St Paul's Church, Auckland

St Paul's Church is a historic church in the CBD of Auckland, New Zealand, located on Symonds Street near the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology. It is the longest established church in the city and has one of the largest Anglican congregations in Australasia.[1][2]

St Paul's Church, Auckland
Location28 Symonds Street, Auckland
CountryNew Zealand
DenominationAnglican
ChurchmanshipCharismatic Evangelical Anglican
Membership1,042 (2019)
Websitewww.stpauls.org.nz
History
Founded1841
Founder(s)Governor William Hobson
Dedicated1844, 1894
Relics heldCarved stones from Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral, Yorkminster & St Paul's Cathedral
Architecture
Heritage designationCategory 1 Historic Place
Architect(s)William Henry Skinner
StyleGothic Revival
Years built1894-1895
Specifications
MaterialsRangitoto, Oamaru, Mt Somers & Timaru stone
Administration
ParishSt Paul's Symonds Street
DioceseAuckland
Clergy
Bishop(s)Ross Bay
Vicar(s)Jonny Grant
Priest(s)Matthew Bruns
Laity
Director of musicChris Cope
Youth ministry coordinatorAlex Escobar
Designated16 November 1989[1]
Reference no.650

The St Paul's foundation stone was laid by Governor William Hobson on 28 July 1841 and the first service was held on 7 May 1843. St Paul's also served as Auckland's Cathedral for over 40 years. The third and current building was formally consecrated by Bishop William Cowie on 1 November 1895, and is now registered as a Category 1 Historic Place.[3][4]

History

Early history

Now occupying its third building, St Paul's is known as the 'Mother Church' of Auckland as it is the oldest church community in the city and was founded within a year of the foundation of the city.[1][5][6] The first St Paul's was built in Emily Place, just off Princes Street, in 1841 where a plaque still marks the site of the beginning of the Christian church in Auckland.[4]

Old St Paul's was in the centre of the young colonial city, on a prominent ridge-top site on Point Britomart, close to the imperial garrison stationed at Fort Britomart, and near the remnants of the old Rangipuke pā where Ngāti Whātua had defended their rohe during the Musket Wars of the 1820s. St Paul's was the seat of the Bishop of New Zealand, the Right Reverend George Selwyn, and Auckland's wealthiest settlers worshipped there. The religion of British royalty, the Anglican faith was closely linked to colonial power. Many of St Paul's artefacts, such as Selwyn's Throne and a large collection of memorials, are connected to this time when Auckland was New Zealand's capital.[4][5][7][6]

Reverend John Churton was the first minister of St Paul's, occupying that role for 12 years. The Churton Memorial was built to his memory, close to the site of the original church building.[4] In 1863 the original building received extensive enlargements which doubled the seating capacity.[8]

During the height of the New Zealand Wars in the 1860s, St Paul's was used as a safe haven for women, children and the elderly; a traditional church role in times of strife.[9] After the war moved south, however, and Auckland expanded geographically, the congregation dwindled as attendees moved to the new suburbs of Epsom and Remuera, and St Matthew's in the City served the suburbs of Freemans Bay and Ponsonby, while the Church of the Holy Sepulchre served opulent Grafton.[10][5][11]

Early bicultural history

On 20 March 1840 in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, Paramount Chief Apihai Te Kawau, a friend of Samuel Marsden, signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from Ngāpuhi as well as a reciprocal relationship with the Crown and the Church. Soon after signing Te Tiriti, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the primary hapū and landowner in Tāmaki Makaurau, gifted 3000 acres on the Waitematā Harbour to Governor Hobson to establish his new capital, Auckland. All three St Paul's buildings would be built on this land.[12]

When St Paul's was founded by Governor Hobson on 28 July 1841, hundreds attended the ceremony including Ngāti Whātua chiefs Apihai Te Kawau, Te Keene and a young Pāora Tūhaere, accompanied by over one hundred Māori warriors.[12]

On 19 July 1842, Bishop Selwyn, having learned te reo Māori himself, issued Rev Churton with a curacy license for 'the township of Auckland'. On the official printed license, Selwyn handwrote "Provided also that you shall use due diligence in the study of the language of the Native Inhabitants of New Zealand, and be ready when required to minister to their spiritual wants in like manner as to those of all the other inhabitants of your District without distinction of persons". However, St Paul's first vicar, who was originally sent by the New Zealand Company, was mainly concerned with European settlers, and refused to learn te reo.[12]

