Church Building Plans In Expanding Suburbs

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28012, 5 July 1956, Page 6

Church Building Plans In Expanding Suburbs

In the new housing areas and expanding suburbs of Christchurch, the main religious denominations are spending big sums on church buildings of all kinds for the rapidly-growing population. • The main concern of most church administrators is to provide halls for youth work as a nucleus for full parishes as the demand arises.

The Anglican Church in the Diocese of Christchurch has spent £125.000 on new churches, extensions, church halls, building sites, and a few vicarages in the last five years. Its ’mmediate needs of new buildings are estimated to cost £75.000.

New sites will be acquired on the western and north-western side of the city, where population is increasing at the fastest rate. This area stretches across from the Main South road to the Main North road. When sites have been purchased, the next step will be the erection of church rooms as the population warrants it. These will be used for Suncay school and Bible class work, church services, where required, and the social life of the parish. Clergy houses have already been built in parts of Christchurch where new parishes are likely to be founded within the next few years. A new church has to be built at Spreydon to replace the old one. and many others must be extended to cope with bigger congregations.

During the last three or four years new parish halls have been built at Addington. Cashmere, and Papanui. n ne is still under construction at Upper Riccarton. The parish hall at St. Anne’s Church. St. Martins, has been extended. Church rooms have been erected in the Bryndwr parish, where a vicarage has also been built: at Aranui in the Linwood narish: and in Hoon Hay road. A parish room has been built at St. Mary’s Church, Merivale. and extensions have been made to church rooms at Redcliffs and Mount Pleasant. Sunday school classrooms have been erected at Woolston, and vicarages have been built at Bryndwr. Burwood, and in Barrington street. Roman Catholic Parishes The Roman Catholic Church has set up nine new parishes in the Diocese of Christchurch in the last five years, and has expanded older churches. The cost of church building projects, including those built since 1951, and others now under construction, is estimated at £lOO.OOO. A new church is being erected at Beckenham to accommodate 500 worshippers. This is expected to be finished by September. Additions have been made to a temporary church at Bryndwr, and to the Papanui church. In the parish of St. Mary’s, Manchester street, another church is planned. A new church at Dallington is expected to be onened at the end of this year. Additions to a temporary church built in 1952 at Mairehau have now been made.

A new church was opened at St. Albans about a year ago, and the temporary church in the Cashmere parish is being replaced by a modern structure in Hoon Hay road.

Schools are an integral part of the Roman Catholic Church. The number of children attending Roman Catholic schools in the diocese has increased from 6724 pupils in 1951 to 8811 in 1955. In that tipie, the church has found it necessary to build several new schools, and to extend existing ones. Altogether about £92,000 has been spent on 37 new classrooms for schools and colleges throughout the diocese. This sum includes new parish schools at Sockburn. Mairehau, and St. Albans, as well as a school which will be opened at Hoon Hay early next year.

Spending by Presbyterians About £20.000 has been spent on church extension within the bounds of the Presbytery of Christchurch since 1951. Plans are already in the hands of architects for new Presbyterian churches and halls costing at least £ 24.000.

Since 1951, a new church hall and manse have been built at Bryndwr. where a church will be built soon. A small hall at Mount Pleasant, onened in 1953, is the first part of a plan to build a full croup of parish buildings on the site. St. Aidan’s Church, North Shirley, was onened about 16 months ago. and plans are being made for building a manse there. A hall is being built by voluntary labour at North New Brighton, where services are now held in the school. Tenders have been called for the erection of a church hall on the Main South road, Upper Riccarton. and a manse will be built on the same site.

A small congregation has been established at Aranui, where a church hall will be soon built. Sections have been purchased at Hoon Hay, north St. Albans, and South Brighton for the founding of parishes. The home ministry committee of the Presbyterian Church is closely watching the expanding housing areas, and works in co-ordination with the Methodist Church to avoid unnecessary overlapping. Methodist Churches The Methodist Church has spent about £32.000 in the last four or five years on the building of churches and church halls in growing districts, and expects to spend £lB,OOO more within the next three years. Sites have been bought in Hoon Hay, Wairakei road, and Waimairi road, for new buildings. At North Brighton, the first part of a composite church and hall has been built, and in South Brighton the congregation is erecting a church to supplement the hall, which has been used for some years for services and other church activities. A church hall was erected in Shirley a few years ago to accommodate worshippers in this expanding area. The new Aldred Memorial Hall in the Knowles street extension was primarily intended as a supplementary Sunday school lor the Edgeware Road Methodist Church, but it is now necessary also to hold church services there. In Islington a new church was opened this year, and a youuth hall is being built in Upper Riccarton. At Addington, a new church has been built to replace the old wooden structure, which is now being used for youth work. There is a new Methodist Sunday school at Redcliffs, and St. James’ Church. Cashmere, will be enlarged this year. Permanent materials have been used in all buildings. Tithing Among Baptists One of the reasons for introducing the Biblical practice of tithing in the Baptist Church for three months is to raise funds for building expansion throughout New Zealand. In Christchurch, £22.000 has been spent since 1951 on a new church and hall and a renovated hall at Opawa, a new church hall at Bryndwr, extensions to the St. Albans Church, and new halls at Hornby and Papanui. In the same period, nine manses have been built at a total cost of £36,000, including those at Kaiapoi and Rangiora. A new church is planned for Linwood, and this may be completed within two years. A double section has been bought on Pages road, where a church hall will be built to serve Baptists in Aranui. These two buildings are expected to cost about £12,000.

The Salvation Army will build a hall soon near the new housing area at Hornby, and the Church of Christ plans to erect a youth hall at Linwood within a year. The Congregational Church has no immediate plans for building in Christchurch, but its ministers are watching developments in new communities.