During the mid-nineteenth century, Imiola Congregational Church at Waimea, Hawaii became the main base for Congregational missionary activities in the Hāmākua and South Kohala Districts of Hawaii. (Imiola means ‘seek salvation.’)
The first Imiola Church was a grass hut built by order of the local chiefs for traveling missionaries. No construction date has been found for the first church, although it had been built and dedicated by King Kamehameha III before 1832.
It contained a rough pulpit and a crude window. Congregations sat on mats on the ground and often were so large that the tiny structure could barely accommodate them.
Reverend Lyons wrote in his journal that at least one hundred little grass schoolhouses were scattered around his church in the immediate Waimea area.
Imiola Church’s membership, combined with that of Reverend Titus Coan’s church in Hilo, accounted for three out of every four church members on all islands in May, 1838. Lyons’ triumph was short-lived, however. Of the nearly 5,000-natives who became members during the peak period of religious revival, only 1,197 were in good standing by 1841.
By February of 1843, the first church had been torn down and was replaced by a stone structure with thatched roof and windows. Hundreds of natives helped in the collection of stones, often carrying them miles to the construction site.
It was “A large stone edifice whose extension of stately walls and two large panel doors and smiling windows, presents an imposing form and whose interior …”
“… with the addition of a boarded floor and well-arranged seats and neat simple pulpit, furnishes new attractions to the native worshipper.” (Lyons, September 15, 1841; Gulick)
Difficult as the raising of the second church was, the structure lasted for only a little over twelve years. At the end of April, 1855, it was determined to be unsafe and was abandoned.
On June 11 of that year, the roof collapsed and was described by Lyons as “a mass of ruins”. On August 29, 1855, the cornerstone of the new church was laid.
“Under the cornerstone (SW corner) was deposited a tin box wrapped in mamaki kapa – Hawaiian Bible, hymn books, newspapers, laws, etc.”
By 1857, the church was completed and dedicated. The ceiling rafters, floor, and exterior clapboard were made of koa, a Hawaiian hardwood.
Lyons’ recollections of the construction of the building list two important figures. Mr. Cairr “was engaged to put up the new building” and Alani was responsible for planing the clapboard siding. The church was constructed by the help of church members who did most of the heavy work.
Imiola Congregational Church is a rectangular wooden gabled structure which makes use of indigenous construction materials. The church measures approximately 40 by 60 feet and is set on stone footings and a dry fieldstone wall.
It is sheathed with bevel siding. Shingles cover the solid NE end and located on the opposite end is a small gabled entrance way with a curved lintel piece. A rectangular tower with crenellations and a cross crown the high-pitched gable.
By 1882, the church required repairs and between the money donated and funds collected at a church fair, Imiola was reshingled, repainted and rematted.
“There were no doors to Imiola church in Laiana’s time, and when I was little the entrance was always open. There was no other church like it, for the benches all had horse hair cushions, covered with brocaded material. We youngsters used to go in and run around and pick out the best cushions and drag them along and change them to our own pew.” (Helen Lindsey Parker; Makua Laina)
Competition with the Catholic Church, the drastic drop in the Hawaiian population, as well as the movement of many natives to coastal urban centers accounted for the dwindling congregation.
Two years before his death, a crowd which included Waimea’s young, old, middle aged, Catholics, Mormons, Protestants, and non-believers all came to one of Lyons’ services to honor him.
As was the practice, the early missionaries learned the Hawaiian language and taught their lessons in Hawaiian, rather than English. In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English-speaking Hawaiians. In later years, the instruction, ultimately, was in English.
Lyons was an avid supporter of the Hawaiian language. He wrote a letter to the editor in The Friend newspaper (September 2, 1878) that, in part noted:
“An interminable language…it is one of the oldest living languages of the earth, as some conjecture, and may well be classed among the best…the thought to displace it, or to doom it to oblivion by substituting the English language, ought not for a moment to be indulged. … Long live the grand old, sonorous, poetical Hawaiian language.”
He was lovingly known to Hawaiians as Ka Makua Laiana, Haku Mele o ka Aina Mauna – Father Lyons, Lyric Poet of the Mountain County.
Lyons was fluent in the Hawaiian language and composed many poems and hymns; his best known and beloved work is the hymn “Hawaiʻi Aloha” sung to the tune of “I Left It All With Jesus” (circa 1852.) The song was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 1998.
“Widely regarded as Hawaiʻi’s second anthem, this hymn is sung in both churches and public gatherings. It is performed at important government and social functions to bring people together in unity, and at the closing of Hawaiʻi Legislative sessions.”
“The first appearance of “Hawaiʻi Aloha” in a Protestant hymnal was in 1953, nearly 100 years after it was written. Today, people automatically stand when this song is played extolling the virtues of ‘beloved Hawaiʻi.’” (Hawaiian Music Museum).
In 1886, Lyons died at the age of 79. He was buried some distance from the church on the grounds of his old homestead. With the help of Parker Ranch management, his remains were removed to the grounds of Imiola Church in April, 1939. (Nelia and I were married at Imiola, seventeen years ago, today.)
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