St John’s Anglican Church, Te Awamutu, 1909
In Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 6, Jesus teaches: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven… for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”.
Christine Bryant
In Te Awamutu we are fortunate to have the only two Category 1 listed buildings in the whole of the Waikato.
As parishioners of St John’s, we are privileged to be able to worship where six or seven generations of Māori and Pakeha Christians have worshiped for 170 years.
We take seriously our responsibility to maintain the four churches in our care. The two historic churches, in particular, are special places.
Many people step into them and are immediately moved by the spirit which inhabits them, the spirit which comes from generations who have worshiped Jesus.
Recently two of our buildings have been attacked by vandals.
See: Copper thieves target church
This truly upsetting. It is upsetting, firstly, because it is deeply disrespectful of the faith of our tupuna who include the Rev. John Morgan and his wife, Maria, who were amongst the earliest missionaries in the Waikato, and Irihāpeti Te Paea Pōtatau, the half-sister of the second Māori king, Tāwhiao, who gave her personal protection to Old St John’s and prevented it from being destroyed in retribution for the tragedy at Rangiaowhia.
Secondly, it is upsetting because the damage needs to be repaired, and it is costly to do so.
We are grateful to God for the places of worship in our care, but the prime mission of the church is not to spend its limited funds on buildings.
It is to share God’s love by caring for those in need in our community.
Funds diverted needlessly to repair vandalism are funds that would otherwise be used to feed hungry families, provide affordable holiday programmes for children and reach out in friendship to the “last, the lost and the least” (Archbishop Justin, Wellington).
Do we hate the vandals? No, of course not. But we do pray that they can kick the drug habit which is driving them to commit vandalism in order to get their next fix.
We pray that they turn their focus into being a positive influence in the community.
The historic churches of Te Awamutu are taonga for us all, Māori and Pakeha, Christian and non-Christian.
The actions of a few thoughtless people create a risk of losing this heritage.
We do want to pass these churches and their stories down to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Our simple timber churches may not have the grandeur of the newly restored Notre Dame de Paris, nevertheless, in the same way that Notre Dame is testament to eight centuries of worship, they are a precious witness to the love of Christ which brought Māori and Pakeha to worship together in the 1850s and which, more than 2000 years after the birth of Christ, still has the power to bring all people together today.
St John’s Anglican cemetery in Te Awamutu.
Rangiaowhia St Pauls
