Please note the this is Kamehameha IV and not I or V, as there was a clear superiority of #4 over the others, much like France's Louis XIV was of a quality greater than Louis XVI. If this confuses you, blame your high school history teacher. Also, it's pronounced Cam-May-Ha-May-Ha.
As opposed to the other Kamehamehas, in his role as king of Hawaii in the mid-1800's, #4 showed a true commitment to the principles of enlightened leadership, going so far as to convert to Christianity, as he was attracted to its notions of social service; ideas that were also a part of the Polynesian sense of a higher good. As he had toured England as a young man, and had been in attendance at many services of the Church of England, he preferred Anglicanism as his form of Christian devotion, especially as he found the liturgies of the church to have a profound and lasting meaning. Clearly, he was a man not only of spiritual maturity but also one of good taste.
Kamehameha IV even would, after his conversion, translate the Book of Common Prayer into the Hawaiian language, along with portions of the hymnal.
His wife, Queen Emma, is the unofficial patron saint of surfing. This is not because she could shred waves like a champ, dude, but because she, above all others, embodied the "aloha spirit" that was, and for many still is, the guiding nature of that rather odd sport. As such, Emma was devoted to the poor and the ill, built schools, a hospital, and what is now the Episcopal Church's cathedral in Honolulu. She was much beloved by her people and even counted Queen Victoria I as a lifelong friend. Some of their correspondence, which may occasionally be viewed on display at the ‘Iolani Palace, reveals the deep respect and shared wisdom of these two women.
[Elsewhere in The Coracle, one may read of Rell Sunn, the surfing champion who described the "aloha spirit" thusly: "The aloha spirit is real simple. You give and you give and you give from the heart, until you have nothing else to give."]
O Sovereign God, who raised up (King) Kamehameha (IV) and (Queen) Emma to be rulers in Hawaii, and inspired and enabled them to be diligent in good works for the welfare of their people and the good of your Church: Receive our thanks for their witness to the Gospel; and grant that we, with them, may attain to the crown of glory that never fades away; through Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
December 1: Nicholas Ferrer, 1592-1637
Ferrer was a deacon in the Church of England who created one of the last communities of faith based on the Celtic, and pre-Roman, form of Christianity. He and his companions took an abandoned church in Huntingtonshire, England, restored it and turned into a center for worship, education, and, as a form of early clinic, place for the address of community health issues.
It worked well until Cromwell's minions destroyed it in the name of Puritanism. Yes, what a gift that strain of Christianity has brought to our common experience.
Ferrer had died nine years before his community's forced dissolution, yet his vision, and the hamlet that housed his community, that of Little Gidding, has remained fixed in the spiritual imagination of subsequent generations of Anglicans. Even that arch-Anglican, T.S. Eliot, would name a portion of his poetic work, Four Quartets, after Ferrer's community.
Lord God, make us worthy of your perfect love; that, with your deacon Nicholas Ferrar and his household, we may rule ourselves according to your Word, and serve you with our whole heart; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
