Church fire shows no respect for sacred buildings: minister

The Ngahinapouri Community Church is the second church in the area to burn down in the last two months. Photo / Christine Cornege

A suspicious fire which burned down a Waikato church in the early hours of Tuesday is indicative of a lack of respect for sacred buildings in today's society, a local minister says.

The fire at the Ngahinapouri Community Church west of Hamilton yesterday was the second church fire in the district in recent weeks.

A police investigation into the Ngahinapouri fire was continuing today.

Minister of nearby St Stephen's Parish and moderator for the Kaimai Presbytery Alistair McBride said if someone had burned down the church, it showed a lack of respect not seen in earlier times.

"I'm not at all happy that someone would do that to a church. It used to be that churches were buildings that were left alone by graffiti artists and vandals and stuff, but slowly society's changed and there's not the same respect for places and spaces that there used to be.

"It's annoying and disappointing, but it's kind of where some sections of our society are at the moment.''

It was not the first time a church in the area had been targeted.

Mr McBride's other parish, Scots Presbyterian Church, was in the late 1990s hit by vandals, who tagged walls and carved graffiti into wet cement.

There had not been worship congregations at the Ngahinapouri Community Church for some years but renovations on the building were nearly complete and it had been hoped services would be held there soon, he said.

"The community's lost something quite special.''

Mr McBride said there had been reports of suspicious activity in the area recently, including attempted break-ins.

"Whether that's because we've just hit school holidays and it's town kids with nothing better to do or whether there's something else, who knows.''

Police planned to distribute community leaflets appealing for information on suspicious activity, Detective Sergeant Daryl Smith, of the Hamilton CIB, said.

The fire would be treated as suspicious until evidence showed that was not the case, he said.

Fresh tyre marks on the grass surrounding the church aroused suspicions that the fire was deliberately lit, fire safety officers said.

There was nothing linking the fire to a recent church blaze at nearby Paterangi, or a suspicious service station fire at Whakamaru near Tokoroa yesterday, but Mr Smith urged anyone with information on any of the fires to contact police.

- NZPA