Beginning in 1866, people in Hawaii afflicted with leprosy (now known as Hansen's disease) were forcibly sequestered in the settlement known as Kalaupapa. In 1969, the Hawai'i Board of Health finally made the move to permanently end the isolation of all patients-but many chose to remain. Why?

Reflections of Kalaupapa contains interviews with over fifty patients, physicians, nurses, volunteers, visitors, ecclesiastical leaders, journalists, and scholars from a variety of cultures and faiths that reveal how the people of Kalaupapa forged a loving, united community from which sacred space emerged.

The charity and uncommon service rendered at Kalaupapa provides a vivid example for all of us to not only join hands, but to look outside the circle of our faith's community and embrace the universal message to love one another, regardless of our differences.