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The first Christian service held in Hawaii was a [[Church of Russia|Russian Orthodox]] [[Pascha]]l service. Somewhere between 1792 and 1793, while traveling from Far East to what was then Russian America, a Russian trading ship stopped over in the Hawaiian Islands. The Russian Orthodox [[priest]], not wanting to celebrate Holy [[Pascha]] (Easter) at sea, instructed the captain to disembark. The captain then told the priest that he feared the "natives" but was then told, "They will not harm us, for we are Orthodox, and we bear the Light of Christ to illumine their hearts." They disembarked and blessed a temporary [[altar]] under a newly built temple made out of palms and bamboo and addorned adorned with a Znammeny icon of the Mother of God and the Christ Child. It was rumored that as they departed the Orthodox priest left the icon used in the Paschal Liturgy. The ship's priest promised that, "We shall return and baptize these natives to the [[One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church|One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church]]."