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WHS Journal 2008 Wesley Historical Society Publication #95 Page 1 WHS Journal 2008 Wesley Historical Society Publication #95 Page 2 WHS Journal 2008 Wesley Historical Editor Rev. Dr Terry Wall Society — 14 St Vincent Ave DIRECTORY 2012 Remuera J Auckland 1050 President 09 522 0729 Dr Helen Laurenson [email protected] 6B Atherton Road Epsom Executive Committee Auckland 1023 Rev. Norman Brookes ‘ 096303850 Mr Eric Laurenson [email protected] Mrs Shona Michie Rev. Dr Susan Thompson Secretary Mrs Margaret Ziegler Honoured Members 6 Brouder Place Rev. Marcia Baker Manurewa 2102 Dr Elaine Bolitho 092676515 Rev. Dr Allan Davidson [email protected] Mrs Verna Mossong Rev. Barry Neal Treasurer Mr Arthur Olsson Mr Peter Lane Mr Frank Paine 56 Senator Drive Rev. Donald Phillipps Manurewa 2105 Rev. Rua Rakena 09267 5329 Rev. Philip Taylor [email protected] Contents Editorial ‘MORE THAN JUST AN HOUR ON SUNDAY’ Methodist Church Architecture in Aotearoa 1960-2000— a personal perspective. Eric Laurenson A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WAIATA MAORI CHOIR, 1924-1938 Michelle Willyams MORE HEROES OF THE FAITH Minarapa Te Rangi-hatu-ake and Te Aro Pa, 1839- 1841 Gary Clover BOOK REVIEWS SCRIM — the man with a mike. Author: William Renwick Reviewer: Barry Jones A New Church for a New Century: East City Wesleyan’s Early Story Author: Richard Waugh Reviewer: Stuart Lange For Others With Love — A Story of Early Sisters and Methodist Deaconesses Author: Marcia Baker Reviewer: Jill Richards Wesley Historical Society Publication #95 Page 3 WHS Journal 2008 Editorial During 2012 The Methodist Church of New Zealand celebrated the centenary of the union of the Wesleyans and the Primitive Methodists which was signed at Wesley Methodist Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington on February 6th 1913 witnessed by the Governor General Lord Liverpool and the Prime Minister William Massey. Methodist historians served the Church well in keeping alive the story and its interpretation. Norman Brookes wrote a leading article for the October issue of Touchstone. Gray Clover prepared a thirty two page booklet which was distributed to all members of Conference entitled The Road to Methodist Union in 1913. Donald Phillipps addressed the annual meeting of the Wesley Historical Society with his impressions of the union between the Wesleyan and Primitive traditions. The Society hopes to publish Donald’s paper in some form in the future. We note that a significant conference was held at the end of November 2012 in preparation for the bicentenary of Samuel Marsden’s preaching the first Christian sermon in this land on Christmas Day 2014. “Iwi - Christianity - Tauiwi”, Re- evaluating Christianity’s Influence in Shaping Aotearoa New Zealand, will promote the on-going exploration of missionary beginnings and impact on the wider society. The 2012 Journal features an article by Eric Laurenson who has been a pioneer in re- shaping church architecture. His comment on the octagonal shape of some of the churches that he has designed reminds us of John Wesley’s preference for the octagonal shape in the construction of his chapels. (see Leslie F. Church The Early Methodist People, Epworth Press, 1949, p. 71) Ormond Burton observed of Percy Paris placing a cross in Wesley Methodist Church, Taranaki Street, “Once that cross was placed in Wesley, it was quite certain that the whole architecture of Methodist churches throughout the country would begin to change.” (see Percy Paris by Ormond Burton, published by The Friends of Percy Paris, 1963 p. 32) We are also happy to publish Michelle Willyams’ study of the Waiata Maori Choir and to continue Gary Clover’s study of prominent Maori evangelists who deserve to be better known. Both contribute toward our understanding of Methodism among Maori. Book reviews follow the articles as usual. — Terry Wall Wesley Historical Society Publication #95 Page 4 WHS Journal 2008 Wesley Historical Society Publication #95 Page 5 WHS Journal 2008 MORE THAN JUST AN HOUR ON SUNDAY’ Methodist Church Architecture in Aotearoa 1960-2000 — a personal perspective. Eric Laurenson Introduction In issue 62 of Wesley Historical Society proceedings, published as a tribute to its former President, Rev. Wesley Chambers, there was an article by Wesley on a history of Methodist church architecture in New Zealand. To quote from my introduction to his work: In late June 1993 I called to see the Rev. Wesley Chambers at his home in Mt. Eden Auckland where he was suffering the late stages of his final illness ... As we now talked together in his lounge it became evident that Wesley was still very much an historian with the threads of many stories running through his mind. Remembering our discussions, I asked f he would be interested in completing the essay on New Zealand Methodist church architecture with my assistance. I offered to sit with him with a portable word processor and work together with him as long as possible and so began a series of weekly meetings, rarely lasting more than an hour The week that he died, Wes. completed the draft document. It seemed almost with a sense of a completed task that he let go of life. Wesley gave me authority to edit his concluding chapter on the future directions of church architecture but I chose at the time to leave it as he had written it. Nevertheless, he raised some significant questions for us to ponder as we consider developments in recent years. These were: 1. Who is this built for? 2. What activities need to be accommodated? Is the church a standalone building for worship? 