Wayne Doliente of the All Saints’ Episcopal Church and Preschool said they always host the celebration of Holy Sovereigns during the second Sunday in October. The Feast of the Holy Sovereigns is celebrated in the Episcopal Church on Nov. 28,
Wayne Doliente of the All Saints’ Episcopal Church and Preschool said they always host the celebration of Holy Sovereigns during the second Sunday in October.
The Feast of the Holy Sovereigns is celebrated in the Episcopal Church on Nov. 28, but All Saints’ commemorates the Holy Sovereigns in October, coinciding with the Emalani Festival in Kokee which celebrates Queen Emma and recalls her journey to the Kokee uplands and Kilohana vista in 1871.
“The Daughters of Hawaii supports Queen Emma,” said Maryanne Kusaka, former Kauai mayor and the head of trustees at the Kauai Museum. “We come in support and have people who come from the Outer Islands just for this celebration.”
The Daughters of Hawaii were joined by representatives of other dignified Hawaiian groups including The Royal Order of Kamehameha and the Ka‘ahumanu Society who offered their lei ho‘okupu as part of the celebration to an overflow audience.
“The Feast of the Holy Sovereigns is our opportunity to celebrate King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma’s legacy of service, compassion, and aloha to the people of Hawaii,” said Father Ryan Newman.
King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma were responsible for bringing the Anglican Church to Hawaii after they invited the Church of England to Hawaii.
The king and queen supported the church’s presence through the island with gifts of land, including the land that All Saints’ call home in Kapaa.
All Saints’ was founded as Kauai’s first mission of the Episcopal Church in 1924 at Kealia, four miles north of Kapaa, with the arrival of the Rev. Harry Alpheus and Juelle Willey.
The church declared itself an interracial church and selected its name by a vote of the congregation, becoming the first Anglican Church on Kauai.
On Oct. 12, 1862, the church held its first service amid a time of mourning for the young Prince of Hawaii, the only son of the king and queen who died shortly before the arrival of the bishop.
The king, in anticipation of the bishop’s arrival, had translated much of the Book of Common Prayer into the Hawaiian language and had written a preface explaining Anglican Christianity to his people.
