ʻEkalesia Ma Ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi

Oct 5

4 min read

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Written Hawaiian originated in the 1820s, when Elisha Loomis began developing a Hawaiian alphabet. Elisha and his colleagues were Christian missionaries, who had been welcomed to the islands by Queen Ka‘ahumanu in 1820.

These missionaries developed the Hawaiian alphabet, printed the first Hawaiian textbooks, wrote the first Hawaiian dictionaries, and established the first Hawaiian literacy schools, all in the pursuit of spreading the Gospel to the Hawaiian people. Their crowning achievement was the translation of the Baibala / Paipala. (A much more in-depth account and analysis of this history can be read in The Voices of Eden.)

Queen Ka‘ahumanu was an enthusiastic convert to Christianity, leading many Hawaiians (citizens and ali’i alike) to begin attending hale pule (church), singing hīmeni (hymns), and reading the Baibala. As a result, much of the earliest written Hawaiian are Christian works, such as hymns and the Gospel books. This created deep roots in the Hawaiian language - to this day definitions from missionary dictionaries and sentence context in the Baibala remain important tools for understanding how the language was spoken in the time of the Kingdom of Hawai’i.

Kawaiahaʻo Church was the hale pule of the royal family, and it continues to hold regular ʻekalesia (services) to this day! Of particular interest to speakers of Hawaiian will be Hālāwai Sundays, wherein Kawaiahaʻo conducts their ʻekalesia in the Hawaiian language as much as possible every 4th week of the month. Kawaiahaʻo Hālāwai Sundays began in 2024 and, just like their other ʻekalesia, are live-streamed and recorded on YouTube.

These Sunday services will be the focus of this blog.

Whether or not you're a believer in the Christian faith, its roots in the Hawaiian language are undeniable, and these videos from the Kawaiahaʻo Church (and, of course, the Baibala itself) provide such a wealth for the language. If you are of the faith and are searching for material to immerse yourself in Hawaiian, these will serve you well in more ways than one!

ABOUT

Further below is a compiled list of attached programs/bulletins that were created for each available video, after the fact (not by the church itself). But first, some explanation.

Hawaiian and English use: Each bulletin has labeled, with time-stamps, when each portion of the service begins (the service itself will likely not start right at 00:00). Hawaiian is used a lot, but English will occasionally rear its head too. Announcements are always in English. Bible verses are read in both Hawaiian and English. The closing is largely in English. Hymns, Call To Worship, the sermon, prayers, the Benediction are all in Hawaiian (although, the sermon will have the English translation to read on the screen for ease of understanding). Because they're all time-stamped, you can click around as needed if you'd like to minimize the English as much as possible!

Hymns: The lyrics to the hymns are included where available. What is provided on the YouTube screen will differ a bit from what's provided in these bulletins. On screen, the diacritics (ʻokina and kahakō) are not always reliable or consistent, and they tend to mix older and newer spelling of words that will be difficult for beginners and early-intermediate learners to use to pronounce. In these programs, it'll be easier to try to understand what's being sung and how to pronounce the words, even if the definition might be unclear to you.

Special events: There will periodically be an "Aliʻi Sunday" where the service happens to fall on a day where a Hawaiian aliʻi is remembered through various (usually English) presentations. These are also time-stamped, in case you wish to skip ahead to the Hawaiian.

Scripture: Bible readings are hyperlinked to the correct book and chapter on the baibala.org website, so you can follow along!

Layout: Below is the list of these Hawaiian sermons. They are listed according to month, as that might be important for any holidays throughout the year. Watching a Christmas church service will seem out of place if you're watching in July! Likewise, some of these Hālāwai Sundays were skipped or unrecorded, so some months might be lacking. As we move forward in time, more of these programs will be added to this list.
The programs/bulletins will be located in Google Docs. They should be easy to read, especially on a phone. If you're on a computer, simply click "View" then uncheck "Show print layout," and that will make reading the pages smoother!

HAWAIIAN SERMONS

Conducted in Hawaiian