Bishop Selwyn opened St Paul's Church over four services on 7 May 1843. He later wrote, "The services began with a native congregation at nine; some of whom having only heard of the opening on Saturday evening, paddled a distance of twelve miles by sea during the night, in order to be present. The greater number were in full European clothing, and took part in the Church service, in a manner which contrasts most strikingly with that of the silent and unkneeling congregations of the English settlers." St Paul's then held four Sunday services weekly, serving both Māori and European congregations, with two services conducted in te reo Māori and two in English.[12]

The 1845–1846 Northern War in and around the Bay of Islands, caused by the difference in understanding between te reo Māori Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the English Treaty of Waitangi, lead to an expectation that Hone Heke would attack Auckland, and St Paul's was fortified with shutters with loopholes. After hearing rounds of gunfire, the women and children of the town "were put into St Paul’s Church for safety, the one building easily holding the small population then here" and a military guard was posted for the night. The gunfire which caused the unnecessary panic turned out to be "over the body of a chief who had died during the day".[12]

The increasing European population of Auckland put pressure on Māori land and society, straining relations, leading to the city's second Anglican church, St Barnabas being opened in 1849 specifically for Māori.[12]

St Paul's was the pro-cathedral of Bishop of New Zealand for Selwyn's entire tenure. The New Zealand Church Missionary Society (CMS) criticised Selwyn for being ineffective in training and ordaining clergy – especially Māori. It took him 11 years to ordain the first Māori Anglican minister, Rev Rota Waitoa, at St Paul’s on 22 May 1853, and 24 years to ordain a Māori priest. Selwyn went on to ordain seven more Māori clergy at St Paul's, but his high church ways were blamed for undermining the work of the CMS and damaging Māori enthusiasm for Christianity.[12]

When Churton died in 1853, Selwyn appointed Rev John Frederick Lloyd to replace him. Lloyd was the opposite of Churton – a personal friend of Selwyn with respect for Māori, who spoke te reo, and had tutored mixed Māori and European classes at St John's College. Together they tried to create a bicultural house of worship.[12]

By 1859, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei had lost most of their land through speculators. The 700-acre Ōrākei block was all that remained. Within a century, this too was compulsorily acquired by the Crown (apart from a cemetery).[13]

Selwyn and Lloyd generally advocated for Māori rights and were often critics of the unjust and reckless land acquisition practices that led to the New Zealand Wars. However, their support of the Invasion of the Waikato as chaplains, damaged their and the church's relationship with Māori, which is still felt today.[12]

Old St Paul's was considered a Garrison Church, but when the first regimental colours unfurled in New Zealand were donated to the church, Lloyd turned them down so "no jealousies of race or feelings of hostility should ever be permitted to enter, but where men should remember only that they are one in Christ".[12]

When the first St Paul's building was demolished, various political, military, clergy and settler memorials were kept, but the only direct reference to Māori was a plaque mentioning the 'hostile Maoris at Rangiriri'.[12]

Changing locations

The original Emily Place church was demolished in 1885, when Point Britomart was quarried away.[14]

A temporary wooden church, designed by William Skinner, was built on the corner of Short Street and Eden Crescent while a permanent church site was identified.[15] That temporary church is now the Tātai Hono marae, part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[16][11]

Only the present site, halfway up the Symonds Street hill, was considered large and central enough for the planned church. It also placed it near Auckland's oldest street, Karangahape Road, which by the 1880s was a thriving thoroughfare and shopping precinct for both Māori and Pākehā. The road was a traditional walking track along the ridge from Ōwairaka (Mt Albert) to Ōrākei for Ngāti Whātua. The official municipal burial ground; the Symonds Street Cemetery was also nearby, on the corner of K’Road and Symonds Street.[5][17]

The new church building was dedicated in 1894, without the corner tower and steeple that were part of Skinner's design. The Long Depression had inhibited building such a monumental church. The interior was kept plain, apart from the rose window temporarily filled with coloured cathedral glass and the artefacts gifted by Selwyn.[5][14][18]

20th century

The appointment of Reverend Cecil Watson in 1908 led to St Paul's being revitalised as a stronghold of Anglo-Catholicism in a largely puritanical city. Watson, and his successor Samuel Corbin shaped the church for a half-century, introducing Sung Mass, choral music and the concept of spiritual healing, which received some resistance.[5][15]

In 1936 the temporary wooden chancel was replaced with today's concrete chancel, that is yet to be faced in stone.[1][19]

