Siloama Church Kalawao Photograph by Craig Wood

Siloama Church Kalawao

by Craig Wood

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Title

Siloama Church Kalawao

Artist

Craig Wood

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

Enter an old building and the imagination can supercharge the senses to make it more than just a physical experience.

That was surely happening last Saturday for people who packed Siloama Church, a tiny white wooden chapel at the east end of the Kalaupapa peninsula on Molokai.

Imagine all the people who have sought this seat near a window to catch any wisp of breeze during hundreds of worship services in all the 137 years since the first church was built in Kalawao.

�;We give thanks that even as thousands of women, men and children were abandoned here by fellow humans, you never thought to abandon them,�; prayed the Rev. Charles Buck, United Church of Christ conference minister. He and other Protestant, Catholic and Mormon representatives spoke at the service to rededicate the land where 8,000 people are buried, those sent into forced isolation between 1866 and 1969 because they were diagnosed with leprosy.

Preachers on that pulpit undoubtedly sought scriptural consolation as did the 21st-century pastor, but how many people struggled to believe that God had not abandoned them? Separated from families who loved and nourished them, observing changes in their body that were loathsome and scary, wouldn't many decide never to set foot in the church? Would they have thought God abandoned them or that he didn't exist?

There's talk of building a monument to past residents in the settlement, but Siloama is already a monument to their faith. There are 35 names on a plaque in the corner; some of the first people banished to Kalawao organized as a church in the first year. However lonely, scared and despairing they might have been, they didn't abandon God.

Imagine what a triumph it was when they raised the first roof to escape the mist that often covers Kalawao. Imagine their satisfaction when it was eventually transformed into a comfortable sanctuary with koa pews and communion table. Imagine the music-loving members' thrill when the little pump organ first helped their songs to soar.

When they chose to name the church for the Siloam, a spring in Jerusalem where Jesus sent a blind man to wash and regain his sight, did those patients imagine themselves restored by a miracle, too?

Catholic Bishop Larry Silva led the gathering of current residents and visitors to also remember �;the messengers of various faiths�; who came to minister to the patients and helped the place grow �;to become a place not of death, but of life, not of hopelessness, but a place where people could put their hope in (God).�;

Besides the Catholic priest, Father Damien De Veuster, who has received the most public acclaim for his service to 19th-century patients, there were dozens of Protestant and Mormon ministers who came.

Edwin Lelepali didn't speak at the event. He has seen many a pastor, full-time and occasional visitor, preach at Siloama in the 66 years he's lived there. Now �;Pali�; and other lay members usually lead services in the newer Kanaana Hou Church on the occupied side of the peninsula.

It's quiet outside Siloama; the only other building still standing is the Catholic church down the road. Imagine the bustle of traffic outside the window when the church was new, set amid more than 300 houses in a community of more than 1,000 people.

Inside Siloama there has always been a silence unlike that in churches elsewhere. No children ever ran down its aisles or sang along with its choir. Children born to Kalawao residents were sent away to be raised by relatives on other islands.

Many a mother has sat in Siloama and imagined what a joy it would be to have a child whispering and fidgeting beside her in the pew.

Mary Adamski writes weekly about Hawaii's houses of worship. She can be reached at madamski@starbulletin.com.

Photograph is the copyright property of Craig Wood and cannot be copied or used without permission. FAA watermark will not appear on prints purchased.