Bishop E. Lani Hanchett (1919-1975) was the first priest and bishop of Hawaiian ancestry of the Episcopal Church. His father, Dr. Alsoberry Hanchett, born on Kauai in 1885, had distinguished himself previously as the first person of Hawaiian descent to
Bishop E. Lani Hanchett (1919-1975) was the first priest and bishop of Hawaiian ancestry of the Episcopal Church.
His father, Dr. Alsoberry Hanchett, born on Kauai in 1885, had distinguished himself previously as the first person of Hawaiian descent to graduate from a medical school in the United States and practice medicine in Hawaii.
Great-grandfather Salem Hanchett of Massachusetts arrived on Kauai around 1815 aboard a whaling ship, married Aluhua, a daughter of King Kaumualii, and later operated a ferry on the Wailua River.
Born in Honolulu, Bishop Hanchett was educated at Iolani School, the University of Hawaii and Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, California.
During World War II, he supervised the naval aircraft supply department at Pearl Harbor, and from 1945 to 1950, worked in the Territorial Tax Office, Lihue.
While on Kauai, he served as lay reader and read for orders at Christ Church, Kilauea, and was ordained deacon there in 1952.
Deacon Hanchett then went to Holy Innocents’ at Lahaina, where he was ordained priest by Bishop Harry Kennedy on Sept. 19, 1953.
He later presided as vicar of St. George’s, Pearl Harbor during 1960-1961, and as rector of St. Peter’s, Honolulu, beginning in 1961.
Rev. Hanchett was elected suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Church in Hawaii in 1967, and became diocesan bishop at Saint Andrew’s Cathedral in 1969.
When cancer claimed his life in 1975, Rev. James Long, canon of the diocese noted, “We all loved him so and we loved him for what he was — a great friend, a great priest and great bishop and, above all, a man of great spirituality.”
Roman Catholic Bishop John Scanlan said, “The entire Hawaiian community has lost a valiant and gentle Christian man in the passing of Bishop Lani Hanchett.”
Episcopal Bishop E. Lani Hanchett and his wife, Puanani Akana Hanchett of Kalihiwai, Kauai, had four children: Carolyn, Suzanne, Stuart and Tiare.
