This week the Anglican Diocese of Dunedin declared itself two years from crisis, with building maintenance costs figuring large in its woes. It is a familiar tale. So, what future do our church buildings have?
They unloaded the timber at the river mouth at Kakanui, carried it up to a section they had set aside and built their church. It has stood beside the river for 141 years, one of R.A.
Lawson's humbler creations: a small, austerely Presbyterian thing with not a hint of stained-glass or other indulgence. But it has a place in the Kakanui community's heart and now it is under threat.
It is a story you will find repeated around New Zealand, from small rural communities such as Kakanui to the biggest cities. Churches are declining, in terms of both membership and the physical fabric. As parishioner numbers continue to fall away and donations and energies dwindle, whose responsibility is it to save our historic churches?
Local farmer Karl Ruddenklau took on responsibility for the Kakanui church's upkeep 18 months ago, driven by a sense of its heritage value and its vulnerability.
During the last decade, as the congregation aged and numbers dwindled, maintenance suffered. The roof and the piles are sound but there's rot and a need for replacement of windowsills and weatherboards.
And, as if that physical threat weren't enough, the parish "powers that be" have mooted that the Kakanui church, one of six in the wider area, be sold, although that idea is under review.
If it stays, how much will repairs cost? Mr Ruddenklau says a builder has quoted $50,000 to do the windows but the total bill could be significantly higher - well beyond the means of the tiny congregation. The answer will come from the wider community, Mr Ruddenklau believes, from locals who don't attend the church but who value it nonetheless.
"A lot of people have said we have to keep this church here. It's the only link we have with the past."
Whether Kakanui rallies round to retain that link remains to be seen. But similar scenarios are playing out in other districts with very mixed results.
Stewart Harvey, chairman of the New Zealand Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust, says the fate of historic churches is a quietly unfolding New Zealand tragedy.
"Quite a lot of these little country churches that are part of our history are being lost forever. They are sold off as holiday homes and sometimes moved off site and the big tragedy of it is that everything inside the church goes - the pews, the plaques on the wall, the church furniture ..."
It's not only country churches, he adds. An R.A. Lawson church in the Dunedin suburb of Mornington was sold not so long ago.
"Absolutely beautiful inside, but the congregation couldn't afford to keep it." He points the finger at a combination of dwindling church membership and ageing buildings.
"As the cost of maintenance goes up, a point is reached where they say, 'We'll have to sell it'. We've been involved in a number of cases, starting with a Kaikoura church that the Anglican diocese wanted to sell off, including the graveyard." In that instance, the local council was of little help.
But Mr Harvey argues that the onus is on local communities to save their churches.
"If a community believes a church is a local icon - and most were in the early days - it has to raise the money and look after it and perhaps find another use for it." Some may balk at the idea of turning a church into something like a community centre, but pragmatism should win out.
"There are possibilities to reinvent the thing, as long as some are conserved in toto as working, living churches."
Mr Harvey cites the work done in England by the Churches Conservation Trust, which has saved more than 340 parish churches by finding imaginative new uses.
Could such a trust (which receives funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and from the Church of England but relies heavily on donations and fund-raising activities) be useful here?
"I see an urgent need for it. The problem is that there is no-one out there to take ownership of the whole problem." But hang on. These buildings are owned by the Church. If people no longer want to attend them, or care for them as a congregation, should the wider community pick up the tab?
Peter Reed, of Salmond Reed Architects, is one of New Zealand's most experienced conservation architects, whose career has included several major restorations of religious buildings, including Auckland's St Matthew-in-the-City, Wellington's Sacred Heart Cathedral and Dunedin's St Joseph's. Most recently he was involved in the reconstruction of an early 20th-century ship's chapel at St Matthew's.
How pressing is the problem of deteriorating churches?
"It's vital that people get on to it. Some of these churches are 90 to 100 years old and coming up for major reroofing and other restoration, coupled with seismic upgrades possibly just around the corner." Mr Reed believes the various church dioceses need to put their hands up and in the case of seismic upgrades they should underwrite costs. But he argues that we have a collective responsibility to save them.
"They are some of the finer examples of built heritage in a lot of localities. In smaller places they're often the defining and most complex building in town. The community needs to take pride in these buildings and the funding assistance has to be there."
In the case of churches registered as heritage buildings, it's possible to acquire significant funding for assistance for restoration through agencies such as the Lottery Grants Board.
"But there's quite a process and it takes organisation and time and in the meantime buildings can be leaking and rotting."
In the case of the most significant religious buildings, local and central government need to come to the party, adds Mr Harvey.
"How could a parish like St Matthew-in-the-City, one of the finest buildings in the country, ever afford the potential $20 million it would cost for a seismic upgrade? It just has to be underwritten."
