Orthodox Church in Hawaii
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Orthodox Christianity in Hawaiʻi has a history beginning with the early Russian missions of the 19th century and continuing to the work of multiple Orthodox churches on the various islands that make up the state.
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[edit] History of Hawaiian Orthodoxy
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[edit] Christianity in Hawaii
The first Christian liturgical service held in Hawaiʻi was a Russian Orthodox celebration of Pascha (Easter). Sometime between 1750 - 1793*, while traveling from Far East to what was then Russian America, a Russian trading ship stopped over in the Hawaiʻian Islands. The Russian Orthodox priest, not wanting to celebrate Pascha (Easter) at sea, instructed the captain to disembark. The captain then told the priest that he feared the "natives" but the priest responded, "They will not harm us, for we are Orthodox, and we bear the Light of Christ to illumine their hearts." They disembarked and blessed a temporary altar under a newly built temple made out of palms and bamboo and adorned with a Znammeny icon of the Theotokos (Mother of God) and the Christ Child. It was rumored that as they departed the priest left the icon used in the Paschal Divine Liturgy. The ship's priest promised that, "We shall return and baptize these natives to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church."
*Dates vary from 1750, 1792, and 1793.
Aside from this, the first Christian service of any type in Hawaiʻi was a lay funeral service conducted by Capt. James Cook for an English sailor at Napo‘opo‘o (Kealakekua) on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1779.
[edit] First Orthodox Chapels
In 1815, Russians built Hawaiʻi's first Orthodox church; the Russian Orthodox chapel at Fort Elizabeth. On the Island of Kaua'i, three Russian forts were built: Fort Alexander, Fort Barclay, and Fort Elizabeth. Fort Alexander also housed a small Orthodox chapel, but Fort Elizabeth was the trading base for the new Russian-American Company in Hawaii. When King Kaumuali'i of Kaua'i ceded his kingdom to King Kamehameha the Great in 1816 following the Tsar's refusal to annex Kaua'i due to political troubles in Russia, the forts were also ceded, and the Hawaiʻian Islands become one unified kingdom. The chapels ultimately fell into disrepair after Calvinist missionaries from the United States landed in 1820 following the death of King Kamehameha I the Great.
In 1882, the Hawaiʻian Kingdom sent a diplomatic delegation to St. Petersburg, Russia, to witness the coronation of Tsar Alexander III. The reports of Hawaii's special envoy to the Russian court, Colonel Curtis I'aukea, Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, regarding the Russian Orthodox liturgical services were widely published in Hawaiʻian-language newspapers. Two years later, Tsar Alexander III sent King Kalakaua the Imperial Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, the highest Russian award, and established a permanent Russian embassy in Hawaii, along with a very small Orthodox chapel. Subsequently, 200 Ukrainians were imported as laborers by American sugar planters.
In 1893, Queen Lili'uokalani was deposed by U.S. Marines and American sugar plantation owners, who were mostly the children of American Calvinist missionaries, and a provisional government under the protection of the United States was installed (see Overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy). In 1898, Hawaiʻi was incorporated into the United States despite near universal opposition from native Hawaiʻians. In the early 1900s, the Russian ambassador was recalled, the embassy was moved to a small office, and the Russian Orthodox chapel was closed.
Saint Innocent of Alaska also made a brief stop-over in Hawaiʻi during his travels from Asia to Western America.
[edit] Rebirth of Orthodoxy
On November 27, 1910 (O.S., the Feast Day of the Znamenny-Kursk Root Icon of the Sign of the Mother of God), reader services were organized and served by Vasily Pasderin.
In 1915, an official request by the Russian Orthodox community in Hawaiʻi and the Episcopal Bishop of Hawaii, Henry B. Restarick to the Holy Governing Synod in St. Petersburg; a priest was dispatched that same year to Hawaiʻi (with the blessing of Archbishop Evdokim (Meschersky) of the Aleutians) to pastor the large population of Orthodox Russian faithful. He establishsed permanent liturgical services in Hawaiʻi and on Christmas December 25 (O.S.) / January 7 (N.S.) 1916, Protopresbyter Jacob Korchinsky celebrated the Divine Liturgy at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral in Honolulu. Thus Orthodoxy was re-established in Hawaiʻi.
Fr. Jacob, a well-known missionary priest, established churches in Canada, the United States, Alaska, Australia and the Philippines. He was murdered in Odessa shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, but has not yet been officially recognized as a martyred saint (though, for martyrs, no official canonization is necessary in the Orthodox Church).
St. Tikhon of Moscow once quoted Fr. Jacob's missionary exploits this way, "He did much to convert the heathen to the Christian Faith and returned many Uniates to the Orthodox Church. He set the foundation for parish life in many places, built churches and assisted the unfortunate with his acquied medical knowledge."
