Poaha | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

The missionaries led busy lives, and the wives worked from dawn to well after dark. Their first and perhaps most monumental task was recording the Hawaiian language so that the scripture could be translated, and Hawaiians could be taught to read Hawaiian. (Fullard-Leo)

Before becoming members of the church, folks needed to be prepared. Those who belong to the po‘ahā are brought, in some degree, under the watch and care of the church, and, so far as they are conscientious, they are bound to correct principles and practices. (Missionary Herald)

Po‘ahā – Thursday – a reference to these Bible study meetings, held on Thursdays at Kawaiaha‘o Church in Honolulu, that prepared one for baptism and membership in the church congregation.

“The numbers of the natives, both men and women, who desired admission to the church, multiplied, and some were formed into classes which met weekly, on Thursday, for prayer, inquiry, and instruction, and from which candidates were, from time to time, selected, propounded, and received to fellowship.” (Bingham)

Then, “Under the direction of the missionary females, an association of women to meet weekly for prayer and improvement, was commenced on Friday of that week.”

“It embraced, at first, twelve or fifteen native females, among whom there appeared some evidence of sincere love to the truth, and of understanding the duty and privilege of prayer.” (Bingham)

Lucy Thurston, wife of Asa Thurston, and Elizabeth Bishop, wife of Artemas Bishop, “conceived the idea of endeavoring to lift our female population, by meeting with them every Friday PM.”

“We were each to sustain the responsibility of the thing, by alternately presiding at the meetings.” (Elizabeth (Edwards) Bishop had been childhood friend of Lucy (Goodale) Thurston; both became missionary wives who came at separate times, but were reunited in Hawai‘i.)

Lucy tells us, “For many months they have been attended. At first, I think, there was not an individual who had learned to say ‘Our Father.’ Now they can lead in prayer with great propriety, and think it a great privilege.”

“In acquiring this gift, they exhibit the greatest simplicity and freedom, never neglecting to exercise one talent, because they have not ten. With great freedom, and seriousness too, they express their religious convictions.”

“We read to them a portion of scripture. But Bible leaves in the Hawaiian language have been very scarce. Once I was driven to extremity, being obliged to take the first chapter of Matthew, the only portion remaining. That was the way they rehearsed the names of their own kings, and preserved them by simply retaining them in memory.”

“Two women of cultivated tenacious memories, came up to our house after meeting, and wished me to read that chapter again. After I did so, they assisted each other, and began by repeating the line of names from Abram to David, to the captivity, to Jesus. They went through successfully only asking aid in recalling two names.”

“One more subject was brought up in these meetings. This people were in a state of nature. There was only one point where I ever saw them exhibit shame. Both men and women were disposed and allowed to move around in public in a state of perfect nudity.”

“But if they appeared so without having one hand become a substitute for an apron of fig leaves, it would among themselves be severely condemned.”

“Childhood was ever taught to press in and be present at the birth of children. In all social acts, they too were taught to be alike skilled with those of adult years.”

“They divided and subdivided this knowledge, laid it up on their tongues, and then scattered it right and left to vaunt their own knowledge or promote their pastimes. Impurity of speech with both parents and children had become a giant in the land, stalking everywhere. We could not defy it in its native element.”

“But we were moved to drive it from our retired sitting rooms, the homes of our children. Whoever wished the privilege of crossing the thresholds to those apartments, consecrated to purity, must be subject to criticism. Whatever was there uttered which we disapproved, we penned, and read in the Friday meeting.”

“Thus we tried to give them a standard of what was right, and began by endeavoring to form a healthy moral atmosphere in two rooms, eighteen feet square, where natives were allowed to tread.”

“I carried my little manuscript book and pencil in my pocket, and used them on the spur of the occasion, and thus prepared notes for a future meeting.”

“I had a severe struggle with my own feelings in establishing these things, and passed painful, sleepless hours, lest I had offended. But it proved the reverse. For heavenly dews had prepared the soil to receive seed as into good and honest hearts.”

“Mr. Thurston has only been able to command time for his meals. From morning till night he has been in his study chair, with an individual or a cluster at his feet; sometimes a company of fifty or sixty, which entirely filled the room. Some days we have received calls from several hundreds.”

“I devote as much time to the instruction of the women as I can redeem from my family. My labors are more particularly directed to the members of the Friday Female Meeting.”

“Two years ago their names were enrolled and a discipline introduced. A moral standard was raised. Whoever wished to join the Society must forsake all their former vile practices, and pay an external regard to the Word and Worship of God.”

“They must uniformly have a full covering for their persons, both at home and abroad, and follow whatever is lovely and of good report. Such has since been the change in public opinion, that scenes which were then familiar to the eye, would now be scouted out of the village as shameful indecencies.”

“This Society has prospered; meetings were all divided into classes, and each class has a particular teacher to whom to look for instruction. The number of female teachers has risen to twenty, all hopefuly pious. This is my class. I teach them what I wish them to teach others.”

“The men’s society is conducted on the same plan. Two large thatched houses have been erected for the accommodation of these societies.” (Lucy Thurston, Life of Lucy Thurston)

Elizabeth (Edwards) Bishop died February 28, 1828, after a lingering and painful illness, the first adult death in the mission family. (Wagner)

The ‘Friday Female Meeting’ began in 1827, which in two years grew from 70 to 1,500 members, then by 1830, 2,600 women attended the weekly classes. (Zwiep)

“That organization being increased from time to time, has doubtless, in the course of twenty years, tended not only to call into healthful action many of its regularly entered members, and to incite others to the important duties which it was designed to encourage, but also in some measure to call down successive showers of spiritual blessings upon the nation.” (Bingham)

As noted by Lucy Thurston in 1830, “Mr. Thurston is entirely devoted to works of a public nature. My duties are of a more private character. I am the housekeeper, the mother, and the domestic teacher.”

