Anglican Church | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

December 18, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

St Peter’s Episcopal Church

One might wonder why two Episcopal Churches are within a block from each other (St Andrews Cathedral and St Peter’s Episcopal Church – at Emma’s Square in Honolulu.)

What may appear odd and unnecessary placement at first makes more sense as we look back (in context of those times) …

Kamehameha IV and his Queen were both very interested in the Anglican/Episcopal Church and in 1859 asked Queen Victoria to send them clergy of the Church of England and in 1861 gave land on which a Cathedral was to be built.

While planning and fund-raising began a small Pro-Cathedral was constructed of wood on the corner of Nuʻuanu and Kuakini Streets in 1862.

After the Bishop’s arrival in Honolulu, the King and Queen were baptized and confirmed in the Anglican Church. (This was the second baptism for each; in their childhood they had been baptized in the Calvinist faith.)

The first services of the church were held on October 12, 1862, amidst a time of mourning for the only son of the King and Queen had died shortly before the arrival of the Bishop.

The subsequent untimely death of King Kamehameha IV on St Andrew’s Day, November 30, 1863, led his brother, King Kamehameha V to dedicate the cathedral to St Andrew as a fitting memorial to a King.

Queen Emma traveled to England to raise money, to commission architects and to purchase stone from Caen in Normandy, which was shipped to Hawaiʻi. The corner stone was laid March 5, 1867 by King Kamehameha V and the cathedral was completed in time for Christmas, 1886. (Queen Emma died before completion of the cathedral.)

That same year, St Peter’s Episcopal Church was founded on land given by Queen Emma in 1885; however, the history leading to its founding is a little more complicated, as well as telling to the creation of neighboring Episcopal churches. We need to look back a little farther.

The first sugar mill was introduced to Hawai‘i by a Chinese in 1802. As interest in sugar production grew, to be commercially profitable, sugar plantations had to import foreign laborers. The Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, which was founded in 1850, began to bring workers to sugar plantations starting in 1852; the first came from China. (Fan)

After the signing of the Reciprocity Trade Agreement between the United States and Hawai‘i in 1875, there was a tremendous increase in immigration; by 1884 the Chinese laborers constituted about a quarter (22.6 percent) of the total population of Hawai‘i.

Many of the Chinese who came, and subsequently their children, had Christian backgrounds.

After the Opium War of the early 1840s, between Britain and China, the mainland of China was opened to western missionaries. Chinese population centers became of special interest to European Christian missionaries.

There was a heavy emphasis on Christian education. Children of converts, both boys and girls, were placed in parish and boarding schools, and a seminary trained future pastors and teachers, many of whom emigrated to Hawai‘i. (Kaestens)

The Chinese contract laborers coming to Hawai‘i included Christians who had been baptized in China. (Fan) Many ended up on the sugar plantations in Kohala.

Receiving preaching of the gospel in their native tongue and converting others to Christianity, around 1882, the St Paul’s Chinese Mission in Makapala, Kohala was established. (Char)

A few years later, the founding families of St Peter’s Church arrived on O‘ahu by way of Kohala on the Big Island as Christian families from China.

Brought to the Islands to work in the sugar plantations, following their contracted services, many moved to Honolulu for other work opportunities.

The congregation of the first Chinese church in the Anglican communion of Honolulu met at a store and at the Pro-Cathedral on the Cathedral grounds until its size demanded a building of its own. In 1914, the current church building was completed.

It is suggested that the naming of the churches (and their proximity) relate to the relationship of St Andrew and St Peter. St Andrew, the first disciple of Jesus, was the brother of St Peter (Simon Peter,) another disciple/apostle.

Both lived and worked as fishermen in Galilee but gave up their lifelong careers and lifestyles, leaving everything behind, to follow Jesus. They were each part of the original 12 apostles of Christ, leaders of the early Christian Church.

St Peter’s is one of the oldest historically Chinese congregations among Asian American Episcopal churches. History and demographics have transformed St Peter’s along with the rest of Hawai‘i.