(Report by Bishop Tikhon Belavin to the Holy Synod. No. 155 Nov. 26, 1906)
In subsequent years, the Russian Orthodox Church in Hawaiʻi shipped or flew priests to Hawaiʻi to care for the dwindling Orthodox population, becoming part of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR). Archimandrite Innokenty Dronov of Hilo, a contemporary of St. Jonah of Manchuria and St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco and Metropolitan Meletius of Harbin, served the entire Orthodox Christian flock on all the Hawaiʻian Islands throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Fr. Innokenty had a large following of Japanese Orthodox Christians. He frequently returned to the Diocese in San Francisco to report to Archbishops Apollinary (Koshevoy) and Tikhon (Troitsky) and for medical reasons. He is now purportedly buried on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.
[edit] Hawaiʻi, the "Melting Pot" of Orthodoxy
Up until the 1960s, the Russian Orthodox Church was the only Orthodox jurisdiction in the Hawaiʻian Islands. Following the 1960s, parishes from three separate Orthodox jurisdictions established themselves in the Islands: Greek, Serbian, and OCA. At one point there were as many as five different Orthodox jurisdictions in the Hawaiʻian Islands. Despite this multiplicity of jurisdictions, all Orthodox churches in Hawaiʻi are in communion with one another and have friendly relations. (See also: Orthodoxy in America, Diaspora.)
[edit] The Russian Orthodox Church
In the late 1960s, a group of Russian Orthodox Christians parted ways with the local Greek community and joined the Russian Orthodox Church in Hawaiʻi under the omophorion (jurisdiction) of Archbishop Anthony of Los Angeles; they formed the St. Mark of Ephesus Russian Orthodox Mission. In the early 1980s, this mission parish was later re-consecrated under the heavenly protection of the Mother of God and is now known as the Holy Theotokos of Iveron Russian Orthodox Church. In the late 1990s, the pastor of the Russian Orthodox community, Father Anatole Lyovin, was ordained to serve the Orthodox faithful in Hawaiʻi. Currently this parish is without a permanent structure, but there are plans to build the first Russian Orthodox church in Honolulu.
[edit] The Greek Orthodox Church
In the mid 1960s, a Greek Orthodox community established a mission under the auspices of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. This community became known as the Ss. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church. The current acting pastor of the Greek Orthodox community in Hawaiʻi is Fr. Demetrius Dogias, who was assigned to the parish in Honolulu in 2007. This community is well-known for its annual Greek Festival held at Ala Moana Beach Park near Waikiki. This community is under the care of Bishop-Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco (GOARCH).
In the 1990s, on the Island of Maui, a Greek Orthodox mission was established. For a time, this mission was served by clergy of Ss. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Honolulu. They had a resident priest for a year, but this mission has been inactive for a number of years.
[edit] The Serbian Orthodox Church
In the early 1990s, a Serbian community established a Serbian Orthodox mission dedicated to St. Lazar of Kosovo. The Serbian mission later became inactive, and its remaining members joined the local Russian and Greek churches. There has been a recent interest within the Serbian Orthodox community in Hawaiʻi to re-establish this mission. In recent months, visiting clergy (including the Serbian Bishop Maxim of Western America) have come from the mainland to minister to them.
[edit] The Antiochian Orthodox Church
In 2003, the short-lived St. Paul the Apostle Antiochian Orthodox Mission was established in Honolulu at Fort Shafter Army Base. The rector of this mission was Fr. Isaiah Gillette, a chaplain with the military. Following Fr. Isaiah's transfer to Texas, the mission was disbanded. There is currently a small community under the care of a priest from the Antiochian Orthodox Church, who visits O'ahu on a regular basis.
[edit] The OCA
In early 2004, a new Orthodox community under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) was established in Kona, Hawaii. Fr. Sergius Naumann served this community for a time until leaving for Alaska. They were without a priest for about 18 months, but currently have a resident priest in Kona. In Autumn, 2007 the community was given the name of St. Juvenaly -- the first Orthodox Church to have St. Juvenaly as their patron. The mission is under the auspices of Bp. Benjamin (Peterson) of the West (OCA).
[edit] Parishes in Hawaiʻi
- Holy Theotokos of Iveron Russian Orthodox Church of Hawaiʻi - Official website
- Ss. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church - Official Website
- St. Lazar Serbian Orthodox Mission Parish - News site (No Official Website)
- Maui Greek Orthodox Mission Parish - Official Website - currently inactive
- St. Juvenaly Orthodox Mission - serving the Big Island and based in Kona - Official website
[edit] See also
- Russian Fort Elizabeth
- Orthodox Parishes in Hawaiʻi
- The Russian Collections of the University of Hawaii
[edit] External links
- Orthodox Christianity in Hawaiʻi
- Orthodox Hawaiʻi A Yahoogroup dedicated to Orthodox Christianity in Hawaiʻi
[edit] Sources
- Archimandrite Avgustin (Nikitin); Gavraiskie ostrova i Rossiia (Obzor tserkovnykh sviazei i kontaktov - (Saint-Petersburg; Minneapolis 2002)
- Michael Protopopov; A History of the Russian Orthodox Presence in Australia (Submitted Thesis)
- Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 23, 1916
