St Andrew’s Day celebration & Blessing of new front entrance: 7 December 2025

The story of our new entrance is really a story about change that is nested in a much bigger story about change that goes right back to the very beginning of this parish.

The story starts in the early days of the settlement that became known as Wellington when our forebears arrived on the Bengal Merchant in 1840.  Because we are also celebrating St Andrew’s Day (although St Andrew’s Day was actually on 30 November,) it is particularly apt for us to pay homage to these courageous Scots folk – a band of Presbyterians under the leadership of Rev John Macfarlane. What more profound change than leaving your home to sail across the world and settle in a new, unknown land. Would they have dreamed of such a city and such a church when they stepped ashore at Pito-One and held their first service in February 1840? They were the first Presbyterian congregation in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This church and all of us are their legacy.

Rev Macfarlane and his followers moved to Thorndon waterfront after one year, as Pito-One proved flood-prone, cold and damp. In 1844, they built the Scotch Kirk on Lambton Quay. In 1878 a rather grander wooden church was constructed here on this site on The Terrace, with the Manse next door. Unfortunately this wooden church burned down in 1920. The present steel-reinforced concrete structure was built in 1922. The Scotch Kirk and its successor congregations thrived for well over a century.

Fast forward a hundred and thirty five years. When Rev John Murray arrived to take up his call in 1975 he found a dying Parish. St Andrew’s was a ‘threatened building’ as a wave of demolition and new construction swept across the city. John’s vision was to create a ministry to the city – he called it ‘a church in the city for the city’. We became St Andrew’s on The Terrace and thus began the modern era. Recognising the proximity to Parliament, John set about involving the church in the affairs of the community and of the State. This was a radical idea for the Presbyterian Church at the time but it is a stance that we have continued over the ensuing 50 years. John declared a nuclear free zone and we became a peace church; gay and lesbian men and women were elected as elders in defiance of the General Assembly’s ruling; and he introduced many changes to worship. St Andrew’s on The Terrace became a centre of Christian opposition to the Springbok tour of 1981.

The church had been locked up every day of the week except Sunday, and now the doors were flung open. But perhaps the most creative initiative was the introduction of Wednesday lunchtime concerts which established St Andrew’s on The Terrace as a prime concert venue.

John’s social justice action has been continued by subsequent ministers – Jim Stuart, Margaret Mayman, Jim Cunningham and Susan Jones – with each putting their own stamp on this legacy. Fei, you too are building on our social justice tradition, especially but not only, by providing ministry to the Pacific Island community in the city, in Parliament and to the people of our neighbourhood.

What John and his congregation did not do – and arguably had no time and energy to do – was attend to the state of the deteriorating buildings, although the hall did have an upgrade. John once told me that they knew they really needed to do this but the 1987 crash came and they were deterred.

Fast forward another decade or so to the early 2000s. Shortly after Margie Mayman arrived the church was ‘red-stickered’ – it was deemed earthquake-prone. That was the catalyst for a project that became known as ‘Saving St Andrew’s’ – a 20 year programme in five phases. We earthquake strengthened the church, modernised the hall building and constructed a new office block. These improvements allowed us to establish a meeting centre which is now used by hundreds of people every week. Phase 4 was restoration of the Croft organ which many of you were involved in too. John Murray had articulated a compelling purpose.  We now had a clear mission in the city to fulfil, a track record to build on and we got stuck in.

So this is a momentous day in the history of this Parish as we come together to celebrate the fifth and final phase – the completion of our new access ramp and entrance.

To our guests, we are glad that you are here to celebrate with us. I have a long list of people to thank which I will come to shortly.

I want to take a moment to think about the reading from Matthew 3.  John The Baptist is calling on people to repent their sins – we might say unethical behaviour and poor governance.  It is a resonant call to action to prepare for the public ministry of Jesus: “This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him”.

