Preserving There's a sense of profound spirituality associated with Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokai rooted in the history of residents who overcame sadness and isolation with faith and courage.
Kana‘ana Hou
An effort is under way to preserve
the body and spirit of a
Kalaupapa church that
guided Hansen's patientsBy Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.comA plan to nurture the spirit for future generations was set in motion this month on a purely practical plane -- a fund-raising campaign.
A $250,000 drive to restore the deteriorating Protestant church was launched by the Hawaii Conference United Church of Christ in letters to island congregations and individuals with Kalaupapa ties.
The goal is to save Kana'ana Hou Church and its surrounding complex of social hall and parsonage for future use as a retreat and study center.But the present emphasis is and will continue to be serving the congregation, which includes about a third of the remaining 40 Hansen's disease patients who have lived in the settlement for decades.
"Our commitment now is to the patients here," said the Rev. Lon Rycraft, pastor of the church since 1993. "This won't become a retreat center until they are gone."
Kana'ana Hou -- or New Canaan -- is the sister church of tiny Siloama Church at the Kalawao end of the peninsula, which was built in 1871 when the first leprosy patients were banished to the remote location. More than 8,000 people were sent to Kalaupapa in the quarantine, which began in 1866 under the Hawaiian monarchy and was finally ended by the state in 1969. Medication now controls the disease, and patients, free to travel since then, remain by choice.
"Their stories are always going to be told," said Rycraft. "When the patients are gone, their stories won't be gone."
He said he envisions the format of future retreats "will be on the stories of the people down here and how God empowered them to deal with the struggle, the suffering, the separation. The spirituality of the place and its people will be preserved. When people hear it, it will inspire them. The retreat center will provide a place where people can explore their own spirituality.
"When someone would ask the patients, 'How did you survive?' they would answer, 'Ke Akua' -- by God's grace. This is the spirit we want to keep alive."
Retreats are already a reality. The church is host to work-and-prayer camps during the year, as are the other two churches, Catholic and Latter-day Saints.
"We go to work, not just to enjoy that beautiful place, where we are fed spiritually," said the Rev. Alan Mark, pastor of Kilohana United Methodist Church in Hawaii Kai. He has taken a work party to Kalaupapa each August for 16 years. This year, the 12-person crew repainted Siloama and did yardwork and, as is their tradition, hosted a community dinner to talk story with patients.
"We go home and share their stories with others," said Mark. "We want people to go and share the spirituality."
Rycraft said the aging patients are still a source of lessons to himself and the staff of people who make the community run.
"It's a lesson of coming to terms with death and dying, how we understand it in our own lives. It's a lesson in forgiveness and love. In a bigger place, if you are separated by angry or hurt feelings, you can stay away and never see the other again. But in this closed space, if people are huhu at each other but have to stay and get along, they have been able to give it up and live together. God's love has let us be who we are today."
The 1915 vintage wooden church, second at the site, is unique among the low plantation-style buildings in Kalaupapa. It was designed by a Japanese artisan, with 40-foot beams -- "they don't even make lumber that size anymore" -- which support flying buttresses, or projecting eaves.
Termites have taken their toll, says Rycraft. "We don't have enough buckets when it rains," and "the beams have pukas which honeybees find hospitable. They've come back for seven years."
The National Park Service, which administers the Kalaupapa Historical Park, has reinforced the beams and shored up the foundation, which sags so much that doors had to be shaved so they would close.
The agency has encouraged the church "to maintain a continuing presence in Kalaupapa," Rycraft said. His wife, Ellen, is church organist, as well as managing the community craft shop and substituting for the postmaster.
Among the special features they will save are the koa pulpit and chancel chairs built by a Kamehameha Schools carpentry class and a 6-foot cross of Norfolk pine in sanctuary, artist unknown.
"Just about every family in Hawaii had someone in Kalaupapa; the disease crossed over into all races," said the minister. "Certainly the Hawaiians who were sent here came from all the churches all over the islands."
He's hoping the descendants of those people and those churches will use the fund drive as a way to memorialize their ancestors.
Tax-deductible donations can be made to Kana'ana Hou Church Restoration Fund, P.O. Box 100, Kalaupapa, HI 96742. Rycraft may be reached at (808) 567-9405 or at otter@aloha.net.
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