While remembering and honoring its Chinese heritage and founders, the present St Peter’s church community represents the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, cosmopolitan dynamics of Honolulu and Hawai‘i. (St Peter’s)

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St Peters Episcopal Church

St Peter’s Episcopal Church

St Pauls Episcopal Church-Makalapa

Pro-Cathedral of St. Andrew’s built in 1866

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July 26, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

St Cross Seminary

“A College will shortly be opened for Hawaiian Girls, under the patronage of Her Gracious Majesty Queen Emma. Lady Superintendant, Mrs George Mason. Besides and ordinary English education, instruction will be given in Industrial work.”

“Application for the admission of Boarders and for terms, to be made to Mrs Mason, at the Parsonage, Kukui Street. Also, there will be opened shortly a Collegiate Grammar School, for Young Gentlemen (it started as St Albans, later, Iolani).”

“Instruction will be given in Latin, Greek, Euclid and Algebra, as well as in the usual branches of English education.” (Polynesian, November 8, 1862)

In January 1864, the Female Industrial Seminary was transferred to Lahaina; the Reverend Mother Lydia Sellon arrived in Hawai‘i in late-1864 and took charge of the school. By then, the school had 25-boarders and about 40-day girls; it was renamed St Cross school for girls (St Cross Seminary) (Kanahele).

The school was operated by three religious Sisters of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity, Devonport, England (the Devonport Sisters), the first of the Religious Orders re-founded in the Church of England after the Reformation.

“Lahaina was a great whaling port during the (eighteen) sixties, for as many as eighty or ninety whaleships were at one time anchored in the offing. Sailors crowded the streets of Lahaina, and people came from far and wide to see them.”

“Many even from Molokai were tempted to change their residences to Lahaina, just for the purpose of seeing the crowds of whaling men pass through the streets, and many of the young girls of those days, and many of the married women even, were parted from their parents and from their husbands just for the novelty of being in the company of seafaring men.”

“In 1860 the present Lahaina stone court house was built. It served the dual purposes of both court house and custom house, and the collector of customs did a thriving business during those whaling days. The Queen’s Hospital was started at Honolulu in the same year.”

“The St. Cross Hospital, built in 1865 by the Episcopal Mission, which was also used as an industrial girls’ school, flourished for some years at Lahaina, and the old stone building is still standing …” (Keola; Mid-Pacific Magazine, December 1915)

In 1873 Isabella Bird visited “the industrial training and boarding school for girls, taught and superintended by two English ladies of Miss Sellon’s sisterhood, Sisters Mary Clara and Phoebe”.

“She notes, “I found it buried under the shade of the finest candlenut trees I have yet seen. A rude wooden cross in front is a touching and fitting emblem of the Saviour, for whom these pious women have sacrificed friends, sympathy, and the social intercourse and amenities which are within daily reach of our workers at home.”

“The large house, which is either plastered stone or adobe, contains the dormitories, visitors’ room, and oratory, and three houses at the back; all densely shaded, are used as schoolroom, cook-house, laundry, and refectory.“

“There is a playground under some fine tamarind trees, and an adobe wall encloses, without secluding, the whole. The visitors’ room is about twelve feet by eight feet, very bare, with a deal table and three chairs in it, but it was vacant …”

“… and I crossed to the large, shady, airy, school-room, where I found the senior sister engaged in teaching, while the junior was busy in the cook-house.”

“These ladies in eight years have never left Lahaina. Other people may think it necessary to leave its broiling heat, and seek health and recreation on the mountains, but their work has left them no leisure, and their zeal no desire, for a holiday.”

“A very solid, careful English education is given here, as well as a thorough training in all housewifely arts, and in the more important matters of modest dress and deportment, and propriety in language.
“

“There are thirty-seven boarders, native and half-native, and mixed native and Chinese, between the ages of four and eighteen. They provide their own clothes, beds, and bedding, and I think pay forty dollars a year. The capitation grant from Government
for two years was $2325.”

