Kawaiaha‘o Church

Source of “Life of the Land” Expression

edwindwight Christian History of Hawai‘i, Kawaiaha‘o Church

A number of claims have been made for the source of the Hawai‘i State Motto expression “Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono” / “The Life of the Land is perpetuated in righteousness.”

A source for the expression closely tied in time to Kamehameha III declaring the words which became the state motto appears in a four-page “EXTRA” issue of The Friend, of Temperance and Seamen. This montly newsprint publication, a monthly Christian newspaper, was edited and published by the Rev. Samuel Damon, chaplain of the Seaman’s Bethel Chapel in Honolulu.

The EXTRA edition, one outside the montly run, was distributed on July 31, 1843, the day the rule of Hawai‘i was returned to the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi by the British Admiral Thomas.

Rev. Damon, who was there at the scene of what has become known as Restoration Day, in his EXTRA edition published a press release distributed by Dr. Gerrit Judd, the chief aide to Kamehameha III. This press release twice features the expression “life of the land” and is dated Feb. 25, 1843. On this date Kamehameha III suffered having his Kingdom taken over by British naval officer Paulet, with the Hawaiian flag being lowered and the British raised. These reports are primary sources. 

Screenshot

Nupepa – Кamehameha III, Kekauluahi press release

Friend July 31, 1843 Life of LandDownload

The Kamehameha III February 25th “life of the land” press release appears on page 4 of the above digital issue of The Friend.

Tahitian Mission to Hawaiʻi 1822 Bicentennial Events

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The home and schoolhouse of the Tahitian missionary Auna and his wife Aunawahine at the Sandwich Islands Mission village in Honolulu c. 1823. These hale were located mauka of today’s King Street east of Punchbowl Street, across the street from the Hawaiian Mission Houses museum and archives. This illustration appeared in the London Missionary Society’s monthly “Missionary Sketches” sent to its contributors. This issue, No. XXVII / October 1824 featured a report on the Sandwich Islands Mission.

The Hawaiian Mission Houses in Honolulu is commemorating from April 26-April 30, 2022 the 1822 arrival in Hawai‘i of Tahitian and London Missionary Society Protestant missionaries. A full schedule of events will be poste soon.

A highlight of the Tahitian commemoration is a concert at Kawaiaha‘o Church honoring Na Himeni Hawaii, the first hymnal printed in the Hawaiian language, as well as the first book printed in the Hawaiian language. The public is invited to the concert in person, and a webcast will be available online.

I will be speaking during a Tahitian mission bicentennial web seminar to be presented on Tuesday, April 26 by the Hawaiian Mission Houses at noon HST. I will update this notice once the web seminar link is listed online. I am scheduled to give a background to the foreign missions movement behind the sending of Protestant missionaries to Tahiti and Hawai‘i during the Second Great Awakening of the late eighteenth century, and the early nineteenth century.

A New Look at the Memoirs of Obookiah – My Kawaiaha‘o Church Bicentennial talk

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me and leonard

My close Kaua‘i friend Leonard Mahoe (r.), the CRU City Neighbors ministry representative on Kaua‘i, joined me at Kawaiaha‘o Church in Honolulu on July 28, 2020 for the filming of A New Look at the Memoirs of Henry Obookiah. Leonard grew up attending Kawaiaha‘o Church in the 1950s and 60s. The 40-minute talk is one of the Kawaiaha‘o Bicentennial Speaker series and is set to first air on Sunday, August 16 at 4 p.m. HST

 

The Kawaiaha‘o Church Bicentennial Committee graciously invited me to be the August 2020 speaker in their ongoing Bicentennial Speaker series. I presented A New Look at the Memoirs of Henry Obookiah inside the historic Kawaiaha‘o sanctuary on July 28, 2020. The talk is scheduled to air on Sunday, August 16 at 4 p.m. HST on the Kawaiaha‘o TV YouTube.com channel.

Kawaiahao Talk front screen

My talk on Henry Opukaha‘ia aired on Sunday, August 16, 2020 on the Kawaiaha‘o Church TV Youtube.com channel. A Q&A time aired on Zoom followed the broadcast of my talk, which was taped in the Kawaiaha‘o sanctuary in late July. My talk is scheduled to be rebroadcast, watch here for an exact date and time.

Coincidentally, August 16, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of my arrival in Hawai‘i in summer 1970 to attend the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Looking back I am very thankful for the many blessings I have enjoyed in the islands of Hawai‘i where I have spent most of my adult life. The invitation to speak at Kawaiaha‘o is especially special to me.

