Church of Hawaii

Church of Hawaii
Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma established the Anglican Church of Hawaii in 1862
Orientation	Communion
Theology	Anglican
Polity	Episcopal
Region	Hawaii
Founder	Kamehameha IV
Origin	1862 Kingdom of Hawaii
Branched from	Anglican Communion

The Church of Hawaii, originally called the Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church, was the national church of the Kingdom of Hawaii and a member of the Anglican Communion from 1862 to 1893.

As a young prince, King Kamehameha IV had visited England and was impressed by the rich ceremony of the Church of England, compared to the dour simplicity of the American missionaries who educated him as a child. His queen consort Queen Emma had a British grandfather and was brought up in a house of an Anglican British doctor. Their 1856 wedding ceremony included Anglican prayers but had to be performed by the Congregationalist minister.

In 1859, Emma wrote to Victoria of the United Kingdom to request a clergyman from the English church. The King's foreign minister, Robert Crichton Wyllie, also made requests through diplomatic contacts. In 1860, Samuel Wilberforce suggested expanding the mission to include a bishop who could organize a new branch. William Ingraham Kip of the American Episcopal Church in California also supported the idea, but the American Civil War prevented any help from them. The idea was approved by John Bird Sumner and British Foreign Secretary Lord John Russell. The first Bishop was Thomas Nettleship Staley, consecrated on December 15, 1861.

The sending of Staley caused friction with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions even before he arrived in 1862; making him a bishop bothered the Congregationalists, who disliked any kind of religious hierarchy. Rufus Anderson, of the American Board, became a fierce critic, accusing him of ritualism. The officially chartered name of "Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church" provoked criticism as "papist". After Kamehameha IV died, an elaborate funeral service was held that was compared to a Pontifical High Mass.