“Sister Phoebe was my cicerone, and l owe her one of the pleasantest days I have spent on the islands. The elder sister is in middle life, but though fragile-looking, has a pure complexion and a lovely countenance …”

“… the younger is scarcely middle-aged, one of the brightest, bonniest, sweetest-looking women I ever saw, with fun dancing in her eyes and round the corners of her mouth …”

“… yet the regnant expression on both faces was serenity, as though they had attained to ‘the love which looketh kindly, and the wisdom which looketh soberly on all things.’”

“I never saw such a mirthful-looking set of girls. Some were cooking the dinner, some ironing, others reading English aloud; but each occupation seemed a pastime, and whenever they spoke to the Sisters they clung about them as if they were their mothers.”

“I heard them read the Bible and an historical lesson, as well as play on a piano and sing, and they wrote some very difficult passages from dictation without any errors, and in a flowing, legible handwriting that I am disposed to envy.”

“Their accent and intonation were pleasing, and there was a briskness and emulation about their style of answering questions, rarely found in country schools with us, significant of intelligence and good teaching. All but the younger girls spoke English as fluently as Hawaiian.”

“I cannot convey a notion of the blithesomeness and independence of manner of these children. To say that they were free and easy would be wrong; it was rather the manner of very frolicksome daughters to very indulgent mothers or aunts. It was a family manner rather than a school manner, and the rule is obviously one of love.”

“The Sisters are very wise in adapting their discipline to the native character and circumstances. The rigidity which is customary in similar institutions at home would be out of place, as well as fatal here, and would ultimately lead to a rebound of a most injurious description.”

“Strict obedience is of course required, but the rules are few and lenient, and there is no more pressure of discipline than in a well-ordered family.” (Bird)

St. Cross provided the opportunity for the establishment of an enduring educational work for girls by the Society of the Holy Trinity. This venture proving successful, the Sisterhood presently opened a similar school – St. Andrew’s Priory – for which a site on the Cathedral property in Honolulu was granted. (Anglican History)

Despite the dedication of the Sisters and the support of the queen, St Cross was forced to close its doors in 1884 for lack of students. (Kanahele)

It was thereupon proposed that the two Sisters in charge should return to England; but they were so devoted to their task that they begged to be allowed to remain in Honolulu, depending upon such support as they themselves could secure.

Their plea was heeded and they continued in charge of the Priory until the transfer of jurisdiction to the American Church. (Anglican History)

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April 16, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bishop Restarick Takes Over Episcopal Church

“Not only did (the influence of Captain Vancouver) with Kamehameha lead the latter to consider the possibility of England’s protective and developing hand in the future of the Islands, but he was also led to welcome Vancouver’s promise that upon his approaching return to England he would use his influence to have Christian teachers sent to the Islands.”

“Vancouver made an effort to fulfill this promise; but on his return he found England occupied with European troubles, and he himself died soon after.”

The Islands were not left entirely without the ministry of the Church. Vancouver had discovered an English chaplain, one John Howell, whom he could commend to Kamehameha along with Isaac Davis and John Young. However, Howell’s stay in the Islands proved brief; he left in 1795.

Other English chaplains visited the Islands from time to time and it was one of these who, early in the 19th Century, celebrated the first Christian marriage according to the form of the Episcopal Church between James Young, the second son of John Young, and a daughter of Isaac Davis.

Vancouver’s promise was not forgotten; in November, 1823, Liholiho (Kamehameha II) sailed for England one of his purposes was to remind George IV of the English promise. Unfortunately, he contracted measles and died in England before he had even seen King George.

Missionaries did come … American Protestant missionaries were the first to arrive (in 1820). Then, early in July 1827, there arrived at Honolulu the French ship La Comete with a band of Roman Catholic missionaries. In 1852, the desire for the Episcopal Church was still alive.

Admirable as these efforts were in ministering to the foreign residents of Honolulu and in maintaining interest in the Church, no really effective or permanent work could be done without a resident Bishop.

