The Church of the Resurrection and its hall in Childers Rd, Elgin, were deconsecrated and demolished near the end of last year. Plans for the land have not been made yet. Photo / Joe Hogan
The Church of the Resurrection and its hall in Childers Rd, Elgin, were deconsecrated and demolished near the end of last year. Plans for the land have not been made yet. Photo / Joe Hogan
A 107-year-old Anglican church in Gisborne is gone, but plans for what will happen in the space left behind have not yet been decided.
Community members involved with the Church of the Resurrection and St Mark’s Hall on Childers Rd hope whatever comesnext can continue its legacy of bringing people together.
The church’s deconsecration service was held on October 10 and Diocesan Registrar Colleen Kaye said demolition work was done at the end of November and early December of last year.
An update published by Bishop Andrew Hedge on the Anglican Diocese of Waiapu website explained that the church and hall had come to the end of their usable life.
“The young people at the service rang the bell 107 times to mark the 107 years of the church’s consecration,” he wrote.
Kaye said the parish was speaking with Anglican Care Waiapu (the Social Service arm of the Diocese) as to whether the site could be used to develop the services they offered and complement the childcare and Whānau Aroha Service already on the site next door.
“There will be time for consultation and conversation, so no plans in the immediate future,” Kaye said.
The church congregation was small, between 10 and 20 most of the time, she said.
The now empty site where the Church of the Resurrection and St Mark's Hall sat before they were demolished late last year. Photo / James Pocock
The original church building was built in 1917 by W. Sutherland and consecrated by the Bishop of Waiapu at the time, the Right Reverend William Sedgwick.
The church was presented a bell from the wreck of SS Star of Canada for use as the church bell in 1920.
The St Mark’s church hall was built on Childers Rd in 1960 and the Church of the Resurrection was moved from Cook St in Te Hapara to Elgin to sit on the Childers Rd site at the end of 1972, according to a history compiled by Reverend Stephen Donald, vicar of the Te Hapara Anglican Parish from 1994 to 2004.
Robin and Joe Hogan have been involved with running the parish Fish and Chip Club from the site since 2000. They oversaw donating the church bell to Tairāwhiti Museum. Photo / James Pocock
Gisborne couple Joe and Robin Hogan have run the Fish and Chip Club, an Anglican youth and family outreach, at the church since about 2000.
They also used to run a family service once a month on a Saturday morning.
“Even after this church wasn’t used any longer by the Anglican community, and worship happened at Holy Trinity, we were still able to have Fish and Chip club in that space,” Robin Hogan said.
“It was a low-key group of about 20 people playing outside, then coming inside and having a few songs around the piano, then we would have a Bible story and then we would do a craft and then we would have fish and chips afterwards.”
They often met people who had been married in the church or were connected in some other way, she said.
“There are a lot of people who have been connected with that place because it has been there a long, long time.”
She spoke with a woman who used to worship at the church who told her she was sad to see it gone.
“I said the life of the church is not the building, it is the people that gather. That’s what forms community.”
Joe Hogan said the church was host to a wide range of activities which brought people together besides just worship, including a flower club, dancing, bowls and a fair.
“It was a much-loved gathering place, not just a building.”
Te Hapara Whānau Aroha Centre, next door to the church, opened in 1990.
Joe Hogan said the Anglican Whānau Aroha movement was started in Gisborne by two members of the parish – Frances White and Joan Radcliffe.
The captain’s cabin and bridge of the ship are on the banks of the Taruheru River beside Tairāwhiti Museum.
Some of the church pews went to families with connections to the church.
Gisborne resident Alison Crosswell said she was shocked to see the church being demolished late last year.
“My grandfather George Daniel Wallace Sutherland [built] this church in Cook St [and] also [helped] in its shift to Childers Rd,” Crosswell wrote on social media.
Her mum was baptised in the church in 1917, her parents were married there in 1941, her oldest brother was christened there and her mum’s funeral service took place there in 2008.
