Church moving into future

The former Whart Hart Hotel, now the former Elim Church - soon to be dismantled

The Elim Church in Marton was deconsecrated in a final service of praise and worship a week ago.

Pastor Graham Moore said the church centre was one of Marton's old landmarks, the former White Hart Hotel, which will be demolished "very gently" next year.

"So there will be no 20-ton digger and huge fleet of dump trucks taking the building apart in a few days. We will be taking our time and removing everything very carefully."

The building on the corner of Broadway and lower High St in Marton stopped operating as a hotel in 1999 and was deemed an earthquake risk, particularly with two street frontages.

The hotel was established in 1866 but burned down in a fire in 1912 and rebuilt a year later.

The hotel was sold to the Elim Church and has been used for church activities as well as several community activities such as dancing classes.

Mr Moore said the church planned a two-storeyed conference centre, with a large kitchen and in-house catering company, for the site and several smaller rooms will be built for church ministries including children's ministries and maybe some community groups. "We're not quite sure about which community groups yet."

However, the final service was a joyous occasion, he said. "There was no actual sermon - it was all about praise and worship and I handed out dozens of chocolates ... everyone had a great time."

Elim Church services are now being held at the Lutheran Church in Pukepapa Rd, Marton at 4.30pm on Saturdays, he said.

The congregation was made up of mostly young families, he said. "We are very proud of all our young parents and children. They depict vitality and the spirit of the future."

The value of the old site was always the land and the location, he said.

"We will sell off what we can from the demolition like old historical artifacts and there are already people in the community who want to buy a piece of memorabilia."

Mr Moore said the beautiful old doors and door handles will be carefully removed along some wonderful old carved panels. "It will be so beneficial to the church to sell off what it can from the demolition ... for example there are about 100,000 bricks and a lot of rimu, which can all be cleaned up and sold."

The bricks alone could raise $100,000 if they were sold for $1 each and the rimu boards could sell for about $50 a metre.

The new project was going to require a lot of patience and time but will be worth it, he said. The Marton Elim Church is part of the Elim movement in New Zealand, but also had close relationships with Elim movements around the world, especially in the UK, he said.

"These relationships give us a great sense of family and feeling that we have a big brother looking out for us as we walk the journey of life together. We are so blessed here in Marton with so many young families and lots of children."