler ended up in the Georgia State Penitentiary for resisting these unjust policies. They were tried on September 16, 1831, for violation of Georgia law. The jury brought a quick verdict of guilty, and Worcester was condemned to 4 years of hard labor in a penitentiary.

Their case eventually wound up in the Supreme Court, highlighting an early and important act of civil disobedience. March 3, 1832, Chief Justice Marshall pronounced in favor of the missionaries and declared the laws of Georgia extending her jurisdiction over the Cherokee ‘repugnant to the constitution, treaties and laws, therefore null and void.’ (cherokee-org)

In 1838, Butler joined the ‘Trail of Tears’ to Oklahoma, a march which took the lives of 4,000-Cherokees and Butler’s own infant daughter – and eventually fueled a public backlash against Indian removal. (CongressionalLibary)

Back at the Foreign Mission School, the school’s first student was Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia (Obookiah,) a native Hawaiian from the Island of Hawaiʻi who in 1807 (after his parents had been killed) boarded a sailing ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay and sailed to the continent.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia died suddenly of typhus fever in 1818; Edwin Welles Dwight is remembered for putting together a book, ‘Memoirs of Henry Obookiah’- it was an edited collection of ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s letters and journals/diaries. “Memoirs of Henry Obookiah” served as an inspiration for missionaries to volunteer to carry his message to the Sandwich Islands (Hawai‘i.)

Hiram Bingham wrote in a letter dated July 18, 1819, to Worcester that “the unexpected and afflictive death of Obookiah, roused my attention to the subject, & perhaps by writing and delivering some thoughts occasioned by his death I became more deeply interested than before in that cause for which he desired to live …”

“… & from that time it seemed by no means impossible that I should be employed in the field which Henry had intended to occupy … the possibility that this little field in the vast Pacific would be mine, was the greatest, in my own view.” (Brumaghim)

Subsequently, in the summer of 1819, Bingham and his classmate at Andover Theological Seminary, Reverend Asa Thurston, volunteered to go with the first group of missionaries to Hawai‘i.

With the missionaries were four Hawaiian students from the Foreign Mission School, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince Humehume (son of Kauaʻi’s King Kaumuali‘i.)

By the time the Pioneer Company arrived, Kamehameha I had died and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished; through the actions of King Kamehameha II (Liholiho,) with encouragement by former Queens Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani (Liholiho’s mother,) the Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs.

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863) (the “Missionary Period”,) about 180-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

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Rev. S. B. Fairbanks Missionary, ABCFM-India

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Brainerd Mission-Tennessee

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Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School

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July 5, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Call the little baby Kīna’u.”

“I was born in the ‘Old Mission House’ in Honolulu on the 5th day of July, 1831. When I was but a few hours old, ‘Kīna’u,’ the Premier, came into the bedroom with her crowd of ‘kahus,’ took me into her arms and said that she wanted to adopt me, as she had no girl of her own.”

“My mother, in her weak state, was terribly agitated, knowing that the missionaries were unpopular and entirely dependent on the good-will of the natives, so feared the consequences of a denial. They sent for my father in haste, who took in the state of affairs at a glance.”

“’We don’t give away our children,’ he said to Kīna’u. ‘But you are poor, I am rich, I give you much money,’ replied the Chiefess. ‘No, you can’t have her,’ my father answered firmly. Kīna’u tossed me angrily down on the bed and walked away, leaving my poor mother in a very anxious frame of mind.” (Wilder; Wight)

“She accordingly went away in an angry and sullen mood, and was not heard from until the infant was being christened a few weeks later, when she again appeared, elbowed the father to one side, and exclaimed in the haughtiest of tones, ‘Call the little baby Kīna’u.’”

“Fearing that a second refusal would result disastrously, the parents agreed, and the child was accordingly christened Elizabeth Kīna’u Judd.” (The Friend, May 1912)

Kīna’u “seemed somewhat appeased after the (christening) ceremony, and, as I was the first white girl she had ever seen, deigned from that time on to show a great interest in me, either visiting me or having me visit her every day.” (Wright, Wight)

Kīna’u, daughter of Kamehameha I, became a Christian in 1830. She succeeded her aunt Kaʻahumanu as Kuhina Nui upon the latter’s death in 1832.

She acted as the Regent for her brother Kauikeaouli when he became King Kamehameha III, from June 5, 1832 to March 15, 1833. She would rule with him until her death. She was responsible for enforcing Hawaiʻi’s first penal code, proclaimed by the king in 1835.

Gerrit and Laura Judd were in the 3rd Company of missionaries. In 1839, at the request of King Kamehameha, Judd, a physician, looked after the royal children in the Chiefs’ Children’s School.

Judd left the mission in 1842 and for the next 10+ years served the Kingdom in various positions, including translator, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Interior and Commissioner to France, Great Britain & US.

The Judd’s child was not the only missionary child named for Hawaiian Chiefs or Chiefesses.

Maria Kapule Whitney was born October 19, 1820 to the Pioneer Company missionaries/teachers, Samuel and Mercy Whitney. She was “the first haole girl to be born in the Hawaiian archipelago,” and named for Kauai Chiefess Kapule, wife of Kauai’s King Kaumualiʻi.

