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150 years of Presbyterianism in Christchurch

The Presbyterian Church began in the Christchurch region with the building of St Andrew’s “Scotch” Church and the calling of the Rev Charles Fraser to be its minister in 1856.

Each fifty years since then, St Andrew’s has celebrated a jubilee and published a book about the previous fifty years. Mrs Jane Deans wrote the story of the first fifty years. She was the widow of John Deans who put £10 on the table at the 1854 meeting that decided to build the church. He promised a further £90 when the building was completed but it was Jane, by then a widow, who fulfilled the promise.

The centennial history was written in 1956 by Graham Miller, the then session clerk of St Andrew’s, and the most recent book was written by Prof David McIntyre and published at the start of celebrations in February 2006. Because this jubilee also marks the 150 years of the Presbyterian Church in the region, the Christchurch Presbytery shared in two of the Waitangi weekend celebrations.

The first of these was the dedication of a memorial by Presbytery moderator, the Rev Kim Bathgate on the original site of St Andrew’s. The memorial, a metal sculpture symbolising the Scottish presence in the city, is mounted on the cairn and light standard that was placed at the front entrance of the church in the early 1900s. Since the church building shifted to the grounds of Rangi Ruru Girls’ School in 1986, the cairn and light has stood in lonely isolation on an unused part of the property. As the bearer of the memorial it is now given a much more public position near busy Oxford Terrace.

The second shared activity – an anniversary service in the expanded original church – remembered the beginning of what was a very rapid expansion of Presbyterian churches and schools in a fast growing province. Now called St Andrew’s at Rangi Ruru, the church serves as a chapel for the school as well as retaining its original parish function. Use of the church is shared by the school chaplain and the ministry team that serves both the parish of St Andrew’s at Rangi Ruru and the parish of St James, Spreydon.

The Rt Rev Garry Marquand, moderator of the General Assembly preached at the anniversary service, which was followed by a luncheon. Around 200 people attended the sesqui-centenary celebrations, which were held 3-5 February.