Seedtime and Harvest: The Establishment of the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church, 1855-1870.

Abstract

This thesis investigates the collaboration between Anglican missionaries and Hawaiians in establishing the Anglican Church in Hawaiʻi from 1855 and 1870. In 1862, Anglican missionaries arrived in Hawaiʻi by invitation from Kamehameha IV who wanted the missionaries to assist with supporting his public policy and educational initiatives. Kamehameha IV envisioned that Anglicanism would reinvigorate the religious morals of his people and assist in educating Hawaiians to take on roles in government that were increasingly being taken by white foreigners. The Anglican missionaries in turn saw the Hawaiian Mission as a laboratory for its Anglo-Catholic theology. However, early on in the Mission’s history, the missionaries lost the support of Kamehameha IV due to his unexpected death in 1863. The passing of their royal sponsor made the missionaries even more dependent on others to remain viable. The Mission downsized their operations and as a result were able to complete some of its intended goals on a small scale in Honolulu, Oʻahu and Lahaina, Maui. Focusing resources in smaller areas allowed the Mission to build a Hawaiian congregation a few hundred strong, many of whom had ties to the royal family or were loyalists of their King and Queen. Hawaiians from across the country sent their children to single-sex schools established and operated by Anglican missionaries in Honolulu and Lahaina. The Anglican schools built a reputation among Hawaiians as being reliable institutions that prepared young children for adulthood. To continue the work that she and her husband had started, Queen Emma Kaleleonālani, continued to support the Mission after the death of her husband. Emma traveled to England and completed a year and half long fundraising mission for funds to build the Anglican Mission’s cathedral in Honolulu, a church that is still used by the Church’s congregation over 150 years later.