E-mailThe first sugar-cane field workers, about 300 strong, arrived at Kohala from Oahu in 1904 on the Japanese steamship Mongolia. Immediately, some began to move southward to Honokaa and beyond. Many of these had been recruited from Methodist congregations in Korea through the efforts of Dr. Wan See Cho, a Methodist missionary. In each camp, those who were "willing to sing and pray together" began to hold informal prayer meetings and hymn sings at a plantation house provided by the Sugar Company. In 1910 a somewhat formal congregation was formed in Honokaa by Rev. C. T. Choi. In 1922 Rev. K. M. Lee assumed all Korean work for the Methodist until 1937 when Korean language services were discontinued.
In 1906 Filipinos began to emigrate to Hawaii. In 1922 Rev. R. Umipeg was appointed to Honokaa. Filipino language ministry grew until in 1931 a new Filipino Methodist Church was constructed just behind the present T. Kaneshiro store under the leadership of Rev. Cenon Ramos. In 1934 Rev. S. G. Afalla was appointed and served 16 years organizing an outreach thatreached up and down the Hamakua Coast. The church was renamed Honokaa Filipino Methodist Church.
Caucasians (Whites or Haoles) moved to the island during WWI, WWII and the Korean War. In 1950 the church was renamed from Honokaa Filipino Methodist to the Honokaa Community Methodist Church reflecting the cosmopolitan character of Honokaa which now included Filipinos, Caucasians and Japanese.
Today the church still maintains this pluralism of ethnic complexity although appointed clergy of late have been predominately Haoles.
Tuesday evening at 7 pm there is an informal worship service that combines the elements of a support, study and prayer group. Both Sunday and Tuesday services are held in the church sanctuary.
Thursday night at 7 pm at various member homes is an on-going Bible study and prayer group. A schedule of meeting locations is publicized in the weekly bulletin.
The Tuesday and Thursday opportunities were originally begun as alternatives to Sunday morning worship for many members who work in the tourist industry and do not have Sunday off. They now have a life of their own.
There is an active women's group that participates in many ecumenical as well as state sponsored Methodist activities. The youth group has at least two Sunday afternoon events each month as well as two or three state sponsored Methodist events like Young People's Conven-tion, Leadership Training, and a host of camping opportunities. There are retreats to promote personal spiritual growth and evangelistic out-reach. Fellowship opportunities each month give rise to informal gatherings for fun as well as service. We enjoy celebrating many national and cultural events in our programs. We are in charge of managing Methodist interests in a 36 acre camp in Kalopa.
Our state-wide denomination provides specialized ministries for a wide range of needs including such diverse foci as singles and young adult ministries, HIV support groups, military and police chaplaincy, agricultural and educational missionaries, low income and ethnic oriented self-help ministries, and higher education chaplaincies to our public and private universities, to mention only a few.
Our facilities house the Ekahi Project of the YWCA, piano, dance and ballet lessons, events of local clubs, the Honokaa literacy program, and are of course available for weddings, funerals, family parties and reunions.
We have Adopted-a-highway! and have a web page (http://ilhawaii.net/~humu) for the computer literate.
Our staff is available for counseling and referral needs, weddings, funerals and baptisms. They make house calls too!
As members join with new talents and interests, our program grows and deepens.
Methodists are primarily guided by biblical scripture. But we are also guided by the traditions of the universal Christian church, personal reason and experience. All of our church and social disciplines are democratically developed through a local and global structure of parliamentary decision making that assumes God's guidance. This makes for the possibility of our members disagreeing about very important personal and social issues. In fact, this is almost always the case! Yet, it is our practice of Christianity to have another more important bond than agreement. That bond is called ministry.
Methodists and methodist churches are foremost people that have a common purpose in serving God through self-sacrificing love. The given fact that we will seemingly always disagree on detail never overshadows our efforts to serve and love. We are a unique people. We are individuals. Nevertheless, we are God's people.
Therefore, membership is a pledge to love God and his Son Jesus Christ. It is a pledge to support the ministry of the church with prayers, worship, service and gifts. Every member is expected to pray and worship regularly, make a financial commitment including an apportioned amount for support of The United Methodist Church, and assume at least one on-going duty in the life of the church. It is our belief that we are called to the path of perfection, and the church is our guide. We believe the church ought to require more of us than we sometimes require of ourselves. That's the nature of sacrifice by which God redeems the world.
We know God to be loving. We often describe that love as grace, a gift. It is a gift that we can do nothing to receive; it is simply freely given inspite of our unworthiness to receive it. Life lived within that love is beautiful and creates joy. Life lived without that love is difficult and unfulfilling. The consequences of life without God's love and justice are seen every day in the evils of mankind.
We believe we are called, each follower of Jesus, to live lives of example and self- sacrifice that witness to a world in need of knowing and confessing God's love. It requires conviction and perseverence that only the church, the Body of Christ, can maintain in us.
We believe God loves the world and wants to redeem it. Our hope of eternity with God begins here and now in our present relationship with God. Everything we do affects that relationship for eternity. Maybe we can doom ourselves. But maybe God can overcome such rejection. We do not know. But while we hope and pray for universal salvation, we believe faith is sure.
Overall, our beliefs evolve out of our personal relationships with God. Just as we are all human, yet are totally unique individuals, we can all be Christian with totally unique relationships to God that give our individual beliefs a wide berth. Methodism makes room for that belief and reality by making our individual beliefs subservient to the call for ministry to the world.
Methodism encourages a journey of faith and belief that is never ending or sure; one built com-pletely on faith and a personal relationship with God.
SERVICES
Three worship experiences are currently offered each week. Sunday morning worship is at 11 am and is the major congregational gathering. It is preceded by Sunday School during the school year at 10 am.
PROGRAM
The congregation is a pleasant mix of ages, races, and talent. Members are very active in numerous community efforts from soccer to scouting, unions to politics, professions to farming, public and private education. Many commute to Kona and Hilo daily to work. Even the retirees are busy folk! Our church programs are designed to accommodate active and diverse lifestyles.
MEMBERSHIP
The United Methodist Church is not primarily a doctrinal church. That is to say, we do not have a set list of required beliefs required of every member. It is a strength and a weakness. It is a strength for those that have strong religious and spiritual convictions which comfortably embrace the broad Christian experience. It is a weakness for those that seek to be given, rather than experience, a personal relationship with God.
BELIEFS
We believe there is one God, one very big God--period. Religions reveal our human limitations at seeing and knowing the greatness of God, thus each has its own window in the aquarium of life that looks upon God. We feel that Jesus Christ gives us the best view of God and God's nature, a picture built upon centuries of Jewish experience. However, we do not condemn other faiths. We do not need to feel we alone are right or have the only truth. We are not the only way to one God, rather we are one way to the only God.
