Unusual Plan To Assist Church Rebuilding Fund

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29130, 16 February 1960, Page 17

Unusual Plan To Assist Church Rebuilding Fund

Members of the Baptist Church in Rangiora are at present embarking on various fund-raising schemes to provide money for the construction of a new church in the town. This building, when erected, will replace the existing church, which is the oldest still in use by a Baptist congregation in New Zealand, according to the Rev. P. L. Crampton. The members of the church in Rangiora hope to raise £lOOO this year through regular special envelope gifts, the sale of surplus produce and a "talent” scheme which starts next Sunday. The “talent” scheme is a practical application of the Biblical parable. Pound notes will be distributed to the congregation in the church and the members will trade with this money for three months before bringing in the results at the end of that time. This project will commence at the morning service which will be attended by a guest speaker, the president of the Canterbury and Westland Association of the Baptist Union (Mr C. W. Eagle). Each of the church’s organisations will arrange functions during the year to augment the funds for the new building, said Mr Crampton. Plans for the new church are still tentative at present, but it will be built on the same site as the present structure and will have a seating capacity of between 150 and 175 perS °The present church, known as “Little Bethel” when it was built, was erected by the congregation itself on land given by Mr William Ivory. The church was built in 1863, a year after the congregation in the district had been officially constituted. A weatherboard building sheltered by a few bluegums, the little church was the scene or many marathon sermons m its wrly days. Mr Ivory, the first teacher of the church, and his successor, William Sansom, set an almost exhausting standard for their successors. After a period of unsatisfactory preaching arrangements i which lay readers were heard,

the church closed—for all but 10 minutes every Sunday to comply with a clause of the agreement under which the property was leased. The church was the home of the Calvinistic Baptists until 1883 when regular preachers were supplied by the Canterbury Baptist Association.

Although the building has been altered in more recent times and has been covered with asbestoscement sidings, it still bears a marked resemblance to its original appearance.