Kahikolu means three in one, or the trinity. In 1852, Reverend John D Paris started to build Kahikolu (and completed in 1855.) It is made of lava rock (with 35-inch thick walls; heavy timbers were dragged from the forest, and the koa shingles and lumber for pulpit and pews were brought from the koa forest a number of miles up the mountain side. It still stands above Nāpoʻopoʻo.
Kahikolu Church was the Mother Church for the South Kona area; however, the church was abandoned in 1953. The congregation later reorganized and repaired the church and in August 1984, Kahikolu Church re-opened its doors. (Kahikolu is one of two surviving stone churches on Hawaiʻi.) On August 15, 1993, Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia’s remains were returned to Hawai‘i from Cornwall and laid in a vault facing the ocean at Kahikolu Church.
Click HERE for the full post and more images.
