New church to be built on burnt out St John's site

Despite the sadness of seeing the last of their burnt out church cleared away, the St John's congregation is excited to take the next step towards building a new church in its place.

The final stage of demolishing St John's Church, on the corner of Ranolf and Victoria Sts, started last week and is expected to be finished next week.

The building was destroyed in February when the failure of a set of fluorescent lights caused a fire.

Demolition of the ruins began a month later.

St John's Church demolition. Photo/Stephen Parker

Minister Ed Masters confirmed the plan was to rebuild a new church on the same site.

"It is certainly sad seeing what was a really special place be cleared away, but there is also a sense of excitement in the congregation about rebuilding the church and what that will look like."

Mr Masters said there were no timeframes for the new build, but they were in the process of consulting the congregation.

"Following that and consultation with the wider community, the next step will be talking with an architect.

"We are in a premises, thanks to the Arawa Park Community Trust, so that takes off the edge.

"We are so grateful for their help during this time, they've really looked after us and we cannot thank them enough."

St John's Church demolition. Photo/Stephen Parker

In June, another part of the church ruins had to be demolished as poor weather had compromised the structure.