1 2 Contents Preface The First Generation 1897-1922 In the Beginning The Brick Church From the Records Roll of Honour The Second Generation 1922-1947 The Methodist Centenary Hall From the Records The Sunday School Movement Roll of Honour The Third Generation 1947-1972 The New Circuit The Wars Roll of Honour The Fourth Generation 1972-1997 In a Changed World The Other Dominion Road Churches Roll of Honour On Reflection What Happened to the Churches Is That All? Appendices 3 4 Preface The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. His dominion is from generation to generation. The Methodists were evangelists; they placed the highest value on preaching. They were prepared to go wherever the people went, preach in sawpits, homes and on the streets, and even in paddocks. If a ‘cause’ did not succeed they would close it down and try elsewhere. If a building was needed it was likely to be plain and simple, a preaching place out of the weather, and a teaching place for day school or Sunday School. When more room was essential they extended - add ons, or basements or another building. As the need changed, as people moved outwards from the centre, the big decisions were taken: for example, close down Sheridan and build bigger at Franklin Rd. The Union left too many small churches and some had to go. Some struggled on for years before closing, or amalgamating, or giving buildings to other causes. If a church survived long enough it was likely to have a jubilee and a small history, usually written by the minister from the stored records and the memories of the old people. Most have a similarity: a few old photographs (the building, the founders, possibly a local scene), some groups (Sunday School, trustees, choir, picnic) and a brief history. Key people got a mention. The list of ministers was set out as a roll of honour. And likewise with key officers. The groups and organisations all got a small mention. The printing varied from passable to poor, and the layout, generally poor by today’s standards, was at about the level of the contemporary newspapers. There was the story of the years with little sense of history and the big changes in thought, education and politics that were all around. They did their best. But it was very hit and miss. High Street, the parent, got nothing; Pitt Street, the offshoot, a jubilee and a centenary. Nothing for the second Roskill, the only Sandringham and Marion Avenue. The Primitives got small booklets on Franklin Rd, Eden Terrace and Dominion Rd. Airedale St (The Mission) picked up the history of the early Primitive period, at times in passing, and generally just the beginnings. There have been many churches both Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist that have gone from memory. Pitt and Edwin, Union, Sheridan St, Newmarket, Great North Road, Morningside— all sank without a trace except for archives. Let’s put that to rights for Dominion Road at least. It has suffered a great decline. It was once the biggest Sunday School, and the most successful at least, one of) and there are many returning at this centenary and many more again who are not returning for whatever reason, including the Didn’t Knows, who have rich and 5 warming memories of their earlier days here. There are childhood memories, adolescent memories that colour the rest of a life, and adult memories. Not only did the church world change, the world itself changed too. All that deserved to be recorded, as it was, and deserves to be recalled, as it now is. The result is not a small and slight book. It has not been tossed off in a few days. It does not depend on the small present congregation, but is for the former congregations. Before existing memory is a hidden and forgotten world. All there in the books: the minutes, the events, the histories, the accounts, the brochures, pamphlets, memoirs, Church newspapers, eulogies, ‘hatched, matched, and despatched’, and the memorabilia. We have a rich archive, desperately in need of more workers to do routine organising tasks but the end result is the gathering and disentangling of a rich and rewarding social and spiritual story. There is something for everyone. It is grave, it is gay, it is intense and it can be very humdrum. Even when the boring bits are dropped, we still need to know that there were boring bits. Most of all there were music and worship. Of course the humorous and social parts stay in our minds, but so does music, and so does worship in a true spirit. The time allotted to do the book was far too short, but unavoidably so. There was no time to search all the records but whatever was delved into produced useable material. And the modern wonders helped: an archive of old records, a desk top with its own computer (and even a mouse), a gifted designer, and basic to it all, a 2B pencil and a computer inputter (or putter iner). Blessings on archivists Verna Mossong and Jill Weeks; designer Derek Olphert (grandson of good old Rev. John); typists Geraldine Riesterer and Lois (Edgewater Design), and thank God for photocopiers and computers that image. Imagine that! 6 7 In the Beginning The men and women who held the first Methodist service “westward in Eden” chose to preach and worship under the spreading branches of a large tree. John Wesley had been an open-air preacher, so this group of Primitive Methodists was on familiar ground. It was 1895. A new suburb was just beginning with some houses and roads on the eastern (uphill) side of Mount Roskill Road (Dominion Road). On the western (downhill) sides there wasn’t much at all. It was paddocks from Bellwood Avenue to Epsom-Mount Albert Road (Balmoral Road). St. Alban’s Anglican Church was in place, there was a store opposite the present Methodist Church, and Renfrew’s boiling- down works (for dead animals) was down the paddock where Paice Avenue now runs. There were two gates, one at today’s Brixton Road; one at today’s Burnley Terrace (with a No Trespass notice). The only through roads nearby to Mount Eden Road were Valley and Epsom-Mount Albert. Prospect Terrace was a no-exit, and Grange and Milton under construction. Valley Road had shops; Balmoral a store and blacksmith. The tree of the first service was about where Burnley and Marlborough meet, and near the cottage of Mr and Mrs Hirst. The Hirsts were Kingsland Wesleyan. The name occurs in Gribblehirst Park, land from the two families Gribble and Hirst, father and son-in-law. A Hirst daughter had married the Primitive Methodist, Rev.J Nixon in 1881. The Hirst Cottage came to be used as a Sunday School for the Primitives. The first preachers were Rev. C E Ward and Rev. G H Mann, the Connexional evangelist. At least two of the later leaders of the Church had already moved into the new district, both very experienced men (Taylor and Watkinson) so they may have been the prime movers in planning the service. It is probable that other such services were held in the warmer weather over the next year until a church was built. Dominion Road and corner of George Street at about 1890 - Auckland Public Library. 8 This centenary is really a year or so late: the first preaching was in 1895, the Sunday School in December 1896, and the first Church building in 1897. It is the building we are commemorating, a church open for public worship. For many decades the Sunday School anniversary in December was a special commemoration of the official opening in December 1896 in the Hirst cottage. It would be easy to believe that the Sunday School success prompted the move to build a church but the dates of decisions show otherwise. The jubilee book believed that, but on December 2 1896 the Quarterly Meeting had already set up a committee to consider erecting a church. The speed is remarkable: Sunday School, decision to buy land, and letting a contract. It was all done in weeks. At that time, before the motor car, the choice was between riding a horse and walking. For the better off there was a twice-daily horse bus with the terminus at Prospect Terrace. Ordinary people did a lot of walking, and walking distance to church was to be desired. The bicycle was still for sport and leisure. The inner city had become mainly commercial and was pushing the housing outwards. The routes south were along the top ridge of Mount Eden Road, and the lower route of Mount Roskill Road. The latter ‘westward in Eden’, the corridor to Mount Roskill, took the name Mount Roskill instead of Eden. The walker from the city Primitive Methodist Church at Alexandra Street (today’s Aotea Chapel and Mission) would go through Newton and Eden Terrace, with Cabbage Tree Swamp (now Eden and Gribblehirst Parks) on the right further along Mount Roskill Road. The Mount Eden district had its first Church service onJuly 29, 1877, in the then recently opened schoolroom at Valley and Mount Eden Roads. The room was used by Anglican, Wesleyan and Free Methodist Churches, the inaugural service a combined one, and a small combined Sunday School developed. The Wesleyans discontinued their meetings; the Anglicans had their own church in 1878, the Free Methodists continued to rent the schoolroom, and the Primitives were working elsewhere. The school moved to the present Valley Road site in 1879 and the Free Methodists bought the old room and site.