Then, the Rev. Thomas Nettleship Staley, fellow of Queen’s College, Oxford, and a tutor of St. Mark’s College, Chelsea, was consecrated on December 15, 1861, as Bishop for Honolulu.

Bishop Staley reached Honolulu on Saturday, October 11, 1862. The Mission inaugurated by Bishop Staley was almost immediately incorporated as the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church.

A continual source of encouragement to Bishop Staley was the steadfast devotion of Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma to the Mission. Confirmed on November 28, 1862, the sovereigns gave generously of their time and influence.

Not infrequently they were sponsors in Baptism, and the King prepared an Hawaiian translation of the Book of Common Prayer. He also rendered invaluable service in assisting Bishop Staley in the preparation and delivery of his sermons in Hawaiian. (Anglican History)

“The establishment here of the Reformed Catholic Church was one of the visionary schemes of the late R. C. Wyllie and never met with the cordial support of English or American Episcopalians for the main object appeared transparent from the first to be political rather than religious.” (Restarick) Finally, in 1870. after seven years of effort, Bishop Staley felt obliged to resign.

When Kamehameha IV died on St. Andrew’s Day, 1863, it seemed fitting that the proposed Cathedral should be erected in his memory and dedicated to St. Andrew. On March 5, 1867, Kamehameha V laid the cornerstone

Unfortunately, Bishop Staley’s return to England brought the work to an end with only the choir and tower foundations completed. Nothing further was done for about a decade.

The stone which had been sent out from England was allowed to remain crated on the ground. The congregation seemed satisfied to continue worshipping in the small frame Pro-Cathedral which had served them since 1866.

Failing to secure an American Bishop, the English authorities then turned to a successful parish priest, the Rev. Alfred Willis, who accepted the call and was consecrated February 2, 1872, in Lambeth Chapel. In 1901, Bishop Willis resigned as the Bishop of Honolulu.

Then, “On April 16, 1902, there flashed across the Pacific a message for the House of Bishops, then meeting, which read: ‘Transfer made. Good feeling prevails. Cathedral unified.’”

“‘Seldom better property or promise to start Missionary District. Movement to provide house for new Bishop. Young Bishop would rally young lay helpers. Disastrous to delay election.’”

“In response to this urgent appeal, there was elected the next day, as the first American Bishop of the Hawaiian Islands, the Rev. Henry Bond Restarick, then rector of St. Paul’s Church, San Diego, California.”

“This event, as intimated by the cablegram, was not the beginning of the Church in Hawaii. Something had gone before”. (Protestant Episcopal Church, Department of Missions, 1927)

In 1920, Bishop Restarick, having undergone two serious operations and being quite ill, determined to resign. The House of Bishops accepted his resignation and chose as his successor the Rev. John D. La Mothe. Bishop La Mothe was consecrated on June 29, 1921, in the Church of the Ascension, Baltimore, and arrived in Honolulu on August 16.

Initially the church was called the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church but the name would change in 1870 to the Anglican Church in Hawai‘i.

In 1902 it came under the Episcopal Church of the US. Initially the church was called the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church but the name would change in 1870 to the Anglican Church in Hawai‘i. In 1902 it came under the Episcopal Church of the US.

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October 15, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Thomas Nettleship Staley

“The voyage (from San Francisco to Honolulu) was one of pleasure throughout, the weather beautiful, and our passage only thirteen days.”

“We had choral service morning and evening every day, which served as a practice for the future Honolulu ‘cathedral;’ and the passengers always gladly attended, without exception.”

“On Friday, October 10th (1862,) we sighted, first, Molokai – a most picturesque island, with bold precipitous rocks to the sea down which glided many a waterfall, and broken by ravines and caverns; then Maui appeared in view, and at daybreak on Saturday we were off Oahu.”