In A New Look at the Memoirs of Henry Obookiah I present new details about the life and times of Ōpūkahai‘ia – Henry Obookiah, the first Native Hawaiian Christian. The 40-minute talk offers a preview of material appearing in my new book Preparing the Way, a 160-page full-color pictorial book created to mark the Hawai‘i Mission Bicentennial. The talk is also based on material I first presented in my 2015-released biography of Ōpūkahai‘ia, The Providential Life & Heritage of Henry Obookiah.

Mahalo to Haunani Hendrix who produced the segment, and Malia Ka‘ai-Barrett who introduced me to begin my talk, both on behalf of the the Kawaiaha‘o Bicentennial Committee. I joined Malia and Kahu Ken Makuakane on the stage at Park Street Church in Boston in October 2019 during the Hawai‘i Mission Bicentennial commemoration held in New England to mark the departure of the pioneer Sandwich Islands Mission company to Hawai‘i. Malia is a premier vocalist in Hawai‘i, I was honored by her introduction, and by Haunani’s production skills.

Following the first airing of A New Look at the Memoirs of Henry Obookiah  I will be fielding questions about my talk via Zoom at the Kawaiaha‘o TV channel on YouTube.com. The questions will be combined with the video of my talk and will be available for viewing at the Kawaiaha‘o TV channel.

The July speaker in the Kawaiaha‘o Bicentennial series was Kaipo‘i Kelling. Kaipo‘i is a fantastic teller of mo‘olelo of Hawai‘i, ask anyone who has listened to his talks. He is a Hawaiian language instructor and historian, in addition to being an elementary school teacher, with a focus on missionary era Honolulu. He  presented What Makes Kawaiaha‘o A Wai Pana (famous place). Kaipo‘i’s interesting and intriguing talk focused on the historical setting of the church in Honolulu in an area considered sacred in pre-‘Ai Kapu overthrow days.

Kawaiaha‘o historian Keiko Denbeau presented in June, using the historic plaques that grace the walls of sanctuary at Kawaiaha‘o to tell the story of interesting chapters in the historic church’s history.

Additional speakers in the series are posted at the Kawaiahao TV channel.

Mahalo to former Kawaiaha‘o pastor Kahu Curt Kekuna and his wife Becky Kekuna for their kokua in this project.

 

 

Jubilee look at the Hawaiian church in 1870

edwindwight 200th anniversary of Sandwich Islands Mission, Christian History of Hawai‘i, Digging for Treasure in Old Books, Hiram and Sybil Bingham, Kawaiaha‘o Church, News

Rufus Anderson Portrait Wikimedia

Engraving by J. C. Buttre from a daguerreotype taken from “Discourse Commemorative of Rev. Rufus Anderson,” ABCFM publication, 1880. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The recently-released documentary A Witness To Aloha, created for the bicentennial of the landmark Kawaiaha‘o Church in Honolulu, has received great acclaim in Hawai‘i and wherever the 60-minute film has been viewed. A Witness to Aloha, directed by premier Hawai‘i filmmaker Dennis Lee, aired in April 2020 on KITV during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

To compliment the fine portrait of Kawaiaha‘o presented in A Witness To Aloha, I am posting an excerpt from the annual report of the Amerian Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for 1870. In this report is an account of a visit to Kawaiaha‘o and Hawai‘i made in 1870 by Rufus Anderson the Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM).

The overview offers an enlightening overview of the state of the Protestant church in the Hawaiian Islands some fifty years after the arrival of the pioneer mission company.

Anderson sailed to Honolulu from the West Coast to attend the Jubilee commemoration held in 1870 of the introduction of Christianity to the Hawaiian Islands. He found a flourishing native church in Hawai‘i in the years soon after the closing the ABCFM’s mission to Hawai‘i in 1863.

In 1820 the first group of Christians with plans to open a permanent mission station arrived, sent from Boston as the American Board’s Sandwich Islands Mission. The pioneer company of American Protestant missionaries was sent to Hawai‘i in 1819 from Boston  and arrived at Kailua, Kona on April 4, 1820.

In his report, Anderson wrote, “The very shore on which I first set my foot bore evidence of the great change. The first object to greet the eye was the great stone church, whose foundations were laid by the veteran Bingham. The barren waste of a few years ago, where was neither tree, shrub, nor flower, to relieve the eye, had been changed as into a garden of the Lord. The very shore on which I first set my foot bore evidence of the great change. The first object to greet the eye was the great stone church, whose foundations were laid by the veteran Bingham. The barren waste of a few years ago, where was neither tree, shrub, nor flower to relieve the eye, had been changed as into a garden of the Lord.”

Click below to download PDF of Rufus Anderson’s Mission Jubilee report from Hawai‘i

Jubilee Overview of Kawaiahao