Akaiko Akana

Akaiko Akana (1884–1933), was the first Kahu (pastor) of Hawaiian ancestry at Kawaiahaʻo Church. He served in that capacity from 1918 until his death in 1933.

Background He was born December 24, 1884, to Chun Akana and Harriet Kahema in the Kaihuwai district of Waialua on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, in the Territory of Hawaii. Akana was of hapa (mixed) ancestry, with a Chinese father and Hawaiian mother.

He graduated from Kamehameha School for boys in 1903, and was assigned as a teaching assistant at his alma mater.

The ministry At the October 1906 annual meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Akana delivered a speech in which he stated that his decision to enter the Christian ministry was a direct result of the groundwork laid by the Christian missionaries who set up churches in Hawaii decades before his birth. In encouraging the board to continue its work in Hawaii, the twenty-two-year-old Akana cited the Sabbath being broken in Hawaii by baseball and golf.

He earned a bachelor's degree in pedagogy at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, where he was president of his graduating class. During the period 1910-11, he was affiliated with the Home Missions Board of Massachusetts. After his return to Hawaii, he served with the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, and was the founder of the Young People's League of Honolulu. Ordained into the ministry in 1912, he was selected as chaplain of the territorial House of Representatives in 1913.

When Rev. Henry Hodges Parker retired on January 27, 1918, after 54 years as Kahu of Kawaiahaʻo Church, Akana was called to serve as interim minister before being formally installed as Kahu on November 3, 1918. Music for the occasion was provided by ukulele virtuoso Ernest Kaʻai, the Correlli Brothers String Trio, and students of Kamehameha Schools.

Death and legacy Akana published a 1911 research report "An Inductive Study on the Effects of Tobacco on Human Life".

Under his tutelage and encouragement, Alice Kahokuoluna became the first woman ordained by the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, and in her time was the only ordained woman Christian minister in Hawaii.

He died February 16, 1933, and was buried at Liliuokalani Church Cemetery in Haleiwa, Hawaii. Akana died intestacy with an estate valued at $1,000. He never married, and was survived by his brother Rev. Francis Akana of Kona, and his father Chun Akana of Honolulu.

Published works