Church's prayers answered

St Andrew's Church in Waipukurau continues to thrive 150 years since its founding.

In November next year, St Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Waipukurau will be celebrating not only its 150th anniversary but also the changes that have taken place over the years to ensure it will continue to thrive.

The parish was founded in 1865 by the Presbyterian Church at the request of early Scottish settlers. The first four ordained ministers came from the Free Church of Scotland, testimony to its conservative roots. The present church building was opened in 1878 and in the following years church buildings were also established at Hatuma and Wanstead, and in the 1960s at Porangahau.

The original parish included much of the Takapau and Ruataniwha plains area, but about the time of World War I the parish boundaries shrank back to Waipukurau and the farming communities to the south. Today St Andrew's is not organised around a parish system but serves the whole of Central Hawke's Bay.

For the past 18 years, Ian Pimm has been a leader of the church - initially brought in as an "agent of change", he said.

"By the end of the 1950s people that had gone to church started to drop out. The church started losing its relevance to the community. "In the last four ministries, efforts were made among the leaders to try and figure out how to be relevant.

"It wasn't about changing what we believe, it was the style in which we presented that."

Through a consultative approach, people were encouraged to think about what a faith community needed to look like. That has resulted in a church that is community-focused rather than minister-focused, multi-denominational, and boasts a successful youth wing called EPIC Ministries.

"Thanks to this approach, the church is stronger now than it was 20 years ago," he said.

THE BUILDING

The church was built in 1878 and underwent renovations in 1955, when stained glass windows and "wings" were added. In 2002, the steeple was removed, a new roof was installed and the interior remodelled.

-The 150th jubilee will be held on November 21 and 22, 2015. Contact the church office, phone (06) 858 8036.