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December 12, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Early Church Buildings

“In an old journal of the writer’s father, the Rev. A. Bishop, then missionary at Kailua, is the following: ‘January 18, 1826 – Gov. Adams (Kuakini) and all the other chiefs, together with all the men of the place, left here this morning’ for Keauhou, to cut wood for a new church.’”

“This well illustrates the immense labor and activity with which the chiefs and people zealously united in church-building. The writer, then a child, well remembers in the thirties that immense thatched structure, with its lofty posts and huge rafters.”

“These were all cut by the Governor and his people in the great inland forest, probably six miles from the sea, to which the timbers were hauled by men.”

“That church was probably 100 feet by 50, holding 1,000 people. It was burned in 1835, and replaced the next year by a stone structure still standing.”

“That also was built by the chiefs and people. Men dived for bunch coral to burn for lime with ohia logs carried on their shoulders from the mountain.”

“When we removed in 1836 to Ewa, the adobe walls of a large church were already partly erected by the people under the direction of their chiefs and of Rev. Lowell Smith, our predecessor.”

“Rev. A. Bishop continued the work, and frequently went up several miles into the mountains with the native gangs after roofing timbers, which were hauled to the hilltop with great shoutings. That old church stood until about twenty years ago, when it was replaced by the present wooden edifice and steeple.”

“In 1837, Rev. Lowell Smith induced the building of the old Kaumakapili church with adobe walls and a steep thatched roof, with overhanging lanai, very similar to the old Ewa church. The walls of both churches were well plastered, inside and out.”

“A fine brick church with two steeples, some fifteen or twenty years ago, replaced the old adobes of Kaumakapili. (Adobes are large brick of dried mud and straw.)”

“The great Kawaiahaʻo stone church, still in use after much renovation, was a labor of pride and love by King Kauikeaouli and his royal chiefs, who felt an ownership in it. The corner-stone was laid in 1839. It was dedicated two or three years later.”

The earliest stone church in the Islands was the Waine‘e structure at Lahaina, built by Gov. Hoapili, advised by Rev. Wm. Richards, in 1833.”

“Many other stone churches were erected by chiefs and people during the succeeding fifteen years, at all of the mission stations, replacing the decayed thatched structures. Many of these are still in use.”

“In the work of church-building, the chiefs led the way, both by use of authority and by contributions of money. But the common people eagerly co-operated, both with money, materials and labor.”

“They felt a peculiar pride in creating a fine meeting-house. It has always been easy to raise contributions for church-building, when for nothing else.”

“From 1850 on, the plain square white houses of worship became conspicuous in the larger country villages, long before any dwellings of civilized form were visible.”

“Steeples were not common during the first forty years of the Mission. Lahaina, Kawaiahaʻo, and Kailua stone churches were perhaps the only ones with tower or steeple.”

“Bells began to be procured in the early thirties, and were objects of great ambition to the people. Before they came, the sonorous note of the great conch shell resounded over the hills, calling the people to worship.” (All here is from Sereno Bishop; The Friend)

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First Kawaiahao Church Building-TheFriend-Oct 1925
First Kawaiahao Church Building-TheFriend-Oct 1925
Mission_House and First_Christian_Church-Honolulu-1822
Mission_House and First_Christian_Church-Honolulu-1822
Fourth_Kawaiahao_Church-1840
Fourth_Kawaiahao_Church-1840
Fourth_Kawaiahao_Church-1832
Fourth_Kawaiahao_Church-1832
Kinau_returning_from_church_1837
Kinau_returning_from_church_1837
Kawaiahao_Church_illustration,_c._1870s
Kawaiahao_Church_illustration,_c._1870s
Kaumakapili-1stChurch-(TheFriend)
Kaumakapili-1stChurch-(TheFriend)
Wainee_Church-1840
Wainee_Church-1840
Mokuaikaua_Church,_ca._1890
Mokuaikaua_Church,_ca._1890

Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Church, Meeting House, Hawaii, Missionaries, American Protestant Missionaries

June 14, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Churches

“Commodious houses for public worship have been erected by the principal chiefs, with the cheerful aid of the people, in the places of their residence; and when there is preaching, these chiefs regularly and seriously attend, and their example is followed by great numbers of their subjects.”

“Churches are gathered, as with us, wherever there are pastors to take the care of them, and accessions are made to them, from time to time, of such as we may reasonably hope will be saved.”

“In one small district, which, but a few years since, rung through all the length and breadth of it with the cries of savage drunkenness, a thousand people have associated on the principle of entire abstinence from the use of intoxicating liquors.”

“Moreover, in that same district and in two others, with a united population of perhaps 40,000, where the morals were as degraded, a few years ago, as anywhere on earth, a fourth part of the inhabitants have formed themselves into societies for the better understanding and keeping of God’s holy law, and require unimpeachable morals as a condition of membership in their several fraternities.”

“All these are believed to be facts. And they are traceable wholly to the blessing of God on the establishment of a Christian mission on those islands, a little more than eleven years ago.”

“But, to guard against misapprehension, it is necessary to take another view. A moment’s reflection is sufficient to show, that after all the work of evangelizing and civilizing those islands is but just commenced.”

“The nation is yet in its infancy. It is just beginning to understand the advantages of the social state. The elements of individual improvement, and domestic happiness, and national order and prosperity, have been introduced, and the contrast between the former and present condition and character of the nation, as such, is great in almost every respect.”

“Very few, however, have done more than merely to cross the threshold of knowledge. Three-fourths of those, who are capable of learning to read, have yet to acquire the art.”