“Our voyage was now at an end, and we offered up our hearty thanksgivings to Him who had borne us in safety, health, and comfort to our new island-home.” (Thomas Nettleship Staley Journal; AnglicanHistory, 1863)

Let’s look back …

Thomas Nettleship Staley was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, on January 17, 1823, the son of Rev William Staley. Staley entered Queens’ College, Cambridge in 1840, earned his BA in 1844, his MA in 1847 and his DD in 1862.

From 1844-1850 he was tutor at the Training College of St Mark, Chelsea; from 1851-1861 he was principal at Wandsworth collegiate school, and Chaplain Wandsworth Union.

The Revd William Denton, parish priest at St Bartholomew Cripplegate London, recommended the appointment of Staley as 1st
Bishop (appointment of a missionary bishop was deemed possible under the legal ruling delivered in support of the appointment of missionary bishops to territories outside the reach of British rule.)

In November 1861, Staley was not consecrated as announced, as his appointment lacked necessary legal status which would have been provided by a (British) Crown license – which was ‘not available.’

Queen Victoria’s license for the consecration of Staley on December 11, 1861 empowered John Bird, Archbishop of Canterbury, to make him “Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, and all other the dominions of the King of Hawaii.” (Mammana)

From 1862‐1871 the Sandwich Islands diocese was legally incorporated as ‘the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church;’ Staley was the first Bishop for missionary district of Honolulu (which included Hawaiian islands, Guam, Okinawa, Taiwan and Kwajalein.) (Blain)

Staley set to work in building a diocese from scratch along strong Anglo-Catholic lines. He began the use of eucharistic vestments and established daily worship; he wore a cope and mitre on episcopal occasions — acts that would have been all but impossible at the time in England. (Mammana)

(Back in Europe the ‘Great Church Crisis’ was going on and Roman Catholic ritualism, including vestments) in the Anglican Church was frowned upon by many. (Tanis))

He baptized Queen Emma and confirmed her along with King Kamehameha IV. Staley laid the foundation of what is now the Cathedral Church of St Andrew in Honolulu.

He oversaw the printing of the king’s translation of the Book of Common Prayer into Hawaiian. He advised the royal family on educational matters, and recruited the Anglican nuns of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity (the Devonport Sisters) to open a school for girls.

The nascent Diocese of Honolulu became a brief test-case for the viability of a missionary model that planted a complete diocese on foreign soil. (Mammana)

But Staley’s stay in the Island was not without conflict – Rev Rufus Anderson, a Congregationalist minister and foreign secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions referred to him as a ‘ritualist.’

But it wasn’t just the members of the ABCFM that were concerned, the king’s promotion of dancing and traditional customs (and Staley’s tolerance of that) outraged the Catholics and Mormons, as well. (Blain)

Even journalist and novelist Mark Twain weighed in, describing the Anglican diocese of Honolulu as ‘a pinchbeck thing, an imitation, a bauble, an empty show. It had no power, no value for a king.”

“It could not harry or burn or slay… It was an Established Church without an Establishment; all the people were Dissenters”. Twain attacked Staley in a newspaper article, noting …”

“… Staley has shown the temerity of an incautious and inexperienced judgement, rushing in here fresh from the heart and home of a high civilization and throwing down the gauntlet of defiance before a band of stern, tenacious, unyielding, tireless, industrious, devoted old Puritan knights who had seen forty years of missionary service.” (Twain, 1866)

“Mr. Staley, my Lord Bishop of Honolulu – who was built into a Lord by the English Bishop of Oxford and shipped over here with a fully equipped “Established Church” in his pocket – has frequently said that the natives of these islands are morally and religiously in a worse condition to-day than they were before the American missionaries ever came here.”

“It is easy to see, now, that the missionaries have made a better people of this race than they formerly were; and I am satisfied that if that old time national spree were still a custom of the country, my Lord Bishop would not be in this town to-day saying hard things about the missionaries.”

