AS PART OF ST. THERESA’S PARISH’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY A trip back in time… WE WILL BE SHARING SOME OF THE STORIES F R O M O U R PARISH ISSUE 1 M A Y 2 0 1 5 C O L O U R F U L P A S T A Catholic community is born - where it all began, St. Joseph’s Church Pauatahanui Although we are reaching back SCENE SETTER: further than 75 years it seems appropriate to begin our jubilee 1 8 7 8 CHURCH OF THE stories with the beginnings of SACRED HEART OF Catholic worship in our district, JESUS (LATER ST. at the Church of St. Joseph’s in JOSEPH’S CHURCH) OPENS Pauatahanui. 1931 Even before St. Joseph’s was ST. THERESA’S built early Catholic settlers to CHURCH OPENS our area congregated in private 1 9 4 0 homes for prayer. The Catholic ST. THERESA’S parish of Pauatahanui was not PARISH ESTABLISHED large enough to justify having a WITH ITS FIRST resident priest and for many PRIEST IN RESIDENCE, years it fell under the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Pauatahanui. This is the oldest known FR. JEREMIAH photograph of the church. It belonged to Lavina Lavin, who was the MCGRATH jurisdiction of the Lower Hutt parish. From the 1860’s onwards granddaughter of Charles Stuart, one of the settlers who donated £5 towards the purchase of the land from Thomas Hollis Stace. 1949 Catholic priests travelled over from Photo courtesy of Eileen Guise collection ST. THERESA’S the Hutt Valley ‘to minister in the CATHOLIC SCHOOL Valley and up towards Otaki’. OPENS characterised the relations between the Anglican Occasionally they celebrated mass in the and Catholic parishes during those years. homes of Henry Abbott in the Horokiwi Parishioners from St. Alban’s and St.Joseph’s Valley and Roderick Mulhern in Judgeford. attended each other’s fundraising activities and important family occasions. In the Wellington Once a month Fr. John Lane, made the region the close-knit cooperation between difficult journey over from the Hutt to Protestants and Catholics was well known. celebrate mass, teach Catechism and perform other priestly duties. When he first started the When Johnsonville was constituted a parish in journey he took the train from the Hutt to Hay- 1921 its parish priest, Father Michael Griffin, took wards (now Manor Park) and he walked over over responsibility for Catholics in the the bridle track to Judgeford, where he stayed Pauatahanui-Plimmerton area. Under Father with the Abbott family at The Grange. In later Griffin’s administration a Catholic church, years, when the road improved, he travelled by dedicated to St Therese of Lisieux, was built in gig. Plimmerton in 1931. Inevitably some Catholics who had previously attended St. Joseph’s joined Early in 1876 four Catholic families, the the new St. Theresa’s church community. Mulherns, the Abbotts, the Stuarts and the Murphys each donated £5 to buy land on The parish of St. Theresa’s was formed in 1940 which they could build a communal church. with the arrival of its first resident priest Fr. Thomas Hollis Stace sold them a suitable site, Jeremiah McGrath. He and the sisters of St. Joseph not far from the local Protestant chapel. of Nazareth opened St. Theresa’s School in 1949, Thomas Turnbull drew up plans for a with 51 pupils. Some of them came from traditionally-shaped Gothic building and most Pauatahanui’s Catholic families who were now part of the materials used—the matai and rimu - of the Plimmerton parish. Past pupil Patrick was milled locally. Carmody, who grew up in Oak Avenue, remembered how Fr. McGrath, “who was more The church was consecrated on 28 April 1878 than 1.9 metres tall”, used to pick them up every by the Roman Catholic bishop of Wellington, day, along with the Abbott children from Judgeford Francis Redwood, and was known as the and the Bradeys from Duck Creek, to make sure Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Within a that they went to the new Catholic School and not few years it had been renamed St Joseph’s. to the local state schools. A spirit of ecumenism and cooperation Continued over... A trip back in time– St.Joseph’s—continued... For the centenary of St. Joseph’s church Historian Michael King wrote in 1978, Fr. Patrick Abbott remembered.. fondly of his childhood memories worshipping at St. Joseph’s Pauatahanui… “Father John Lane used to arrive after driving over the Haywards Hill from Lower Hutt by horse and gig— a tortuous and steep hill it was “Worshipping at Pauatahanui was one of then! the great joys of my childhood. Mass was His arrival in Judgeford Valley was in the role of a John the Baptist, said there once a month… on the charmed for he was to prepare ‘The way of the Lord’ for the next day. We have days we drove around the harbour early in to go back to our origins and we have to say that it all began with the the morning, the water as flat as sheet- graces received in the little church at the top of the hill. steel. We looked for herons and the ripples The pathway that wound up the hill into the church where so many of mullet trying to outrun the kahawai.” have walked, through those years, must finally lead us to the goal of heaven. May we all wind ourselves up that path to Eternal Glory and “The Church itself… stood next to meet at the summit of life those whom we loved and lived with in those cabbage trees, kowhai and pines on a days at St Joseph’s Pauatahanui. God bless you all.” hillside above Staces’ flat. In spring and summer the sacristy doors were thrown In later years... St. Joseph’s church fell into disuse and was open, and we could see pasture under maintained. After the St. Joseph’s centennial celebrations in 1978 and trees outside behind the a restoration committee was formed. Its aim was to renovate and altar… (to me) the church was maintain the old church. As it was the oldest Catholic church still in use redolent of age, sanctity and in the Wellington district, locals were well aware of its historical unadorned beauty.” significance and were concerned about its deterioration. In 1984 regular monthly Masses ceased and, despite the efforts of a few, the church building and grounds became increasingly neglected. In 1999 the New Zealand Historic Next edition! Places Trust awarded St. Joseph’s a Category I status, with special historical and cultural significance. 1940-1960 There were various legacies donated for its upkeep and in 2002 the St. The first 20 years Theresa’s Parish Priest, Fr. Alan Roberts, agreed the legacy money should be used for restoration. of St.Theresa’s parish ... A committee formed to lead this work under the leadership of Eileen Guise. Restoration work began in 2003 and was completed in 2004. Acknowledgements: Much of this historical text and facts has been sourced from historian Helen Reilly’s book ‘Pauatahanui: a local history’ (on sale at Paper Plus Porirua). We thank Helen for her time and for sharing her research and significant knowledge so willingly with our Jubilee project. Further information has been sourced from ‘The Centenary of St. Joseph’s Church Pauatahanui’, 1978, edited by Kathleen E. Gibson. Do you have a story to tell about St. Theresa’s parish, or know anyone who does? If you can help with stories, photos or records over any decade speak with one of these people at Church: Rusty Norris, Jude McKee or Eleanor Cater (email [email protected] or phone 233 2389). Contact us, we would love to hear from you! .