Kawaiahaʻo Church
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kawaiahaʻo Church (or Ka wai a Haʻo) is a historic Congregational church located in Downtown Honolulu on the Hawaiian Island of Oʻahu. At one time the national church of the Hawaiian Kingdom and chapel of the royal family, Kawaiahaʻo Church is popularly known as Hawaiʻi's Westminster Abbey. It is one of the oldest standing Christian places of worship in Hawaiʻi, although four thatched churches stood at or near the present site before construction of the stone church. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.
Kawaiahaʻo Church was commissioned by the regency of Kaʻahumanu during the reigns of Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III. Designed by Rev. Hiram Bingham in the New England style of the Hawaiian missionaries, it was constructed between 1836 and 1842 of some 14,000 thousand-pound slabs of coral rock harvested from off the southern shore of Oʻahu. It rivaled the concurrent construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace for the Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands. The name Kawaia Haʻo was not applied to the site until 1853.
Kawaiahaʻo Church was frequented by the chiefs of the Hawaiian Islands as well as the members of the reigning Kamehameha Dynasty and Kalākaua Dynasty. The upper gallery of the church is adorned with the portraits of the royal families. Lunalilo, who preferred to be buried in a church cemetery rather than the Royal Mausoleum, is buried in the courtyard.
However, Kawaiahaʻo Church was not the only site of royal worship in the Islands. Kamehameha IV and his wife Emma were devout members of the Church of England and established the Anglican Church of Hawaiʻi—the present-day Episcopal Diocese of Hawaiʻi. They commissioned the construction of the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew, which replaced Kawaiahaʻo Church as the principal center of royal worship. Kamehameha V, Kalākaua and Liliʻuokalani preferred to utilize the cathedral.
