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Annual Conference

Listening and Learning Toward Repentance: Bishops Confront the Legacy of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s Overthrow

Written by Dr. Alyssa Fisher, Director of Communications, California-Pacific Annual Conference

During their recent work in Hawaii, the Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops met with the Hawaiian Acts of Repentance Taskforce to learn about the history of the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and its modern repercussions.

The team, along with the five active and three retired Bishops, met at Harris United Methodist Church. The presentations and discussion moved through the history of Hawaii, its relationship with explorers, missionaries, and the United States. In the afternoon, they examined modern-day ramifications of the illegal overthrow and ways to support the land and people of Hawaii today. The issues discussed included military leases, deforestation, food insecurity, homelessness, incarceration, poverty, education, burial sites, Hawaiian diaspora, and theology and spirituality.

It was at First UMC of Honolulu where lay people and Rev. Amy Wake discovered that Rev. Harcourt W. Peck, who later became pastor of First Methodist Episcopal Church in Honolulu, was instrumental in the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

This discovery, along with a call at the 2012 General Conference to acts of repentance with indigenous communities, led to a petition at the 2018 California-Pacific Annual Conference session, seeking a formal apology and acts of repentance. After the 2018 petition passed, the taskforce created a video supporting a petition to General Conference for an official apology from The United Methodist Church: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Seo2bTD6vgc

The petition, passed at General Conference in 2024, resolved that “The United Methodist Church acknowledge the history of racism and imposed colonial rule that has impacted Native Hawaiians from the time of the overthrow to the present,” “that The United Methodist 2020 General Conference issue a formal public apology to Native Hawaiians for the church’s complicity in the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy in 1893,” and “that the California-Pacific Annual Conference Bishop appoint a task force to engage Native Hawaiians in a time of listening in order to prepare for a meaningful apology and to nurture authentic community.”

The Acts of Repentance Taskforce includes lay and clergy who live in Hawaii and beyond. Presenting during the gathering were: Colette Anderson and Lopaka Mansfield, Rev. Richard Matsusita, Judy Cramer, Joscie Cutchens, Rev. Piula Alailima, Rev. Amy Wake, Becky Choi, Susan Gorman-Chang, Karen Ginoza, Bob Isip, Rev. Won-Seok Yuh, Malia Marquez. Two members of the taskforce who were not in attendance were Rev. Allison Mark and Monalisa Tu’itahi.

The historical context of the Hawaiian lands, rulers, and their relationships with explorers and foreign military charted relationships that began with trust and honor and ended with deception and humiliation. During introductions, Lopaka Mansfield called for a spirit of Aloha as “a space of reverence that surrounds us.” The importance of a communal gathering, intentional listening, and moving towards resolution in relationship was paramount.

One of the most powerful moments was a video shared from a gathering at Mauna Kea as part of the California-Pacific’s Acts of Repentance. Several United Methodist clergy participated in this act, which included covering one person while singing “Let There be Peace on Earth,” as part of a Tongan tradition of asking for and receiving forgiveness.

Rev. Piula Alaima speaks in the video, apologizing on behalf of the church to “come in humility to ask for your forgiveness and your reactivation of us as your brothers and sisters, and children of the land.”

As the group began to discuss modern issues in Hawaii, potential actions to support were presented. These included signing petitions, scholarships, ceremonial acts of repentance such as the one at Mauna Kea, and land grants for stewardship of repair from deforestation.

At the end of the day, retired Bishop Bob Hoshibata, who was born in Hawaii, shared that the day was “very meaningful.”

During the trip, several Hawaiian words and phrases were repeated wherever the group traveled. Nearly every guide or advocate mentioned the Hawaiian land, or ‘Āina, as more than just a home place, but as an embodiment of life, as a sibling that requires respect, care, protection, and to be listened to. Ahupua’a, or the way that Hawaiians divide land from the mountain to the sea, encompassing areas socioeconomic, geologic, and climates that are divided.

And above all, “Ua mau ke ea o ka ‘āina i ka pono,” or “The soverignty of the land is restored as it should be.​” As The United Methodist Church and the Hawaiian people continue to explore acts of repentance to repair trust and relationship, may the sovereignty of the people and land be restored.