Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-09-26
THE HAWAIIAN CHURCH.
Annexation Will False a Question
for the Episcopal Body.

The translation of the see mold
ing semioficial relations to the
Church of England to the Protestant
Episcopal church in the United
States is likely to come about as a
result of the annexation of Hawaii,
and great interest is felt among mem
beIs of the latter organization in
this city concerning it. The matter
will come before the Triennial con-
vention CT the Episcopal church, to
meet at Washington in October, says
The New York Sun.
The Diocese of Honolulu is an in
dependent see because the hawaiian
islands were not part of Great
Britain. Yet the church in Homo
lulu was under the care of the
church in England. Now some
change will have to be made. The
bishop of Honolulu is the Right
Rev. DR.. Alfred Willis. AS has been
the custom, he was appointed by the
archbishop OF Canterbury. His jur-
isdiction. embraces all of the island
group. He is of English birth and
sentiment, and took a mild interest in
the fortunes of Queen Liliuokalani as
against the cause of the Dole gov
eminent He hos been bishop of
Honolulu since 1871
Before Queen Liliuokalani came to
the thr-ne of Hawaii, and during her
entire occupancy Of it, she attended
the principal Congregational church
at Honolulu. During her imprison-
ment in 1895, however, she spent
much of her time in study of the
Church of England Book of Common
Prayer. with the result that upon
her release she asked to be baptized.
Whether she had ever been baptized
or not she did not know, and so
Bishop Willis used the hypothetical
form of service: eff thou has not been
baptized heretofore. I baptize thee in
the name >" In the Len
ton season of 1885, she has been a
devout member of ST. Andrews cathe-
dral congregation, Honolulu.
st. Andrews has communicate
list of between 400 and 500. Bishop
Willis and the dean belong to the
advanced party, the one that is
just now being SO much inveighed
against in England. Some members
of ST. Andrews objected to the serv-
ices as conducted by these advanced
pre1ates, and so the usual concession
was made of allowing two services en-
Sunday mornings, one for the adj
vanced and one for the low church
parties. There are two other churches
in Honolulu and several others on
other islands of the group. Under the
bishops patronage and presidency
there is famous church school for
patrician boys in Honolulu. For
thirty years it had received govern
ment grants, but the Dole rule cut
them off, whereupon Bishop Willis, in
his next annual report to the arch
bishop of Canterbury, referred to
President Dole's republic with an
interrogation point in brackets after
it, and the employment of the words
$50 called"
Bishop Willis suspected what was
coming, and at the Lambeth confer
ence in London last year he Ques-
toned several American bishops about
being taken into the American House
of Bishops in the event of political
annexation 1t is known that in one
instance he did not receive hearty en-
couragement 1t is a rather curious
turn that Bishop Henry B. Whipple
Of Minnesota, one Of tho most prom
inent members Of the House of Bish-
ops now to pass upon this question,
received an offer of the see Of Hon
olulu from the then archbishop OF
Canterbury before he offered it to the
present bishop in 1871, but Bishop
Whipple declined it on account of
his desire to continue his work among
the Indians Of the Northwest. The
question of the transfer of see is an
unusual one, and happens in no othar
Of our recently acquired possessions.