Pacific Islanders have a particular place in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Its first non-English-speaking mission was in the region in 1844, less than twenty years after the church's founding, and there are currently six temples among the Pacific Island regions of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. In 2015 the Latter-day Saint population in the area was increasing in percentage and absolute numbers.
Since the 1850s Mormon leaders have identified Polynesian islands with the "islands of the sea" marked in their scriptures for missionary activity, and taught that the people there were descendants of Israelite people from the faith's canonized Book of Mormon. There are numerous notable adherents of the church, and LDS missionary efforts in the region were highlighted in the film The Other Side of Heaven. The church began operating schools in the Pacific Islands in 1850, and currently owns and runs Brigham Young University–Hawaii (BYU–Hawaii) and the nearby Polynesian Cultural Center. The Book of Mormon has been translated into numerous local languages of the region since 1855.
The Pacific islands were one of the first areas to be evangelized by LDS Church missionaries after Europe and North America, notably Hawaii, which was annexed by the United States in 1898. The LDS Church began sending missionaries to the region in 1844, and 75 years later the Laie Hawaii Temple became the first LDS temple outside the continental United States in 1919.[1] In 1955, the church partially lifted some of its temple and priesthood racial restrictions and began allowing Melanesian women and men access to all temple ceremonies (called ordinances), and Melanesian men and boys to be ordained to the priesthood.[2] [3] The church allowed Pacific Islanders to hold the priesthood, and president of the church David O. McKay stated that native Fijians and Australian Aboriginals could also be ordained to the priesthood.[3] Later that year the Church College of Hawaii was established, which would later become BYU–Hawaii.[4]
See main article: Hagoth.
See also: Mormon folklore. In addition to the LDS Church's stories about people sailing to the New World, there is also the story of Hagoth, a Nephite ship builder who according to The Book of Mormon lived in or around 55 BCE, and whom some church publications have stated sailed from the Americas to Polynesia. Leaders of the LDS Church and LDS scholars have stated that the peoples of the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii, Polynesia, and New Zealand, are descendants of the Nephite Hagoth and his supposed followers, and this accounts for their darker skin. Many members of the LDS Church in Polynesia have come to believe that Hagoth is their ancestor.[5] [6] Modern genetic testing has not established any connection between Pacific Islanders and purported peoples of The Book of Mormon.[7]
See main article: Mormon folklore.
Some of the folklore that exists in the relationship of the LDS Church and Pacific Islanders include:
See main article: List of temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Oceania region has a number of church temples due to the numbers of members in many countries there. There are also temples in the Philippines and Australia.[9]
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See main article: List of Book of Mormon translations.
LDS Church members from indigenous groups: