"I believe public programming remains our true purpose for existing," the president of the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society said at the group's recent annual meeting on the grounds of its 19th century residences and related buildings at 553 South King Street.

This meeting occurs on a Saturday in April, close to the 1820 date the first pioneer missionaries arrived in Honolulu from New England. Descendents, who refer to each other as "Cousin," gather to see who's here, find out how we're doing, sing our traditional songs, and walk away with an uplifted heart. The only comparable thing I've experienced is an private eastern college alumni reunion. (Cousins even resemble easterners--not surprising, considering their gene stock.)

This was our 157th Annual Meeting. The ceremonies: a prayer from the pastor of neighboring Kawaiaha'o church (early missionaries are in the graveyard), reports by officers and staff, and elections, were like buildups to the competitive part. We felt a rising kid-like excitement under the tent: people looking around, smiling and nodding at each other.

One Cousin stepped forward, rang a sailing ship's bell and hollered: "Roll Call." He read the name of the first ship to carry missionaries to Hawaii: "The Thaddeus , April 14, 1820." As he called out names of the missionaries who were on board, their descendents stood to be counted.

He discovered who was the oldest missionary descendant present this year--it was a 98-year-old lady who waved gaily to us all from her wheelchair. Then he ascertained who was the youngest--a babe in arms.

Competition for the largest number of family members present has been keen over the years. (The largest group was in 1941, when one family, celebrating the centennial of their ancestors' arrival, mustered 77.) As we waited for luncheon in the café, a middle-aged women exulted "we won"! She was one of 16 present from her family. A number of persons represented four families of missionary stock. (Missionaries coming to Hawaii weren't real "cousins," ergo, they intermarried; the familiar term was derived much later.)

Singing, probably the most emotionally moving part of the ceremony, included three songs that have become Hawaii's "Cousin Society" ritutal. These express missionary zeal, concern for each other, and the development of Hawaii into becoming missionaries' beloved homeland.

Missionary Zeal

The Second Great Religious Awakening occurred when our missionary ancestors were at highly impressionable ages. In the view of Charles Grandison Finney, one of America's most successful revivalists, who was in his twenties and a graduate of what is now upstate New York’s Hamilton College, Christ's death satisfied public justice rather than retributive justice. Finney's understanding of the atonement was that it opened the way for God to pardon people of their sin. He proposed "disjunction" a concept that was currently acquiring vitality in romantic literature: the heart versus the head, emotion versus intellect. This was a departure from stern Calvinism.

Finney's most controversial new measures were public praying of women in mixed-sex audiences, use of colloquial language, praying for people by name, and immediate church membership for converts.

Young people were inspired by missionary words in Reginald Heber's hymn written in 1819, part of the Cousins Society's repertoire:

From Greenland's Ice Mounains

From India's Coral Strand,

From many an ancient River

From many a palmy plain,

They call us to deliver

Their land from error's chain.

(Heber also wrote lyrics to the most widely recognized hymn of the last 150 years: "Holy, Holy, Holy." The idealistic, "world-saving inspiration" expressed by Heber, rose to a fervor again in 1961 when John F. Kenney called on Americans to enlist in the Peace Corps as a non-military response to Chinese and Soviet Communistic thrusts into the Third World. Hawaii's missionary were primarily idealistic young people-and not all were ministers. Example, Elisha Loomis from upstate New York was a printer who published Hawaii’s first books on a replica of the press operated at the Mission House.

My great-grandmother Sarah Joiner of Royalton, Vermont, heard Finney preach in Boston. Stirred by his enthusiastic religion and revivalism she immediately decided to become a missionary. She went to the meeting with Henry Lyman, but needed a husband--the missionary society wanted only married couples. Henry suggested his brother David Belden Lyman. David wanted to be a missionary to the Indians in western New York. David and Sara quickly married, the Mission Board decided they should bring God to Hawaiians and they left Boston on almost a six-month board ride arriving in Honolulu, ending in Hilo where the Lyman Museum commemorates their work.

We always sing "Blest Be The Tie That Binds," words by John Fawcett words, (1782) music by Hans Naegeli. This is thought of as “the Hawaii missionaries' theme song,” it expresses love and concern for each other.

We finish with "Hawai'i Aloha" (Beloved Hawaii), words by the Big Island’s Rev. Lorenzo Lyons (1859). The melody is from a Scottish hymn "I Left It All With Jesus," and the song expresses allegiance to Hawaii as our earthly home.

Serving the Public: Hawaii's Mission Society's varied public programming includes walking tours of Hawaii's Capital Cultural District, printing press demonstration, and special exhibits. Noon-time lectures are held the first Tuesday of every (bring lunch or pick up something at the museum's café). It is featuring Hawaiian flag quilts legacy of patriotism (July 10 to Sept. 12). On site programs range within pre-school to grade eight and meet Hawaii State Standards for Social Studies. Outreach programs include a costumed educator who introduces aspects of the early 19th century and presents hands on activities. Find out what's happening on the website: http://www.missionhouses.org

J. Arthur Rath III is a Hawaii writer who can be reached by e-mail at mailto:imua@spamarrest.com

To submit a story to the Slice of Life, Hawaiian Style series, write to Malia Zimmerman, editor of Hawaii Reporter, at mailto:Malia@hawaiireporter.com

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