WAILUKU — The owners of an organic permaculture farm in Haiku are seeking a permit to establish an interfaith church on their property that would celebrate the earth and locally grown food.

Lew Abrams and Maria De Abrams have applied for a state Land Use Commission special use permit to hold weekly services and celebrations such as birthdays, memorials and full moon gatherings on 14.8 acres of their 25-acre property.

The Sacred Earth Assembly Church aims to bring together people of all faiths who share “the value of honoring the earth as sacred and recognizing human beings are stewards of the planet,” Abrams explained. Because the church would be on agricultural land, it needs a special use permit.

The Maui Planning Commission, which typically handles LUC permits for projects under 15 acres, did not make a decision Tuesday, but will continue discussion on June 25.

Lew Abrams and Maria De Abrams operate a 25-acre certified organic farm in Haiku, just down the road from the Jaws Country Store. Ahimsa Sanctuary Farm features more than 200 fruit trees, 75 coco palms, tortoises, sheep and a fishpond with tilapia, catfish, koi and peacock bass, according to Planning Department documents. The farm offers tours and also operates 9-kilowatt solar and 5-kilowatt wind demonstration projects.

The couple wants to convert a two-story, 7,693-square-foot agricultural building on their property into a space to hold church activities. Currently, it’s used for workshops.

Abrams, a psychologist who works at the West Maui Counseling Center in Lahaina, said he’s been an ordained minister at the Temple of Peace in Haiku since 2000. He and his wife, also a minister, often help out the Rev. Kedar St. John with Sunday services.

Out of that community came the Sacred Earth Assembly, which was established as a nonprofit in 2012, Abrams said.

The couple has long held community gatherings on their property but now want to offer weekly services on Wednesday and Friday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. They said they expect about 10 to 30 people at services and a total congregation of no more than 100 members. Holiday celebrations would take place from 4 to 9 p.m., with about 50 to 75 people.

“We want to have a place to gather for us in the community to do our meditations, our yoga, our sacred movement, our songs, our prayers, gather for Thanksgiving with righteous food,” Abrams said.

On Tuesday, many testifiers spoke in support of the Sacred Earth Assembly, saying they knew the couple and have enjoyed their ministry at the Temple of Peace. Bruce Douglas said that “it’s important that every culture on this island has a place to minister in the way that they see fit.”

“There’s a new form of spirituality that’s brewing, and I guess Haiku is a hotbed of that,” Douglas said. “That’s a multi-spirituality, embracing many different spiritual lineages — Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi, Native American, Hawaiian, Christian, all included as one. So many people, they don’t identify themselves as a religion, but they respect the wisdoms of all the lineages and all wisdoms. And that is what has been going on at Ahimsa Sanctuary Farm.”

Musician George Kahumo-ku Jr. also voiced his support for Sacred Earth Assembly, saying it was helping youths and adults “reconnect with each other, the environment and our community.”

“I share this mission of taking care of Mother Earth and being stewards of the land, and applaud the willingness to share and grow food and celebrate rites of passage for individuals as well as community events,” he said.

However, neighbors said that the celebrations held on the property already create a disturbance.

Federico Meloni, who’s lived there for 13 years, said that he likes Abrams as a neighbor, but that the events generate noise and traffic, and the problem is that “they celebrate everything.”

“The full moon party, that’s once a month,” Meloni said. “But then you have celebrations that fall on any other religions or beliefs or whatever. So that’s my concern. . . . I don’t know where I stand with this other than I’m afraid of what it could become.”

Tim Robinson, who moved to the area in 2016, said that he’s usually in bed by sunset and has heard “everything from drums to loud chanting,” into the late evening hours, sometimes as late as 9 or 10 p.m. He said the property is located on a dangerous curve of Hana Highway and he was worried about increasing traffic in the area.

“Dr. Abrams has done an excellent job of developing this property as an agricultural property, but to take it to a church — where does the county draw the line for what ag land is intended for?” Robinson said.

Since 2012, eight complaints have been filed against the property, ranging from “excessive parties” to an expired building permit, according to planning documents. However, all of the complaints were resolved before the permit came before the commission, staff planner Tara Furukawa said.

Commissioner P. Denise La Costa said that from what testifiers were saying, it sounded like the couple was already holding church activities on their property without a permit. She asked Abrams if that was true.

“So far what we have is informal gatherings of friends that are coming for free community celebrations,” he replied. “We will step into our ministry as a church more fully once we have approval.”

“That’s not my question,” La Costa said. “My question is, are you currently doing church activities in the property?”

“We do invite the community for some religious spiritual gatherings at this point in an informal gathering of friends,” Abrams replied. “We do aspire to step into doing more full church activities with a regular weekly service. We’ve never had regular weekly services to date.”

The commission opted to continue discussion at a later date after there were questions about the map in the application. Members wanted to allow time for a survey to be done to ensure that the panel has jurisdiction.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.