“For forty years before the Bishop brought his Royal Hawaiian Established Reformed Catholic Church here the kings and chiefs of this land had been buried with the quiet, simple, Christian rites that are observed in England and America, and no man thought of anything more being necessary.” (Twain, 1866)

If I may speak freely, I think this all comes of elevating a weak, trivial minded man to a position of rank and power – of making a Bishop out of very inferior material – of trying to construct greatness out of constitutional insignificance.”

“He gossips habitually; he lacks the common wisdom to keep still that deadly enemy of a man, his own tongue- he says ill-advised things in public speeches and then in other public speeches denies that he ever said them …”

“… he shows spite, a trait which is not allied to greatness; he is fond of rushing into print, like mediocrity the world over, and is vainer of being my Lord Bishop over a diocese of fifteen thousand men and women (albeit they belong to other people’s churches) than some other men would be of wielding the world-wide power of the Pope …”

“… and finally, every single important act of his administration has evinced a lack of sagacity and an unripeness of judgment which might be forgiven a youth, but not a full-grown man – or, if that seems too severe, which might be for given a restless, visionary nobody, but not a Bishop. My estimate of Bishop Staley may be a wrong one, but it is at least an honest one.” (Twain, 1866)

Staley defended his actions in an 1865 New Year’s Pastoral Address, noting, “The bitter hostility which ‘the American Board’ displays to our mission is doubtless accounted for, in part, by the fact that the two bodies of which it is composed, have ever been the most relentless in their hatred to the Anglican Church, whether in England or in America.”

“We have read many discussions of late on the action of the royal supremacy in matters spiritual in the English church. But our Puritan friends in America seem to stretch its prerogatives to the very furthest conceivable limits …”

“… when they suppose that the Primate of the church is under a ‘political necessity’ to consecrate, whenever he is ordered to do so by the British Government! …”

“… while the British Government is under a ‘political necessity,’ to grant whatever favours the King of Hawaii may choose to ask! It would therefore seem possible, that the supremacy of the English Crown over the church, might, under given conditions, be found flowing from the sole will ‘of the Hawaiian Monarch, a view which has, at least, the recommendation of novelty.”

“I shall not condescend to follow the author (Rufus Anderson) through his remarks on the ritual and teaching of the Church in these islands. Suffice it to say that they are strictly in conformity with the laws and usages of the Church in England and America, and that no where can be found services heartier, more devotional, and more regularly frequented. “

“Let me Say Once For All, That On No Occasion Whatever Have I Ever Offered His Majesty Political Advice, Or Influenced His Measures in the slightest.”

“I will say further, that were I to attempt to use the sacred relation in which I stand to the King as a means for political intrigue, or for influencing his Government in any way, I should lose whatever respect or weight that relation now carries in the estimation of his Majesty.”

“The only serviced which I render to the State in the Privy Council, are as its acting Chaplain and as a member of the Bureau of Public Instruction, the King having been pleased to make use of my familiarity with the subject of popular education, acquired in England. (Staley, Pastoral Address, January 1, 1865)

Staley was frustrated with the politics and sought to resign; he hoped to be replaced by an American Episcopal bishop, but none could be found.

The bishop left Honolulu for the last time in mid-1870, leaving behind a diocese with High Church-Low Church fault lines that would continue to crack well through the beginning of the 20th century and the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States. (Mammana) He was replaced by Alfred Willis.

Staley retired with his large family to England, where he served a succession of parishes. He resided in Croxall and never returned to Hawaii. Staley died on November 1, 1898, at Bournemouth.

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Bishop_T._N._Staley by Mason & Co (Robert Hindry Mason), albumen carte-de-visite, mid 1860s

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February 24, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Church of England Mission

“Polynesian Church (1861) – The committee for promoting the establishment of a Church in Honolulu, in communion with the Churches of England and America …”

“… having taken into consideration the King of Hawai‘i’s desire to receive a mission from the Church of England headed by a Bishop, are of opinion that measures should be taken for fulfilling the desire thus put, we trust, by God into the heart of His Majesty.”

