CHURCH HISTORY

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 236, 5 October 1936, Page 3

CHURCH HISTORY

ST. ANDREW'S EARLY DAYS. During an inspection the mother Presbyterian Church of Auckland, St. Andrew's, which was made by members of the Auckland Historical Society on Saturday afternoon, the Rev. P. Gladstone Hughes produced many of the early records of the church, some of which he had disinterred from piles of rubbish in one of the ante-rooms. Recounting the early history of the church, Mr. Hughes stated that as oarly as 1542 a Presbyterian Sunday school w*s organised, the children being taught by the elders under the supervision of the Anglican minister of St. Paul's. The building of a church was delayed by the disruption of the Scottish Church in 1543, but another movement to build a church started in 1847, and the church was opened three years later. The first minister, a stalwart of the Free Church, returned to Scotland after holding office for 10 months, owing to disagreement with his congregation and office-bearers, »and Wesleyan ministers assisted to maintain the church until the Rev. J. Inglis took charge. When he went to the New Hebrides as a missionary he was succeeded in 1853 by the Rev. D. Bruce.