Kawaiahaûo Church is a historic Congregational church located in Downtown Honolulu on the Hawaiian Island of Oûahu. The church, along with the Mission Houses, comprise the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site, which was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1962. In 1966 it and all other NHLs were included in the first issuance of the National Register of Historic Places.
At one time the central church of the Kingdom of Hawaiûi and chapel of the Hawaiian royal family, the church is popularly known as âÂÂHawaiûi's Westminster AbbeyâÂÂ. The name comes from the Hawaiian noun phrase ka wai a Haûo (âÂÂthe water of HaûoâÂÂ), because its location had a spring and freshwater pool of a High Chiefess named Haûo. It has also been called hale pule lahui (âÂÂGreat Stone ChurchâÂÂ), the Hawaiian Tabernacle (luakini), the Mother Church, the Kingûs Church, the Kingûs Chapel, and the "Aliûi Church".
Today, Kawaiahaûo continues to use the Hawaiian language for parts of its services. It is the oldest church on Oûahu and one of the oldest standing Christian places of worship in Hawaiûi, although four thatched churches stood at or near the site of the present coral church. The oldest standing church is Mokuaikaua Church on the Island of Hawaiûi. Denominationally, it is part of the United Church of Christ.
The Kawaiaha'o mission was started in 1820. The stone building of Kawaiahaûo Church was commissioned by the regency of Kaûahumanu, 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 quarried from an offshore reef on the southern coast of Oûahu. Hawaiian divers dove three to six metres below sea-level to chisel out each coral block with hand tools, and the blocks then were transported from the reef onto the shore.
The church house rivaled the concurrent construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace by the Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands. Construction began on that churchhouse in 1840 and was substantially completed in 1843, one year after the completion of Kawaiahaûo Church.
The name Kawaiahaûo was not applied to the site until 1853.
Kawaiahaûo Church was frequented by the chiefs of the Hawaiian Islands as well as the members of the reigning Kamehameha dynasty and KalÃÂkaua dynasty. Kamehameha III, Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V and Kalakaua took their oaths of office to their constitutions at Kawaiahaûo Church. State burials were also held at the church as well the baptisms of aliûi including aliûi members who would eventually convert to other denominations or faiths.
Today, the upper gallery of the sanctuary is adorned with 20 portraits of Hawaiian royalty (Aliûi). The body of King Lunalilo, who preferred burial in a church cemetery to burial in the Royal Mausoleum, is buried in a crypt along with his father near the front courtyard.
But Kawaiahaûo 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 Hawaiûi, which evolved into the present-day Episcopal Diocese of Hawaiûi after the islands were annexed by the United States and later gained statehood. The royal couple commissioned the construction of the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew, which replaced Kawaiahaûo Church as the principal centre of royal worship. Kamehameha V, KalÃÂkaua, and Liliûuokalani (after the rebellion which overthrew the kingdom) preferred to use the cathedral â even though, before her reign, then Princess Liliûuokalani had directed the choir of Kawaiahaûo Church. When Liliûuokalani died in 1917, she lay in state in the church for a week before her funeral at Iolani Palace.
Other well-known persons associated with the church include: