​Our Calabash Cousins

The Shavers’ trip to Maui last month got me thinking again about the Maui fires. I (David Jasper here) grew up in Hawaii, and my work as an adult living there sent me to Maui monthly. I therefore developed a deep affection for Lahaina, its environs, and its people.

In Hawaii, an affectionate term for those who have a common link, yet are not blood relatives, is that they are “calabash cousins.” Most often, they are sharing meals around the same table. We’ve certainly referred to those gathered at the Eucharistic Table our Christian “brothers and sisters.” So I’d like to remind you of our Episcopal “calabash cousins” across the ocean, in Lahaina.

In 1861, the first Episcopal service was held in Santa Rosa; and just one year later in 1862, the first Episcopal service was held on Maui. By 1872, Holy Innocents’ first church was built on Front Street in Lahaina; and just one year later, the Church of the Incarnation was built on Mendocino Ave.

That same year of 1873, a banyan tree was planted in a Lahaina square, just a block away from Holy Innocents. It has since grown from 8 feet tall to a height of over 60 feet.

On April 22, 2023, the community of Lahaina gathered to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the banyan. Three days later, at an April 25th meeting, the Vestry negotiated plans for the 150th Anniversary of our church.

Both of us as communities share some of the traumas due to fire. And each of our congregations, having looked back on our respective 150 year histories, are now looking forward to the decades ahead. As our own “Imagine Incarnation” planning process gets refined, imagine the task ahead for the grief-stricken parishioners of Holy Innocents!

If I stood there on their property with one of our calabash cousins, we’d each likely say: “Auwe!”