Christian Cyclopedia

Area: ca. 6,425 sq. mi.; formerly Sandwich Islands (so named by Capt. James Cook of Eng. [who discovered them 1778] in honor of the Earl of Sandwich, 1st Lord of the Admiralty); annexed to US 1898; US territory 1900; US state (except Midway Is.) 1959; ca. 2,100 mi. WSW of San Francisco; 8 major and many minor islands, most of the latter uninhabited, form a chain ca. 1,600 mi. long; capital: Honolulu, on the is. Hawaii; aborigines Polynesian; now many races freely intermingle. In the late 18th c. natives practiced crude and sanguinary idolatry, including human sacrifices; cannibalism was rare. A request for Christian teachers sent to Eng. 1794 by Kamehameha I (Nui, i. e., the Great; ca. 1737–1819; king 1795–1819) went unanswered. Miss. efforts began when ABCFM missionaries, including H. Bingham* and A. Thurston,* arrived 1820. In the 1860s the ABCFM gradually turned over its work to the native ch. The work was taken over by the Hawaiian Ev. Assoc. (also known as Hawaiian Bd. of Missions; organized under ABCFM supervision). An Angl. bp. and 2 SPG missionaries were sent to Honolulu 1861; 1st person bap. by them (1862) was the queen. This miss. was transferred to the Am. Prot. Episc. Ch. 1902. RC miss. efforts in Hawaii began 1827, but the priests were banished 1831. Another RC miss. was est. 1839. A leper colony was est. on Molokai Is. in the 1860s. The 1st Missouri* Syn. cong., a result of chaplains' work, was organized 1945. 1967 LCMS statistics: ca. 2,100 bap. mems.; 9 stations; 9 pastors. Other ventures include those of Assemblies of God; Christian Science; Methodists; Miss. Ch. Assoc.; Mormons; Pent. Holiness Ch.; Prot. Episc. Ch.; Seventh-day Adventists; S Bap. Conv.; Theosophy. OHS

See Missions Bibliography.