“A collection of all the books in the language would not contain as much matter, as there is in one volume of the Missionary Herald.”

“Salvation through the Lamb that was slain, is brought within the reach of thousands, and many have fled and are fleeing to lay hold on the hope set before them; but how few are their helps, compared with those which we have, and with what they ought to possess.”

“The regular preaching of the gospel is enjoyed by not more than one-fourth of the inhabitants. The rest see only a few rays of heavenly light. Recently two small companies of idolaters have been discovered in obscure parts of Hawaii, and no doubt there are others who retain an attachment to their former superstitions.” (Monthly Paper, ABCFM, September 1832)

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”,) about 184-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

One of the earliest efforts of the missionaries, who arrived in 1820, was the identification and selection of important communities (generally near ports and aliʻi residences) as “stations” for the regional church and school centers across the Hawaiian Islands.

As an example, in June 1823, William Ellis joined American Missionaries Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and Joseph Goodrich on a tour of the island of Hawaiʻi to investigate suitable sites for mission stations.

On O‘ahu, locations at Honolulu (Kawaiahaʻo,) Kāne’ohe, Waialua, Waiʻanae and ‘Ewa served as the bases for outreach work on the island.

By 1850, eighteen mission stations had been established; six on Hawaiʻi, four on Maui, four on Oʻahu, three on Kauai and one on Molokai.

Meeting houses were constructed at the stations, as well as throughout the district. Initially constructed as the traditional Hawaiian thatched structures; they were later made of wood or stone.

“All over the Islands, the Sabbath is remarkable for its stillness. Large congregations assemble for religious instruction in every district. Children are everywhere gathered into Sabbath schools. Adults are associated in Bible classes. Daily morning prayer meetings, and weekly or semi-weekly lectures and conferences are attended in most of the churches.”

“Most of the children of the nation, and most of the members of the churches, commit one verse of the Bible every day. Thousands ask the blessing of God on their daily food. As many observe morning and evening family worship.”

“If able, all members of churches give something for the support of the gospel, while at different times several religious associations are remembered in their prayers and benefactions. …”

“And according to their ability and numbers, it may be safely said that the Sandwich Islands churches are giving more for benevolent purposes than any other body of Christians on the globe. God alone knows their motives; we speak of facts only.”

“Among several hundreds of Hawaiians in this State a few are church members. Quite as many of these, in proportion to their numbers and advantages, have maintained their integrity as among other classes of professed Christians.”

“They brought with them their Bibles and hymn books. They took them to the mountains. In their encampments they have met for worship on the Sabbath. Two or three of them have acted as exhorters to the whole. …”

“… They are facts of great interest. They indicate a change in the mental, moral, social, political and religious condition of a people during a single generation, which may well strengthen the faith of the church in the practicability of the world’s conversion.” (Hunt)

“It is not claimed that this change has been wrought wholly by the American Mission. Various causes have conspired to accomplish the result.”

“Idolatry had become superannuated, and that peculiar state of things had arrived when the nation were ready for a change. At that juncture God raised up an instrument to effect it. He sent forth the great Kamehameha on his career of conquest, to unite the warlike tribes in one. That revolution in the government gave the nation the first impulse.”

“Then succeeded the revolution in the religion of the people by his son and successor, Liholiho, by which the nation were delivered from the ancient system of tabu.”

“But these revolutions only partially removed the burdens of ages. They broke not the yoke of despotism. They robbed not superstition of its ghostly power. They cleansed not the people of their vileness. They only concentrated in one king the power of many. Still in the one there was less oppression than in many.”

“While, therefore, we rightly appreciate science, letters, commerce and the arts, we must assign them an inferior rank as instrumentalities in the elevation of the human race—We must give to christianity the preference above all others.”

“For while christianity fosters and employs all others, it does what no others can do. It changes the heart, the fountain of all desires and emotions, and so effectually breaks up superstitions and redeems from vice.”

“To the gospel, therefore, whose peculiar province is the human heart, we look for relief from all the sins and woes that degrade and distress the family of man.”

“To that gospel, as preached and taught from the pulpits and the press of the Sandwich Islands Mission must we mainly attribute whatever changes for the better have there been wrought during thirty years of labor for the instruction and admiration of the world.” (Hunt, 1853)

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Mission Stations - MissionHouses-Map
Mission Stations – MissionHouses-Map
Hiram Bingham I preaching with Queen Kaahumanu at Waimea, in 1826, from his book A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands.
Hiram Bingham I preaching with Queen Kaahumanu at Waimea, in 1826, from his book A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands.
A_Missionary_Preaching_to_Hawaiians_on_the_lava_at_Kokukano,_Hawaii,_sketch_by_William_Ellis-1822-24
A_Missionary_Preaching_to_Hawaiians_on_the_lava_at_Kokukano,_Hawaii,_sketch_by_William_Ellis-1822-24
Missionaries_preaching_under_kukui_groves,_1841
Missionaries_preaching_under_kukui_groves,_1841
A_Missionary_Preaching_to_the_Natives,_under_a_Skreen_of_platted_Cocoa-nut_leaves_at_Kairua_by_William_Ellis-1823
A_Missionary_Preaching_to_the_Natives,_under_a_Skreen_of_platted_Cocoa-nut_leaves_at_Kairua_by_William_Ellis-1823
First Kawaiahao Church Building-TheFriend-Oct 1925-400
First Kawaiahao Church Building-TheFriend-Oct 1925-400

Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings Tagged With: Hawaii, Missionaries, Mission Stations, American Protestant Missionaries, Church

Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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