In 1954 Father Kenneth Prebble inherited a building and congregation both in a poor state, and for the next 20 years he reestablished St Paul's as a centre of Anglo-Catholicism. In the mid-1960s Prebble looked beyond the norm in terms of high church Anglican practise and embraced a revival of the Holy Spirit. Polarising the congregation, St Paul's became Spirit-focused, evangelical and contemporary while maintaining its Anglo-Catholic theology. Through its popular music, and a regular coffee-shop outreach to students and young people, Prebble and his successor Father David Balfour, helped create a church with city-wide and international impact through the 50s and 60s.[20][21]

From 1956 to 1973 many repairs and additions were made to the building, including: cleaning, repairing and replacing stonework; replacing the roof; and the addition of the Endean Memorial, Christ in Glory and Patteson Memorial stained glass windows.[19][22]

In 1974 the St Paul's Outreach Trust was formed and by the end of 1975 had produced three records sung by the St Paul's Singers entitled Songs for Prayer & Praise, Arise my Love and Harvest of Joy, plus a songbook called New Glory.[21][20] However, in the 1970s, the Anglo-Catholicism that had provided the theological framework for the spiritual and social justice revival of the 50s and 60s at St Paul's "dissolved into a bundle of conflicting theologies without strong leadership or good biblical teaching".[5]

During the 1980s and 1990s the parish, with the help of its first Māori curate Wally Te Ua, took steps towards a "more significant understanding of biculturalism" and a Friday night gospel service was established which became an outreach to immigrant families and students from Asian countries. The parish also continued taking an active role in supporting women clergy. However, many congregants of the previous period moved away, and only a "tiny remnant" of Anglo-Catholics remained loyal to the church. In 2002 the parish roll had 46 members.[5][10][23][24]

21st century

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, many young New Zealanders became Christians or renewed their faith at St Mary's London. Returning home, they wanted a similar church in Auckland. With the blessing of the Bishop of Auckland, a team from St Mary's were invited in 2004 to set up new family and young people-focused services at St Paul's, Symonds Street. Reverend Mike and Bex Norris and a core group of about 80 people whom had previously attended St Mary's in London, oversaw huge growth, with 1,335 members on the parish roll by 2009.[23][24]

From 2009 to 2013, St Paul's produced the GLOW Carols by Glowstick event at Auckland's Vector Arena, with around 10,000 people attending each year. A key part of the event were Christmas films produced by St Paul's including The Christmas Story which has had 4 million views on YouTube.[25][26][27] The 2012 documentary short film O Little Town of Bethlehem was shot in modern Bethlehem.[28][29][27] In 2012 St Paul's produced its debut live worship album titled GOD w/ US including the voices of around 800 worshippers gathered across three services.[30]

In 2013 St Paul's priest in charge Reverend Mathew Newton officially asked the Anglican Diocese of Auckland synod to divest from fossil fuel industries due to the threat of climate change. It agreed and became the first New Zealand institutional body to do so.[31][32]

In 2015 St Paul's published a hard cover book of personal testimonies and photos of 128 children, youth and adults from the church called Stories.[33]

From 2015 to 2019, St Paul's produced Alt Carols as an alternative Christmas experience, combining creative elements of music, art and design. Volume One of the remixed carols from the events was released as an album in 2017, Volume Two in 2019.[34]

St Paul's Restoration/Projects leader Esther Grant, heritage & conservation architects Salmond Reed Architects and structural & seismic engineers are currently working together to repair, strengthen, refresh and complete the church building. Seismic strengthening is needed to reach building standards changed after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.[35][36] On 5 March 2020, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei led a blessing for the work, and St Paul's thanked the descendants of Apihai Te Kawau for the gift of the land on which the church was built. Huge timelines telling the stories of Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei and St Paul's were installed side by side on the scaffold hoardings during the Phase 2 work completed in 2020.[37][38]

St Paul's has a staff of about 30 which includes a vicar, an associate priest, a worship leader, six in pastoral care, eight in children and youth, and twelve in operations.[36]

  • The Auckland waterfront with Māori waka and the original St Paul's building above Point Britomart, painted in 1852.
  • The original St Paul's building, photographed in the 1880s.
  • The temporary St Paul's building photographed in the 1880s.
  • Architect's perspective of the third building published in 1894, showing the unbuilt steeple.
  • The third and current St Paul's building photographed in 1909.
  • A St Paul's Evening Service, 2012.
  • A St Paul's artist performs at Alt Carols for Christmas 2017.
  • St Paul's community participating in an annual Quiz Night, 2019.
  • Artists perform at Alt Carols for Christmas 2019.
  • Building restoration scaffold wrap, including Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei and St Paul's timelines, 2020.

