Waiola Church, Protestant church in Lahaina, United States.
Waiola Church is a church building in Lahaina, Maui, that combines Hawaiian architectural elements with traditional religious design through its white exterior and prominent windows. The structure serves as a place of worship and stands within a grounds that includes a cemetery with significant historical burials.
The first mission to Maui was invited to Lāhainā by Queen Keōpūolani in 1823 and led by Reverend William Richards and Reverend Charles Stewart. Temporary beach structures served until 1828, when Governor Hoapili supported a stone and wood building. The first stone church was dedicated on March 4, 1832, initially named "Ebenezer" but commonly called Waineʻe Church. It was destroyed by fire in 1894, rebuilt, and the current structure, finished in 1953, was lost to the August 2023 wildfires.
The cemetery, the first Christian cemetery in the state, holds the graves of Keōpūolani, Kaumualiʻi, Nāhiʻenaʻena, Kuini Liliha, Hoapili, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie, Kekauʻōnohi and Reverend William Richards. Missionaries and Native Hawaiians were buried side by side. The church name changed from Waineʻe (moving water) to Waiola (living water) in 1953.
The church and Hale Aloha, at 600 Luakini Street, are contributing properties of the Lahaina Historic District, designated a National Historic Landmark District on December 29, 1962. Sunday services were suspended during the Lāhainā recovery, but a first-Sunday worship with communion is held at 10:00 a.m., mixing Hawaiian and English language and song. The congregation is affiliated with the Hawaii Conference of the United Church of Christ.
The bell now hanging at Waiola was salvaged from the Hale Aloha tower after a 1950s windstorm knocked it down; a new bell was installed in that tower in 2009. The cemetery also holds the grave of Reverend William Richards, who died in 1847.
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