Bequest rescues St Catherine's

HAPPIER: Rex Faithfull addressing last week's meeting over the future of St Catherine's Church at Okaihau, which now seems likely to be retained.

The sting was taken out of a public meeting called by the Waimate North Mission District management group at Okaihau on Friday when it was announced that a proposal to transfer ownership of St Catherine's Church at Okaihau was unlikely to proceed.

Roger Wyatt (church administrator at Russell) told the meeting that while no sum was known as yet, he believed a legacy received from local farmer Jim Leslie would enable the church to remain a functioning part of the parish.

The Auckland Diocese had earlier this year looked at divesting itself of St Catherine's and St Stephen the Martyr's in Kaikohe (Battle lines drawn over Anglican Churches, Northland Age July 16). The legacy, however, made it unlikely that ownership of St Catherine's would be transferred.

"One or two parties," including the Maori pastorate, were interested in using St Stephen's, Mr Wyatt said however.

In the meantime he hoped that St Catherine's could be placed on the same footing as St John's (Waimate North) and Holy Trinity at Pakaraka (both listed as Category A historic buildings), which the diocese had given first and second priority.

"We were considering transferring ownership of St Catherine's for $1, but we haven't gone down that track," Mr Wyatt said.

"Mr Leslie's bequest has changed the game, and I am confident that we can look after St Catherine's as well as St John's and Holy Trinity."

Mr Wyatt and his fellow management group members - Don Jack (Ohaeawai), Heather Stanley and Tony Scott (Pakaraka) - emphasised that the community would have an important role to play in terms of retaining St Catherine's however. Ms Stanley said the church had obviously been well cared for and loved, and that same involvement would be needed in the future.

"Anyone who has any concerns is welcome to contact us, but we are confident that we can do great things, and pass [the churches] on to the next generation," she said.

"St Catherine's is not going anywhere. We will make it clear to the Bishop (of Auckland, Rt Rev Jim White) that we want to keep it in the mix.

"We are being as honest as we can be," she added. "I'm 80 per cent certain we can keep St Catherine's, and I will be sure when we know what we will receive from Mr Leslie's bequest."

The remaining issue of contention was the make-up of the management group, Mr Scott saying that all present were part of a family "wherever we live," Ken Rintoul suggesting that a funding sub-committee be formed with one representative from each community.

There was certainly strong support for an Okaihau representative to join the management group, although Mr Wyatt said that would be up to Bishop White.

"If you want to set up a vestry to take responsibility, that's fine, but at the moment we have responsibility," he added.

"We won't always get it right, but tell us when we've got it wrong and we will fix it."

The real issue according to Heather Ayrton (Kaikohe), however, was the community's lack of ministry, Mr Wyatt saying that was not the management group's job, "but if we can get past this hurdle perhaps we can get past that one."

Mr Scott noted that both St Catherine's and Holy Trinity had very small congregations.