Wailuku church celebrates 150 years in Hawaii
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church provides meal programs, help for hungry and homeless in community
WAILUKU — A church that was founded 150 years ago with the invitation of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma celebrated its sesquicentennial Sunday with song, dance and the opening of a 107-year-old time capsule.
Nearly 200 people, including regular parishioners and descendants of the first members, filled Good Shepherd Episcopal Church for the special service.
“What’s most exciting for me is to see how (the church is) doing exciting ministries now,” said Rt. Rev. Robert Fitzpatrick, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii. “It’s almost as if 150 years is natural, because as long as you’re giving and caring you have a purpose. A church that stops giving away, stops being part of their community, there’s no reason for them to continue.”
When King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma visited England in the mid-1800s, they were impressed with the Anglican church. Kamehameha IV, also known as Alexander Liholiho, was wary of growing American influence in Hawaii and “preferred the Church of England to the Protestant church of the American missionaries,” according to a book on the monarch by Ruby Hasegawa Lowe.
Liholiho and Emma asked Queen Victoria to help establish the Anglican church in Hawaii, and even gave some of their land for future buildings. The Anglican church’s roots began with St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu, followed by Holy Innocents in Lahaina and Good Shepherd in Wailuku, senior warden Kenneth Peter Lee said.
“Episcopalians aren’t people to brag,” Good Shepherd Rev. Craig Vance said. “But we are proud that we were invited here because we were welcomed into the culture, not, here we are coming to Hawaii to tell them how to be Christian and white and civilized.”
In February 1866, American Episcopalian priest Father George B. Whipple sailed into Maalaea Harbor with his wife and adopted Ojibwe daughter, according to Good Shepherd’s history. He hired an oxcart to take them to the future site of Good Shepherd in Wailuku. Construction on the church began shortly after, and a wooden structure was built on what is now Good Shepherd’s parking lot along Church Street. Whipple was fluent in Hawaiian, and early services were delivered in both Hawaiian and English.
In 1910, the church was replaced by a sturdier, more permanent building on the corner of Church and Main streets. Members tucked a time capsule into the cornerstone of the church, which was one of the earliest reinforced concrete structures built in Hawaii. The bluestone box holding the artifacts was donated by Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., Lee said.
“We have no idea what’s in it,” he said before the ceremony.
As members crowded around, Lee pulled a brass-capped copper tube out of the box. About the size of a tennis ball canister, the tube contained two coins from 1883 — one bearing the Hawaiian kingdom’s coat of arms — and what appeared to be rolled up newspapers. But the contents had been wedged in so tightly that Lee thought it would be best to find an expert to remove the papers so as not to damage them.
Even though she didn’t get to see the contents, Shirley Perreira of Pukalani was brought to tears after the ceremony. Her grandfather, William Ault, became the church’s rector in 1901. He helped build the new church and place the time capsule, although he was “a quiet man” who said little about his work.
“It was very emotional for me because of the relationship between my grandfather and my father (to the church),” Perreira said.
Good Shepherd’s Filipino dance troupe brought several current members to the church in the 1960s.
Eugenia Sitts got “recruited” to join the troupe around 1967. All three of her sons and two grandchildren have been baptized in the church. For Sitts, the “connectivity and familiar faces” is what keeps her family coming back.
“It’s come full circle,” Sitts said. “Just to continue that tradition, it’s wonderful. A lot of kids nowadays don’t have . . . something to connect themselves with, something that’s rooted in the community.”
Lucy Santiago has also been coming to the church since the late 1960s. She and longtime friends Gloria Evangelista and Basilia Evangelista fondly recalled trips to the Mainland that included a tour from Canada to California to perform Filipino dances. Now, four generations of Santiago’s family attend the church, from her mother to her grandchildren.
“My friends still come here. That’s the reason I still come,” Santiago said. “I wanted my kids to experience the same experiences we had.”
Today, Good Shepherd has about 450 listed members and 175 active members, Lee said. The church is known around the neighborhood for Ka Ohana Kitchen, a free meal for the hungry every Sunday; the Queen Emma Athletic Club for at-risk kids; and A Cup of Cold Water, a van ministry started by Maui Episcopal churches to bring food and supplies to the homeless.
Because of the ministries, “I think we have a better knowledge of who we reach out to,” Lee said. “Everyone’s in their situation for a different reason, and it’s understanding that there’s not one solution to everything.”
Looking forward, Vance said members could start discussions on whether to build an addition to the church, as well as what to do with a 1-acre commercial property the church owns nearby.
“We don’t have anything actively planned,” Vance said. “But we’re thinking it’s time to ask questions and talk with the community.”
* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.