The old ways of the Jewish faith were in serious trouble. John The Baptist rails against the elitist and wealthy Sadduccees, a powerful sect, and against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He rains down language of fire: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” There is an urgency for change here, a disgust, a warning about things to come. When he invokes the prophet Isaiah, Matthew reminds us that change is with us through history. Jesus and his followers were about to create a revolution – a new way called Christianity. It is a story of hope, that change is always possible.

Let’s consider too for a minute: a ministry against a powerful, wealthy and rigid elite. Does that sound like a story of our time? We have to ask ourselves: Are we doomed to cycles of corrupt, powerful elites who live only for themselves or can we call on the Christian message of justice and compassion to break the cycle? We must not forget our Jewish and Moslem brothers and sisters who are equally concerned. When we call out acts of discrimination, inequality, or the failure to respond to the climate crisis, we are showing that we are deeply connected with the challenges we face and we must not give up hope of change.

When we build a ramp and eliminate a step we are also saying that change is possible. I want to pay tribute to several of our elders who are no longer with us. Frances Porter and Pam Ormsby, both known for their forthrightness, were especially vocal about that step. Theirs was a call to action. Douglas Wood, a key member of the Saving St Andrew’s team, also had trouble with the step as his mobility became compromised. It was simply unjust that he struggled to get into the church that he had helped restore. So we remember Frances, Pam and Douglas with much gratitude and affection today. Jenny Simpson has been a champion for this change as her mobility also declined. Jenny has been in a wheel chair for some time now and is unfortunately not able to be with us today. We honour them all.

It turns out that altering the front entrance of a heritage building is not an easy thing to do. Some heritage experts believe that you should not meddle with original design and construction. Others are more practical and believe that buildings need to be adapted to fit current purposes and needs. Fortunately in this story we had more of the latter than the former group.

So to my thank yous. I acknowledge my colleagues Richard Owen, Paul Barber, Sue Hirst, Sandra Kirby and the late Andrew Matthews as we inched our way forward over eight years. To our office staff, Adelina, Jemma and Germaine and of course Fei, thank you for your support in so many ways.

Special thanks to our team of experts for getting us over the line: Janine Mitchell, our first architect who, with crucial assistance from Paul Cummack, obtained resource consent in 2020. Janine then passed the baton, having retired during the COVID years. John Wright picked it up with enthusiasm and his staff, Simon McRae and then Emily Martin undertook design – again with input from Paul. Emily, you made it all happen. Congratulations and thank you. To LT McGuinness, Louis, David and Kumresh – thank you for an elegant and practical result. The changes look as if they have always been there. And yes thanks to Wellington City Council who came to the party in the end and made things very smooth during construction.

I want to acknowledge our funders: The New Zealand Lottery Grants Board, the Stout Trust and the Justice-Compassion Trust. We are also grateful to Jack Richards. Jack, thank you for bringing Joshua and Oscar Han to Wellington for a joyful concert last March, for your support of Quang Hong Luu, a talented young Vietnamese pianist, in May and your ongoing support.

There is one person without whom this project would almost certainly not have succeeded and that is Rob Mitchell. Rob, back in 2018 you and I paced up and down outside trying to figure out how to tackle this problem. You ‘gave’ us Janine – who else could have got us through the bureaucratic hoops? – and then when LT McGuinness began on site you were here constantly, helping to nut out various solutions. Most of you won’t remember that Rob was the project manager for the new welcome building, now known as St Andrew’s Centre. That had it challenges too but it is another story. Suffice it to say that we are incredibly fortunate that Rob volunteers his time and considerable expertise to St Andrew’s on The Terrace since retiring from OPUS in 2014. Please put your hands together to acknowledge such an incredible team of people.

Our congregation committed to this project because we have a mission to the city and an enduring commitment to social justice. We wanted to enable everyone to enter the church through the front door. We have achieved that. Now it’s time to turn our attention to other pressing matters of justice, knowing that change is our legacy and change is always possible. But first let’s go singing into Christmas.

Audio of selected readings and reflections

Audio of the complete service