The Episcopal Church in Hawaii began in 1862 when King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma - a life-long Anglican - invited the Church of England to Hawaii. The King and Queen supported the Church's establishment throughout the islands with gifts of land, and by founding St. Andrew's Cathedral in Honolulu. Queen Emma also founded Queen's Hospital (now Medical Center) and St. Andrew's Priory School for Girls in Honolulu.

The Diocese is made up of people who are native to Hawaii and from everywhere else in the world who worship according to the Book of Common Prayer, 1979. Even though we are Episcopalians, our friends and other members of our families may worship as Roman Catholics, in a variety of Protestant faiths, as well as Buddhists, Shintoists, Mormons, Jews, Hindus and in traditional Hawaiian and other native ways. We hold our cultural and religious variety in respect.