Churches in Hawaii

Religious Landscape of Hawaii

Hawaii has one of the most religiously pluralistic landscapes of any American state, shaped by waves of immigration from Asia, Polynesia, and the mainland United States. The Catholic Church is the largest single Christian denomination, introduced by European missionaries in the 19th century and sustained by Filipino, Portuguese, and Hispanic communities. The United Church of Christ traces its Hawaiian roots to the Congregational missionaries who arrived in 1820 and established Kawaiahao Church, sometimes called the Westminster Abbey of Hawaii. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has an outsized presence in Hawaii, with the Laie temple and BYU-Hawaii campus on Oahu's North Shore serving as major community anchors. Buddhism is more prominent in Hawaii than in any other U.S. state, with Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai temples serving long-established immigrant communities. New Hope Christian Fellowship, a Foursquare-affiliated megachurch in Honolulu, is the largest Protestant congregation in the state. Shintoism, Taoism, and indigenous Hawaiian spiritual practices also contribute to the islands' religious mosaic. Hawaii's adherence rate of about 42% is moderate, but this figure understates the pervasive role that spirituality, broadly conceived, plays in daily life across the islands.