“That having respect to the importance of these Islands as a probable centre of Christian influence in the North Pacific Archipelago, as well as to the immediate needs of the actual population of the Hawaiian group, an earnest appeal for support be made to the Church at home.”

“That as it appears by letters from the Bishops of California and New York, that there is a readiness on behalf of the American Church to unite in this effort …”

“… the committee hail with gratitude to God such an opening for common missionary action between the two great branches of the Reformed Catholic Church.”

“That the Bishops of California and New York be requested to convey to the Church in America most earnest invitations from this committee to unite in the work.”

“The city of Honolulu contains, besides its native population, European and American residents. The French Roman Catholics possess a cathedral, with a Bishop, clergy, &c., and the American Congregationalists have also places of worship.”

“The King offers on his own behalf and that of his subjects and residents who desire the establishment of the English Church, a yearly payment of £200 and to give the site for a church, parsonage, &c.”

“It is also probable that a grant of land may be made for the future support of the Mission. The resources of the Islands can probably not do much more at present than this, and the committee appeal with earnestness to their fellow Churchmen to assist in sending forth labourers into this part of the Lord’s vineyard.”

“The two venerable Societies, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, immediately signified their approval of the movement by liberal grants in its aid.”

And so was formed the mission of the Church of England (Anglican) to the Islands.

“A farewell service for the Mission party was held in Westminster Abbey, when the Bishop preached, and the Holy Communion was administered to a large number, chiefly the friends and supporters of the undertaking.”

“The Mission party, consisting of the Bishop of Honolulu and family (Right Reverend Thomas Nettleship Staley,) the Rev. G. Mason, M.A., and the Rev. E. Ibbotson, embarked at Southampton for the Isthmus of Panama, on the 17th of August, 1862.”

“The weather was propitious. On the twelfth day of the voyage Molokai and Maui were passed, looking beautiful in the setting sun. In the morning the vessel was off Honolulu.”

“Full of thankfulness and hope, the Bishop and his companions held their last service in their little barque. Scarce had they risen from their knees, than they were greeted with the sad tidings, brought on board by the pilot, ‘The Prince of Hawaii is dead!’” (Prince Albert, son of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma.)

“Every member of the Mission felt this as an almost fatal blow. The baptism of the Prince had been anticipated as the inauguration, so to say, of the work.”

(“It was found on inquiry, that a Congregational minister had been summoned to baptize the little fellow privately, his distracted parents having first sent to the British man-of-war, ‘Termagant,’ which had lately arrived in port, to see if there were a chaplain on board. Alas there was none.”)

“(A) wooden temporary church was erected, to be used until the completion of the cathedral. This structure stands on the land given for the church by Kamehameha IV., one of the very best sites in Honolulu; and near to it are the Clergy House on one side, and the Female Boarding School on the other.”

With Honolulu as the base for the mission, at Lāhainā, “The Female Industrial Boarding School … (also) carries on there an English school for boys, supported mainly by the Board of Education. This is in addition to the spiritual work of the Mission, which with services, as at Honolulu, in both the English and the Hawaiian language”.

In Kona, “The Rev CG Williamson, trained at S. Augustine’s, Canterbury, and ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Oxford, assisted by the Bishop of North Carolina, who was then in England, arrived in the Islands in March, 1867, to take part in the Mission.” Likewise in Wailuku, Maui, “The Rev GB Whipple, brother of the Bishop of Minnesota, opened his station early in 1866”.

“The Church is growing rapidly in the outside districts, such as Kona, Wailuku and Lāhainā. The local judge on Molokai, who is a member of our Church, states that there is a nice opening on that island; and, as the King lives a good deal there, a resident clergyman would not be out of the way.”

Initially the church was called the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church but the name would change in 1870 to the Anglican Church in Hawai‘i. In 1902 it came under the Episcopal Church of the US. (Information is from Project Canterbury.)

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St._Andrew’s_Pro-Cathedral-called the English Church-was the temporary cathedral until the actual cathedral could be finished