Two prominent leaders of the Church in our province were honoured in Hawaiʻi recently, being commissioned as Honorary Canons at the Cathedral of St Andrew by the retiring Bishop, Robert L. Fitzpatrick.
Dr Jenny Te Paa-Daniel and Fei Tevi were among nine people installed as Honorary Canons at a service marking the Feast of St Luke. The class included three international recipients, with the remainder drawn from the Diocese of Hawaiʻi. It was also one of the final services Bishop Robert will preside over before vacating office next month.
In deeply personal reflections, Bishop Robert described both Dr Te Paa and Fei as being very special friends, and as “kumu” (teacher in Indigenous Hawaiian), “introducing me, and showing me Oceania, and Asia. They’ve offered me a seat at the table that has been a gift.”
Floyd Lawlet, General Secretary of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, was one of the three international recipients installed as an Honorary Canon during the service.
Dr Jenny, who has known Bishop Robert, or Bob as he is affectionately known, for the entire time he has served as the sixth Bishop of Hawaiʻi, said she was humbled when he called to offer her an Honorary Canonry at the Cathedral of St Andrew in acknowledgement of service and relationship.
“Many of us, we do what we do because that is the role we feel we are called to. We don’t do it for the recognition, the privilege is in the calling itself. So I was really touched.”
After many years of providing assistance and guidance with theological education, she said the Bishop, “in typical Bob fashion”, had one more surprise up his sleeve. He asked Dr Jenny if she would contribute to the education day, which was also held on the same weekend.
“It’s a measure of the relationship that we can ask each other these things, for help, guidance and assistance and we respond the best we could.”
Bishop Robert, in installing Fei, recounted the historic links between the Diocese of Polynesia and Hawaiʻi, particularly those connected with the foundations of the Church in Tonga.
“After the illegal overthrow of the monarchy and the illegal annexation by the United States of these islands, the Bishop of the time, Alfred Willis, decided, without the permission of anyone, having being the Bishop of the Kingdom [of Hawaii] for 30 years, to get on a boat and go to Tonga without anyones permission, including the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
It is also Fei’s deep commitment to finding responses to climate change across the Pacific that Bishop Robert recognised in bestowing the honour upon him. Over the course of his 20 years in office in Honolulu, Bishop Robert developed a close and personal relationship with Fei and reflected on watching Fei’s children grow up and mourning alongside them when Fei’s wife passed away. He promised he would continue to visit Tonga in retirement.
Among the other Honorary Canons were a number of local Hawaiians, including Indigenous church leaders. Dr Jenny said Bishop Robert had shown a particular determination to raise up Native Hawaiian leaders, and that commitment was evident throughout the weekend.
“He was positioning each one of us to meet one another, to form a community of scholars, of thinkers, of priests and leaders to and enhance the ministry of the Diocese going forward.”