Maria went to the mainland at the age of six to be educated; she returned to the Islands with the 11th Company. She married bachelor missionary Reverend John Fawcett Pogue of the 11th Company.

Reportedly, the daughter of Samuel and Nancy Ruggles (missionaries/teachers of the Pioneer Company) born on December 22, 1820, was named Sarah Trumbull Kaumuali’i Ruggles. (Some suggest her Hawaiian name was Ka‘amuali‘i.)

The Whitneys and Ruggles escorted Humehume (Prince George,) King Kaumuali‘i’s son, back to Kauai, where they set up a missionary station.

Lucia Kamāmalu Holman was daughter of Thomas and Lucia Ruggles Holman of the Pioneer Company (Lucia was Samuel Ruggles sister.) Holman was the mission’s first physician and was stationed in Kona. She was born March 2, 1821 on Kauai and named after Queen Kamāmalu, King Kamehameha II’s wife.

Elisabeth “Lizzie” Kaahumanu Bingham was born March 8, 1829 in Honolulu to Reverend Hiram and Sybil Bingham, leaders of the Pioneer Company of missionaries. She was named after Queen Kaʻahumanu, favorite wife of King Kamehameha I and a friend of the mission.

In 1840, Lizzie returned to the mainland with parents and, after graduating from Mount Holyoke, taught on the continent. Lizzie returned to Hawai‘i in 1868 to work at Kawaiahaʻo Seminary (until 1880.) She died November 27, 1899 in Honolulu.

Mary Kekāuluohi Clark was born to Ephraim and Mary Clark (from the 3rd Company of missionaries) on September 20, 1829. She was named for Kekāuluohi, who later became Kuhina Nui (as Kaʻahumanu III;) Kekāuluohi was mother of King Lunalilo.)

Harriet Keōpūolani Williston Richards was born in 1829 to Reverend William and Clarissa Richards of the 2nd Company of missionaries. (Harriet was sent to the continent and lived with the Willistons; when her father died, she was adopted by the Willistons and took their name.)

Harriet was named for the mother of King Kamehameha II and III. When the 2nd Company arrived in the Islands (1822,) Richards and others escorted Keōpūolani to Lahaina where Richards was stationed. William Richards left the mission in 1838 at the request of King Kamehameha III to become the King’s translator, counselor and political advisor.

Douglass Hoapili Baldwin was son of Reverend Dwight and Charlotte Baldwin of the 4th Company of missionaries. He was born in 1840 and died in 1843; Hoapili was Governor of Maui and lived in Lahaina (where the Baldwins were stationed at the time of Douglas’ birth.

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Gerrit and Laura Judd

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Hiram and Sybil Bingham-1819

Maria Kapule Whitney Pogue

Samuel and Mercy Whitney-1819

Samuel and Nancy Ruggles-1819

Thomas and Lucia Holman

June 29, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waikīkī Church

By the time the first company of American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) Protestant missionaries arrived in 1820, Kamehameha I had died and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished. The Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs.

The missionaries, less the group left on the Big Island, landed at Honolulu on April 19, 1820. On the sabbath (April 23,) Hiram Bingham, the leader of the group, preached the first formal Protestant sermon in the Islands. Initial services were in thatched structures. Later, a more permanent church was built.

In July, 1821, they began to build a 22 by 54-foot building, large enough to seat 300. This first church building was built of thatch and lined with mats; however, it had glass windows, doors, a wooden pulpit and 2-rows of seats, separated by an aisle. In August of that year, Captain Templeton presented a bell from his ship to be used at the church.

Within a year, Hiram Bingham began to preach in the Hawaiian language. 4-services a week were conducted (3 in Hawaiian and 1 in English.) Congregations ranged from 100 – 400; by the end of the year, the church was expanded.

On May 30, 1824, the church burned to the ground. Within a couple of days after the fire, Kalanimōkū ordered a new church to be built at public expense. A new thatched building (25 by 70 feet) was placed a short distance from the old; it was dedicated July 18, 1824.

Interest in the mission’s message outgrew the church and services were held outside with 3,000 in attendance; efforts were underway to build a larger facility, to accommodate 4,000.

In December, 1825, the third Meeting House building was opened for worship; however, shortly afterward a violent rain storm collapsed the structure. In 1827, Kaʻahumanu stepped forward and “caused a temporary house to be erected which is 86 feet by 30, with 2 wings each 12 feet wide extending the whole length of the building. … It is not large enough to accommodate all who attend the service on Sabbath mornings, many are obliged to sit without.” (Mission Journal – Damon)

The last of the thatched churches served for 12-years. It measured 63 by 196 feet (larger than the present Kawaiahaʻo Church) – 4,500 people could assemble within it.

Then, between 1836 and 1842, Kawaiahaʻo Church was constructed. Revered as the Protestant “mother church” and often called “the Westminster Abbey of Hawai‘i” this structure is an outgrowth of the original Mission Church founded in Boston and is the first foreign church on O‘ahu (1820.)

