St Paul's Church

About

St Paul's Church is a historic Anglican church, located on Symonds Street near the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology, in the central business district of Auckland, New Zealand. The church is the longest established parish in the city and has one of the largest Anglican congregations in Australasia. The St Paul's foundation stone was laid by Governor William Hobson on 28 July 1841 and the first service was held on 7 May 1843. St Paul's also served as Auckland's Cathedral for over 40 years. The third and current building was formally consecrated by Bishop William Cowie on 1 November 1895, and is now registered as a Category I Historic Place by Heritage New Zealand.

Now occupying its third building, St Paul's is known as the 'Mother Church' of Auckland as it is the oldest church community in the city and was founded within a year of the foundation of the city. The first St Paul's was built in Emily Place, just off Princes Street, in 1841 where a plaque still marks the site of the beginning of the Christian church in Auckland.

Old St Paul's was in the centre of the young colonial city, on a prominent ridge-top site on Point Britomart, close to the imperial garrison stationed at Fort Britomart, and near the remnants of the old Rangipuke pā where Ngāti Whātua had defended their rohe during the Musket Wars of the 1820s. St Paul's was the seat of the Bishop of New Zealand, the Right Reverend George Selwyn, and Auckland's wealthiest settlers worshipped there. The religion of British royalty, the Anglican faith was closely linked to colonial power. Many of St Paul's artefacts, such as the Bishop's Throne and a large collection of memorials, are connected to this time when Auckland was New Zealand's capital.

Reverend John Churton was the first minister of St Paul's, occupying that role for 12 years. The Churton Memorial was built to his memory, close to the site of the original church building. In 1863 the original building received extensive enlargements which doubled the seating capacity.

During the height of the New Zealand Wars in the 1860s, St Paul's was used as a safe haven for women, children and the elderly; a traditional church role in times of strife. After the war moved south, however, and Auckland expanded geographically, the congregation dwindled as attendees moved to the new suburbs of Epsom and Remuera, and St Matthew's in the City served the suburbs of Freemans Bay and Ponsonby, while the Church of the Holy Sepulchre served opulent Grafton.

On 20 March 1840 in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, paramount chief Apihai Te Kawau, a friend of Samuel Marsden, signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the te reo Māori translation of the Treaty of Waitangi ). Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from Ngāpuhi as well as a reciprocal relationship with the Crown and the Church. Soon after signing Te Tiriti, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the primary hapū and landowner in Tāmaki Makaurau, made a tuku (strategic gift) of 3,500 acres (1,400 hectares) of land on the Waitematā Harbour to Governor Hobson to establish his new capital, Auckland. All three St Paul's buildings would be built on this land.

When St Paul's was founded by Governor Hobson on 28 July 1841, hundreds attended the ceremony including Ngāti Whātua chiefs Apihai Te Kawau, Te Keene and a young Pāora Tūhaere, accompanied by over one hundred Māori warriors.

On 19 July 1842, Bishop Selwyn, having learned te reo Māori himself, issued Rev Churton with a curacy license for 'the township of Auckland'. On the official printed license, Selwyn handwrote "Provided also that you shall use due diligence in the study of the language of the Native Inhabitants of New Zealand, and be ready when required to minister to their spiritual wants in like manner as to those of all the other inhabitants of your District without distinction of persons". However, St Paul's first vicar, who was originally sent by the New Zealand Company, was mainly concerned with European settlers, and refused to learn te reo.

Bishop Selwyn opened St Paul's Church over four services on 7 May 1843. He later wrote, "The services began with a native congregation at nine; some of whom having only heard of the opening on Saturday evening, paddled a distance of twelve miles by sea during the night, in order to be present. The greater number were in full European clothing, and took part in the Church service, in a manner which contrasts most strikingly with that of the silent and unkneeling congregations of the English settlers." St Paul's then held four Sunday services weekly, serving both Māori and European congregations, with two services conducted in te reo Māori and two in English.

The 1845–1846 Northern War in and around the Bay of Islands, caused by the difference in understanding between the English language Treaty of Waitangi and te reo Māori Te Tiriti o Waitangi, lead to an expectation that Hōne Heke would attack Auckland, and St Paul's was fortified with shutters with loopholes. After hearing rounds of gunfire, the women and children of the town "were put into St Paul’s Church for safety, the one building easily holding the small population then here" and a military guard was posted for the night. The gunfire which caused the unnecessary panic turned out to be "over the body of a chief who had died during the day".

The increasing European population of Auckland put pressure on Māori land and society, straining relations, leading to the city's second Anglican church, St Barnabas being opened in 1849 specifically for Māori.

St Paul's was the pro-cathedral of Bishop of New Zealand for Selwyn's entire 28 year tenure. The New Zealand Church Missionary Society (CMS) criticised Selwyn for being ineffective in training and ordaining clergy – especially Māori. It took him 11 years to ordain the first Māori Anglican minister, Rev Rota Waitoa, at St Paul’s on 22 May 1853, and 24 years to ordain a Māori priest. Selwyn went on to ordain seven more Māori clergy at St Paul's, but his high church ways were blamed for undermining the work of the CMS and damaging Māori enthusiasm for Christianity.

When Churton died in 1853, Selwyn appointed Rev John Frederick Lloyd to replace him. Lloyd was the opposite of Churton – a personal friend of Selwyn with respect for Māori, who spoke te reo, and had tutored mixed Māori and European classes at St John's College. Together they tried to create a bicultural house of worship.

By 1859, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, who had given two further land tuku (strategic gifts) of 13,200 acres (5,342 hectares) to the Crown, had lost most of their remaining land through speculators. The 700-acre Ōrākei block was all that remained. Within a century, this too was compulsorily acquired by the Crown (apart from a cemetery).

Selwyn and Lloyd generally advocated for Māori rights and were often critics of the unjust and reckless land acquisition practices that led to the New Zealand Wars. However, their support of the Invasion of the Waikato as chaplains, damaged their and the church's relationship with Māori, which is still felt today.

Old St Paul's was considered a garrison church, but when the first regimental colours unfurled in New Zealand were donated to the church, Lloyd turned them down so "no jealousies of race or feelings of hostility should ever be permitted to enter, but where men should remember only that they are one in Christ".

When the first St Paul's building was demolished, various political, military, clergy and settler memorials were kept, but the only direct reference to Māori was a plaque mentioning the 'hostile Maoris at Rangariri [sic]'.

The original Emily Place church was demolished in 1885, when Point Britomart was quarried away.

A temporary wooden church, designed by William Skinner, was built on the corner of Short Street and Eden Crescent while a permanent church site was identified. That temporary church is now the Tātai Hono marae, part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Only the present site, halfway up the Symonds Street hill on the same ridge as the original church, was considered large and central enough for the planned church. It also placed it near Auckland's oldest street, Karangahape Road, which by the 1880s was a thriving thoroughfare and shopping precinct for both Māori and Pākehā. The road was a traditional walking track along the ridge from Ōwairaka (Mt Albert) to Ōrākei for Ngāti Whātua. The official municipal burial ground; the Symonds Street Cemetery was also nearby, on the corner of K’Road and Symonds Street.