Last Sunday service on present site

Press, 28 July 1986, Page 7

Last Sunday service on present site

“The Old Hundredth” was an appropriate first hymn for yesterday’s last Sunday service at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on its present site.

After almost 130 years, the church will be moved in August from opposite Christchurch Hospital to a new site at Rang! Ruru Girls’ School in Merivale. Other schools have imported churches on to their sites to use as

chapels, but this was the first time a church with its congregation had shifted into a school, said the church’s session clerk, Mr Neil Ockwell.

The service yesterday reflected the new identity of St Andrew’s. Pupils and staff of Rang! Ruru attended the service and the school choir sang “Amazing Grace.” A highlight of the service occurred when the congregation’s oldest member, Mrs Eva Burns, aged 97, was presented with flowers by a Rangi Ruru pupil, Nlchola Landrebe, whose parents were married in the church in 1967.

The Rev. Ronald Simpson compared the move to Rang! Ruru to the biblical exodus from Egypt

“The children of Israel went forward because they were moved by inner power.

“Today we are sharing together in the merging of the resources and ideals of a church school and a church congregation.”

Mr Simpson also commented on the leading role played by the church in setting up Hagley High School, St Andrew’s College, and the University of Canterbury. It was fitting for St Andrew’s Church to become deeply involved once more with a school.

The move to Rangi Ruru, however, did not mean that the church's geographic parish and inner-city ministry would be neglected. A new building would be put up once the church had been shifted, he said.

In addition to a chapel, the new building would provide the social services which would enable the parish to make an effective contribution to an inner-city ministry, he said.

The final service on the present site will be held on Thursday with the induction of the Rev. Roger Millichamp as ministerchaplain of the Parish of St Andrew’s.