Kawaiahaʻo Church was designed by its first pastor, Bingham. Following five years of construction, Kawaiahaʻo was ready for dedication ceremonies on July 21, 1842. The grounds of Kawaiahaʻo overflowed with 4,000 to 5,000 faithful worshippers. King Kamehameha III, who contributed generously to the fund to build the church, attended the service.

There were ten ‘āpana, or branches, of the Kawaiahaʻo Church. One of them was the Waikīkī Church (the others included Kalihi, Palama, Nuʻuanu, Pauoa, Moʻiliʻili, Pālolo, Kaimuki, Puaikalani (Kakaʻako) and Kawaiahaʻo itself. (Damon)

Across Kalākaua Avenue in front of the Moana Hotel, on the present site of the shops and Princess Kaʻiulani Hotel, was the first grammar school in Waikīkī, a small graveyard and the church. (Cultural Surveys)

“The Little Church at Waikīkī … The congregation which has worshipped in this church is numerous but poor …. The pretty little church among the cocoanuts is besides a prominent ornament to the neighborhood”.

The church was damaged by a thunderbolt … “It seems that the house was badly shattered – in fact rendered untenable in wet weather, and that it will cost in the neighborhood of five hundred dollars to put it again in good condition …”

“We beg to suggest a concert or other public entertainment to raise funds for the repair of the Waikīkī Church building.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 18, 1875)

It turns out the Waikīkī Church was a venue for many concerts, to raise money for the Waikīkī property, as well as Kawaiahaʻo in downtown – and they had frequent royal guests.

“A concert was given on Wednesday evening, commencing at half past seven o’clock, at the Waikīkī Church in aid of Kawaiahao Church. Their Royal Highnesses Princess Liliʻuokalani and Princess Likelike took an active part in promoting the furtherance of this good object, and both of these good ladies also took part in carrying out the programme.”

“The Misses Cleghorn and other young ladies also assisted. A drive to Waikīkī on a beautiful moonlight night is of itself a treat, which was greatly enhanced, by the anticipation of hearing good vocal and instrumental music on arrival there.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 15, 1883)

“A musical entertainment was given at Waikīkī Church on Wednesday evening. Their Royal Highnesses the Princesses Liliuokalani and Likelike had taken a great interest in the affair and many of their friends from town took the opportunity to indulge in a moonlight drive and be present at the concert.”

“The church was filled and there was a not inconsiderable audience that preferred the open air and the soft grass of the churchyard to the accommodations provided for them inside … “It is to be hoped that this is not the last time that the people of Waikīkī will invite their town friends to come and hear them sing.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 15, 1883)

In an interview for the Oral History Project conducted by the Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai‘i, interviewee Mary Paoa Clarke (born in 1902) recalls the Waikīkī School:

“We (Mary and her siblings) went to Waikīkī School – that’s across the Moana Hotel – which is (where) the (Princess) Kaʻiulani Hotel (is) now. We walked from our home to school”. Mary also noted that the Waikīkī School only went up to third grade. “We started in the fourth grade at Kaʻahumanu”. (Social Science Research Institute)

“… I had gone to the Waikīkī (Elementary) School for three years. There was Mrs Henry, Mrs Perry and Mrs Ontai. (The) first Waikīkī School was opposite the Moana Hotel – across the street. (There were) three rooms, first, second and third. In one corner of the property there was a graveyard and an old Hawaiian church.) (Lemon Wond “Rusty” Holt, Sr; Social Science Research Institute)

In 1916, Kawaiaha‘o sold the cemetery land around the Waikīkī ‘āpana (branch) church to the Territorial Hotel Co, Ltd, owners of the Moana Hotel.

A new lot was obtained from the Lili‘uokalani Trust; plans for the construction of a new church began immediately, as the church contracted for the construction of a one-story frame building in 1916 on a new lot, near the corner of Kūhiō Avenue and ʻOhua Lane (in the area now occupied by the Waikīkī Banyan Condominium, which was built in 1979.)

Owing to the sale of the Waikīkī Church premises for the extension of the Moana Hotel accessories, some fifty or more bodies which had been interred in its grounds were exhumed and removed to the cemetery of the mother church, Kawaiahaʻo. (Thrum, 1916)

Kawaiahaʻo Church took the responsibility “to remove all remains and coffins buried in the church yard (so far as practical) and re-inter them in some cemetery or cemeteries in the district of Honolulu,” with the costs of the removal to be borne by the Territorial Hotel Co.

Those interred in the Protestant cemetery ranged from as young as 2 weeks to 80 years of age and were noted as having passed away from a variety of causes such as “consumption”, “constipation”, “meningitis”, “diabetes”, “whooping cough”, the most common cause being “old age.” With perhaps one exception, all of the names appear to be Hawaiians who died between 1880 and 1907. (Cultural Surveys)

“Then the Moana (Hotel) built a lot of cottages in there. Of course then years later they were torn down and they built the Princess Ka‘iulani Hotel.” (Leslie Fullard-Leo (born 1909;) Social Science Research Institute)

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