Kawaiaha'o Church has halted construction of its $17.5 million multipurpose center after workers dug up 69 human remains, most of which were intact and in coffins when they were excavated.

A consultant hired by the church has told state officials that another 83 bodies may be buried at the construction site, making it one of the largest graveyard intrusions on O'ahu.

Many of the burials date back to the 1800s, when Kawaiaha'o, known as "the Westminster Abbey of Hawai'i," operated a cemetery where the new center is being built.

The number of remains exceeds those found at Wal-Mart's Ke'eaumoku location and the Ward Village Shops in Kaka'ako, where building plans were delayed for months after scores of iwi, or Hawaiian bones, were discovered.

It's not clear how many of those found at Kawaiaha'o are of Hawaiian ancestry but there are concerns that the construction work may have encroached onto the burial plots of Hawaiian ali'i, including those of Queen Kapi'olani's family.

Abigail Kawananakoa, Kapi'olani's great-grandniece and an heiress to the Campbell Estate fortune, said her attorneys plan to seek an injunction against the church and called on Kawaiaha'o's leadership to step down.

"This is a desecration and a grievous wound. The people of Kawaiaha'o preserve the best of Hawaiian traditions and they, too, are victims," Kawananakoa said.

"Responsibility for this rests with the church leaders and paid experts that misled and abused the trust of the congregation and community. They should immediately resign and fulfill their financial and moral obligations to make this pono no Hawai'i pono'i."

Frank Pestana, chairman of Kawaiaha'o's board of trustees, said Kawananakoa's family plot was not affected by the construction activities.

"The congregation will be saddened that, while Ms. Kawananakoa is not a member of the church, she is placing her personal agenda above the church and the wishes of the congregation, including other members of her family," Pestana said.

"The church has gone to extraordinary lengths to contact families with loved ones in the cemetery. They have all been supportive of the project and the church's approach to dealing with any burials that may be discovered during the construction process."

MONTHS OF DELAY

Nancy McMahon, deputy state historic preservation officer, said the discovery of the burials could delay construction for months.

McMahon said the two state agencies that oversee cemeteries and burial finds — the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Department of Health — are trying to sort out which has jurisdiction in the case.

She added that the controversy has attracted the attention of the governor's office.

Kawaiaha'o representatives met with Gov. Linda Lingle's chief of staff, Barry Fukunaga, on April 3 to discuss the project, Lingle spokesman Russell Pang said.

Pang said Fukunaga also met with DLNR chairwoman Laura Thielen on Tuesday to discuss the matter.

The Rev. Charles Maxwell, chairman of the Maui/Lana'i burial council, called the construction activity "an insult" to those buried on the site and said that church leaders need to find a new location for the center, given the large number of bones found there.

He said the church should have known that it would discover remains during construction, since the Kaka'ako area is well-known for having old graveyards.

REBURIALS IN 1940

In 1940, Kawaiaha'o officials disinterred 117 bodies at a construction site to make way for Likeke Hall. The remains were reburied in Mo'ili'ili and then returned to the southwest side of the Kawaiaha'o property in 1968.

Old bones also have been discovered across the street at the former Honolulu Brewery building and Honuakaha senior housing project in Kaka'ako.

"It's a sacrilege to disturb them further," Maxwell said. "The people were placed there with the purpose that nobody would disturb them forever."

With a history that dates back to 1820, Kawaiaha'o is the oldest and one of the most recognized churches in Hawai'i.

It's on the national and state registers of historic places and is the final resting place of King William Charles Lunalilo.

The new, two-story construction project, dubbed the "multipurpose center," replaces Likeke Hall, which was torn down last year.

The 30,000-square-foot building will include classrooms, conference rooms, a $1 million kitchen, state-of-the-art solar panels and a space that can be used for wedding receptions.

Church officials previously said they expected to complete construction by June 2010.

MORE GRAVES LIKELY

But that was before they starting to dig up coffins at the site.

At a Feb. 11 meeting of the O'ahu Burial Council, church consultant David Shideler reported that construction workers dug up 21 coffins while doing excavation work to connect sewer and utility lines to the street.

Shideler also told the council that burial plots of Kapi'olani's 'ohana as well as those of the Metcalf and Kuhiaopio families had been affected by trenching work.

A chart by the firm Shideler is with, Cultural Surveys Hawaii Inc., said that construction workers dug up two remains in Kapi'olani's parcel and two in the Metcalf plot.

Dawn Chang, a consultant for the church, said a more recent study using global satellite positioning equipment found that the excavated remains were not in the Kapi'olani and Metcalf burial parcels but were in nearby plots.

"We do have a map that shows that none of the burials involve the Kapi'olani plot," she said.

McMahon, the DLNR official, said that Shideler's supervisor, Hallett Hammatt, told her that an additional 83 bodies might be found under the former Likeke Hall.

She said Hammatt's estimate is based on surveys using ground penetrating radar.

McMahon added that she believes that the count could be much higher, since many of the remains already excavated were found stacked on top of each other.

"We think it could be more," she said.

Pestana, the chairman of church's board, said the church is now redesigning the building in a way that allows minimal disturbance to the property.

IWI NOW IN CHURCH

Chang said Kawaiaha'o officials have taken great care in their handling of remains that they have discovered and have made great effort to contact descendants.

She said each set of bones has been wrapped and placed in a lauhala basket. They're currently stored in an air-conditioned room in the church's basement but will eventually be reinterred permanently on Kawaiaha'o's grounds, Chang said.

"We will continue to do our utmost to treat all discovered iwi with proper respect, sensitivity and care, in accordance with acceptable Hawaiian cultural traditions and practices, contacting and consulting with the 'ohana wherever possible," Pestana and project director Don Caindec said in a letter to church members.