“What time I can redeem from family cares, I give to our native females. Twenty-six hundred have been gathered into our Friday meetings. This society is in a very flourishing state.”

“As I cannot see them all at our house, I teach them by proxy, selecting from the most intelligent ones a class of teachers to come under my instructions.”

“When night closes upon me, and there is a suspension of maternal and domestic duties, I take my chosen season to meet the natives. I pass from a hushed nursery to the long dining room, where a table is extended for the accommodation of twenty-five.”

“It is lighted up and the women are in their seats. Our governor’s wife attends. It is on the whole a social interview. But one theme is before us in everyone’s hand. We turn over together the pages of Holy Writ, as it is issued from the press. The Word of God is powerful.”

“I have lived to see both sides of the picture. I saw this neglected portion of our race, groping along in all the darkness of nature, listening to messages from Heaven with indifference and contempt, and for a long time hearing as though they heard not.”

“Man can speak only to the ear. I looked again, and a secret energy was transforming their moral characters. Those very beings who were once bowing down to stocks of wood and stone, worshiping sharks and volcanoes, and slaves to all the sins which degrade human nature, are now sitting at the feet of Jesus, learning and doing his will.” (Lucy Thurston, October 30, 1830 letter)

Those who belong to the po‘ahā are brought, in some degree, under the watch and care of the church, and, so far as they are conscientious, they are bound to correct principles and practices. (Missionary Herald)

Po‘ahā – Thursday – a reference to the Bible study meetings, held on Thursdays, that prepared one for baptism and membership in the church congregation.

The Adobe Schoolhouse was constructed during the period 1833-1835, of air-dried adobe bricks and lumber, as it became available, to replace the earlier straw school and meeting house.

The “most beautiful room in Honolulu,” as architects have called it, was used for a school, for the annual spring General Meeting of the Mission, as a social hall, and, in 1855, as the scene of a wedding between two mission “cousins.”

In 1852, it saw the establishment of the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, often known as the Cousins Society, a group of missionary descendants whose parents had long called each other “brother” and “sister.”

For a while during the 1870s, the building was rented to the Government for use as a public school, at which time a partition was put in.

Later, it housed the Thursday daytime meetings of Kawaiaha’o Church and became known as Hale Poaha, the Thursday House of Kawaiaha‘o. (NPS)

“The congregation is large on the Sabbath. In the morning, our spacious house is filled, and becoming seriousness pervades the congregation.”

“Other meetings are well attended. Multitudes are pressing into the poaha, i.e. the Thursday meeting for religious inquiry.”

None are admitted to this meeting, except persons who are found, on examination by ourselves, to have a general understanding of the essential doctrines of the gospel, and a belief of them, and who declare their intention to renounce all known sin, and obey every known duty.”

“Such evidences of a renovated heart are not required, as would be insisted on in order to a participation of the Lord’s Supper.” (Chamberlain, 1830; Missionary Herald)

“Since the middle of March, I have myself examined 324 persons; and of this number, I should hope, that as many as one in ten are pious.”

“The whole number which, on this island, have been admitted to this meeting, cannot, I think, be less than 1,000. And I trust there may be found among them, at least, 100 persons, who might with great propriety be received into the church.”

“The native members of the church have recently held a meeting, at their own instance, for the purpose of comparing their views with respect to the moral and religious character of those persons within their knowledge, who have expressed a desire to join the church …”

“… and upwards of 100 names were written down of persons, whom they do not hesitate to recommend to our notice, as suitable candidates for baptism and church-fellowship.”

“Those who belong to the poaha are brought, in some degree, under the watch and care of the church, and, so far as they are conscientious, they are bound to correct principles and practices.” (Chamberlain, 18830; Missionary Herald)

On June 5, 1825, ten Hawaiians made “a full declaration of their desire to be numbered among the disciples of Christ.” These were Kalanimōku, Ka‘ahumanu, Kapule, Kapi‘olani, Keali‘iahonui, Kalakua, Namahana (or Opi‘ia,) Kaiu, La‘anui and Richard Kala‘aia‘ulu (who had arrived from the Cornwall School in 1823.)

A probation period of six months was set for these candidates. (Damon)

By the time a newly constructed thatched Kawaiaha‘o church was nearly finished, “Sabbath Decr. 4th. This has been a day of uncommon interest; and the transactions of it form an era in the Sandwich Island Church.”

“Eight persons who have for more than six months stood as candidates for admission and who have given as satisfactory evidence of personal piety as the nature of their circumstances will admit, came forward & united themselves to our number …”

“… and entered into a solemn covenant to walk in all the ordinances of the Gospel; and subscribed with their own hands unto the Lord, binding themselves by the most solemn engagements to be his forever.”

“Seven of the candidates received baptism – Karaimoku having been baptized a number of years ago by a French Chaplain, only brought forward his little son, which it was a pleasing sight to witness in the arms of his father to be presented for Christian baptism – He received the name of Joseph Leleohoku.”

“Ka‘ahumanu was baptised by the Christian name of Elizabeth. – Opi‘ia by that of Lydia; Tapule Deborah; Keri‘iahonui – Aaron; La‘ahui – Gideon; Kaiu – Simeon. Kara‘aiaulu – Richard.” (Levi Chamberlain Journal)

The Kawaiaha’o Church register lists the names of those who, beginning on December 4, 1825, took their vows, and were baptized. Their signatures are on the church charter.