List of vicars
Memorial to Rev John Frederick Churton, located at Emily Place Reserve, close to the site of the original St Paul's building, photographed in 2012.
  • Reverend John Frederick Churton 1841–1853 Emily Place
  • Archdeacon John Fredrick Lloyd 1853–1870 Emily Place
  • Canon Charles Mosely Nelson 1870–1908 Emily Place, Eden Terrace & Symonds Street
  • Reverend Cecil Alexander Burns Watson 1908–1942 Symonds Street
  • Canon Samuel Bertram Roberts Corbin 1942–1953 Symonds Street
  • Father Kenneth Prebble 1954–1974 Symonds Street
  • Father David Balfour 1975–1984 Symonds Street
  • Reverend William Heald 1984–1993 Symonds Street
  • Reverend Nicholas James Schoombee 1994–2001 Symonds Street
  • Reverend Harvey Jackson Smith 2003–2005 Symonds Street
  • Reverend Michael Charles Latham Norris 2005–2013 Symonds Street
  • Reverend Jonathan Stephen Grant 2015– Symonds Street

[39]

References
  1. "St Paul's Church (Anglican)". Register of Historic Places. Heritage New Zealand. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  2. "Jonathan Grant". Baker Publishing Group. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  3. "History of the Diocese of Auckland". Anglican Diocese of Auckland. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  4. "Churton Memorial". New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  5. "Where we've come from". Kate Hannah (Research Development Manager, The University of Auckland) St Paul's Church, Auckland. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  6. Social and Economic Research and Monitoring team (2010). Brief history of Auckland's urban form. Auckland Regional Council. ISBN 978-1-877540-57-8.
  7. "St Paul's Church memorials, Auckland". New Zealand History. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  8. "New Zealander". 7 September 1863. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  9. "Auckland Star". 24 July 1926. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  10. Eaglen, Jackie (1991). A Brief History of St. Paul's Symonds Street. St Paul's Outreach Trust.
  11. "Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Hall". Register of Historic Places. Heritage New Zealand. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  12. Hawkins, Simeon. "King, Bishop, Knight, Pioneer: the Social and Architectural Significance of Old St Paul's Church, Emily Place, Auckland. 1841-1885" (PDF). The University of Auckland. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  13. "The loss of the Orakei block". Waitangi Tribunal. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  14. "New Zealand Herald". 28 July 1916. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  15. Historic Buildings of NZ, North Island. Methven Publications (NZ) Ltd. 1983. pp. 112–113.
  16. "Tatai Hono: tying us together". Anglican Church in Aotearoa, NZ and Polynesia. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  17. "Auckland's 175th anniversary: No easy road to street names". NZ Herald. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  18. "STAINED Talk 2". St Paul's. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  19. A Plan for the Preservation of St Paul's Church Auckland. Salmond Architects. 1998.
  20. Merritt, N.F.H. (1981). To God be the Glory. St Paul's Outreach Trust.
  21. "Kenneth Ralph Prebble". Stuff. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  22. "STAINED Talk 3". St Paul's. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  23. "Unplugging the wells of blessing". Anglican Taonga. 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  24. "Parish roll statistics of Parish of St Paul's Church, Symonds Street". Anglican Diocese of Auckland, Archives. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  25. "Carols by glow-stick at Vector Arena". NZ Herald. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  26. "The story of Christmas - A Kiwi version". NZ Herald. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  27. "St Paul's Arts & Media". YouTube. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  28. "Christmas in modern-day Bethlehem". News Hub. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  29. "Roundup: Animated Nativity short; Bethlehem speaks; "Glory in the Darkest Place"; Norwegian jazz; gilding goldfinch". Art & Theology. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  30. "GOD w/ US CD". St Paul's. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  31. "Auckland challenged on fossil fuels". Anglican Commission on Communications. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  32. "Auckland diocese to divest from fossil fuels". Anglican Communion News Service. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  33. "St Paul's Stories". St Paul's. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  34. "Alt Carols". St Paul's. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  35. "St Paul's Church with Salmond Reed Architects and EQ STRUC". University of Auckland Heritage Society. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  36. "Meet The Team". St Paul's Church, Auckland. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  37. "Renewing St Pauls, Te Whakahoutanga i a Pāora Tapu". Anglican Diocese of Auckland. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  38. "Renewing St Pauls 2020". St Paul's. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  39. "The Vicars of Parish of St Paul's Church, Symonds Street". Anglican Diocese of Auckland, Archives. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
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