3. Is a set-aside sacred space necessary? 4. What new art forms and architecture may have a bearing on the form of the building that we put up? 5. How can it be seen to be open to the community? 6. How can the architecture of a building express the God who is both beyond and intimately near its worshipper? Wesley also noted the changing ethnic nature of the church with increasing membership from Pacific and Asian countries but made no mention of Maori. He acknowledged that he was not equipped to deal with the church architecture of those groups and suggested that they in time would write their own stories. Wesley Historical Society Publication #95 Page 6 WHS Journal 2008 Bearing all this in mind, and because of my own involvement as architect with over 100 churches of various denominations during my years of practice, I venture to outline my own experience of church architecture in the years since the period of which Wesley Chambers wrote. In the mid 1960s, the then minister with oversight of the Roskill and Sandringham Methodist churches in Auckland, the Rev. Edgar Hornblow, invited me to assist him with the design of a new church. I was a young draughtsman, about to qualify as an architect, and a member of the Circuit. Edgar was in the process of amalgamating the former Roskill and Sandringham congregations into one unit on a new site in Mt Albert Road. He had many fresh ideas about the nature of church worship and practice and he wanted to incorporate these in the new building. Foremost among his thoughts was the developing theology of the time that the church is far more than a place where prayerful individuals attended for an hour on Sunday. Rather it should be a place where the whole needs of people were addressed. ‘The horizontal fellowship’ was one of the catch phrases of the time as people tried to express a sense of human community as well as the ‘vertical’ relationship with a divine God. The resultant church design for Wesley Church, reflected this in some new features [above] — a square-proportioned worship space with a symmetrical pyramidal roof and seating intended to be arranged on three sides of a centrally placed communion table with rail also on three sides. The lightweight pews allowed for easy layout for alternative uses. The worship space was linked to a multi-use hall with a large foyer which allowed for mixing and meeting. All facilities were accessible under one roof. Wesley Historical Society Publication #95 Page 7 WHS Journal 2008 At the time, all this seemed revolutionary. There may well have been similar movement occurring in other places and countries but I sought in vain for information in books and journals that would assist me in the planning of this very modest building. The Methodist Connexional office responded cautiously but eventually allowed the project to proceed. For me, it set a precedent for a whole raft of church projects that has extended throughout my career as an architect. People of many denominations visited this and subsequent churches and I found commissions coming in from all the mainstream Christian denominations. ‘Somehow, Edgar and I seemed to have tapped into a theological change that was occurring throughout the Christian world in the 1960s. Changing theology inevitably meant that buildings had to change. It was significant at that time, that many of the Auckland architects who seemed to be particularly involved in church-related work were Methodist. Kelvin Grant, Brad. Shaw and Arnold Neal were also setting new ways of looking at church buildings, both in the manner in which they planned and in the use of non-traditional materials and structures. I have pondered since whether this indicated something distinctive about local Methodism at that time in that it included people who were particularly willing to allow their own faith to influence and shape the buildings with which they were involved. The Mt Roskill church was closely followed by the Bader Drive Methodist Church in Mangere [above], which introduced a polygonal worship space — in this case a hexagonal design with the same large foyer and associated hall and facilities.

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