When King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma invited the Anglican Church to Hawaii 150 years ago, they wanted to establish a church that not only honored Jesus Christ, but one that respected Hawaiian culture and met the needs of its multi-ethnic community.

This inherent willingness to adapt to a local culture and "meet people where they are" will be essential for the future growth of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii and for the entire denomination in divergent parts the world, Hawaii Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick said in an interview Monday.

"Part of my job as a bishop is to keep pushing people forward, (ask) what do we need to do to change, to share a message of love and inclusion," he said.

Fitzpatrick will address the diocese’s 44th annual convention today at the Cathedral of St. Andrew, held in conjunction with festivities for its 150th anniversary. The celebration began Friday and will conclude Sunday, featuring guest speaker Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Worldwide Anglican Communion.

In honoring the past, Fitzpatrick said the Episcopal Church has incorporated the Hawaiian language, hula and other native customs into services since its inception, recognizing that "Hawaiian-ness should permeate everything we do."

In the last several years, the local church has been working to increase the number of its Native Hawaiian clergy, and has about 10 candidates preparing for entrance into the priesthood or the deaconship, he said. The Rev. Malcolm Naea Chun of Holy Nativity Church in Aina Haina became in June the first Hawaiian priest to be ordained in a long time, Fitzpatrick said.

When it accepted the monarchy’s invitation to come to Hawaii, the small Anglican denomination also felt charged with the responsibility to meet the needs of the many other ethnic groups in the community. Its notable accomplishments include the formation of ‘Iolani School and St. Andrew’s Priory, and the diocese will continue to identify areas to expand its ministry, he said.

With its multicultural population, Hawaii has unique gifts to share in teaching other churches "how to be a minority church" in a place where not everyone speaks English or grew up Christian, Fitzpatrick said. The challenge for Christians in the 21st century will be "to find new ways of being a church that are not necessarily tied to older forms nor buildings and to traditional patterns."

St. Nicholas Church in Kapolei is a good example, he said. "It has all the form of Episcopal worship — the Eucharist, the Holy Communion — but the priest is standing there in bluejeans and there’s a band behind him. It’s the same Mass, the same ritual, but done in a very different style, or it can be culturally adapted."

He said Christian leaders need to ask, "Where do we meet people where they can understand what’s going on? … It might be a picnic table on the beach. … You can do the basic things of ministry and liturgy, but the style can be presented in different populations and in different ways. In some places it will be the Hawaiian language" or other languages, Fitzpatrick said.

"For many Christians we have spent the last 1,500 years or more thinking we were in charge. What we’re increasingly seeing is the world doesn’t think in Christian terms — it’s not just the mainline denominations (losing influence), it’s Christianity in general in the U.S. It’s already happened in Europe. The give-and-take is, how do you live a faithful Christian life that can be open-minded and inclusive in the 21st century in a world that is spiritual but not religious?"

Fitzpatrick said Episcopal leaders need to look beyond themselves to such places as Asia and the Pacific for leadership and learning, rather than constantly to the United States and England. That’s why the Hawaii diocese invited guests to its assembly from other parts of the world, including convention chaplain Dr. Jenny Te Paa of St. John’s College in Auckland, New Zealand; and the bishops of Taiwan, Aotearoa, New Zealand and the Philippines, he said.

"The epitome of the story of Christ and the gospel is meeting people where they are and adapting to the cultural needs of the community," he said.