What do the churches say?
Martin Baker is the assembly executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church.
"We have a significant issue to do with the cost of building care and strengthening," he says.
"We have churches that range from the glorious First Church in Dunedin to tiny churches in rural settings, so the issues all differ depending on the nature of the building, its history and its community. But some of those churches - and I'd use First Church as an example - are unique.
"There are probably 10 or 15 buildings that we say are of historic value not only for us but for their wider communities. First Church, R.A. Lawson's magnificent brick and limestone gothic creation atop Bell Hill, is a concern. The cost of upkeep is immense," says Mr Baker.
"The congregation has cared for it incredibly well; they have a significant ongoing maintenance plan which they adhere to extremely loyally. But there are limits." The Church has discussed the case with the Dunedin City Council many times, to no avail.
"It's a relatively small congregation and they have to pay all the money for that at the moment. But that building stands as part not only of Presbyterian heritage but of Dunedin's and even our country's heritage. Where ultimately should care and responsibility for it sit?"
Insuring historic churches poses the question of who should assume the risk when insurance companies are pulling out of the heritage business. Perhaps congregations should be actively looking for other income streams to fund the upkeep of their churches?
Perhaps, responds Mr Baker.
"We depend on local congregations to think through the issue in a strategic way and to consider establishing income streams to support their buildings.
"But from a theological perspective, they have to wrestle with the question of whether that's their mission - to put their resources into the care of an historic building. From the faith perspective there's quite a lot of debate about that."
In Auckland, St Matthew-in-the-City answered that question decisively many years ago, making the church available for hire for corporate functions and other events.
"A lot of parishioners were unhappy about it," says the church's administrative manager Ian Pallas, "but we don't hear that these days.
"Parishioners, for the most part, realise that without that income stream we might not be here. That and the car park next door are crucial parts of our income. The parishioners on their own contribute 7% of income."
Elsewhere, many small communities are taking up the cause of their town's churches.
In Hororata, a small farming village near Darfield, the historic St John's Anglican Church has been significantly damaged by the earthquakes.
There are ongoing issues with insurance but locals are hopeful it can be rebuilt; it has been secured and made weathertight in the interim.
Parishioner Olive Webb says the community's reaction to the church's damage has proved how much it is valued, even by non-church-goers.
"In districts like this you can't actually separate parish from community. It's an artificial line. Within 12 hours of the quake there were people you seldom see at church weeping outside for it. It is theirs."
This story first ran in the NZ Historic Places Trust Magazine Heritage New Zealand. It has been edited for the ODT.
South Otago
Milton
The stone Tokomairiro Church with its towering spire (above), was designed for the Presbyterian congregation in Milton by Dunedin architect Robert Arthur Lawson and opened in 1889.
Into the 20th century the Presbyterian congregation performed a social as well as religious function; socials were held, with programmes of music, uplifting addresses, and suppers.
Today the parish operates as the Tokomairiro Co-operating Parish, which includes both Methodist and Presbyterian churches and the 600-seat church itself is used only occasionally, largely for funerals.
In 2008, the church was listed in the Historic Places Trust register.
This began a lengthy process to restore the church, a process which is still under way today.
Nancie Allison, a member of the Tokomairiro Co-operating Parish Presbyterian Church Restoration Fund subcommittee, says about $30,000 has been raised to pay for a variety of restoration reports.
The most recent report received by the group cost $12,000 alone.
"It's a huge amount of money we've raised to pay for the reports - there are a fair few of them but they are very comprehensive. It has been a real struggle to get these reports done."
Lawrence
In Lawrence, the former Presbyterian church on Colonsay St was transformed from a weed-infested ruin into a home, dubbed the "Churrch".
Rotorua-based owners Mike and Jo Romanes bought the church in 2002, spending six years restoring the 126-year-old building.
The couple had to carry out a massive clean-up, stabilising the building and finding a new roof and floor to replace timbers destroyed by fire.
The restored building is one of four old churches dotted around the small South Otago town.
The three other churches - Methodist, Catholic and Anglican - remain in the hands of their congregations.
Stirling
Last November, St Mary's Anglican Church near Stirling moved for the second time in its 143-year history.
The first time around, St Mary's Anglican Church was moved just across the Clutha River, to where it stood in Stirling until six months ago, before making a 135km journey to Waianiwa, near Riverton.
Built in 1869, the 12m by 6m church originally stood on Inch Clutha, a large island in the middle of the Clutha River, downstream from Balclutha.
When the community hub moved across the river to Stirling in the early 1900s, the church went too. It was deconsecrated in 2005 and sold the following year to Southland couple Greg and Annie Close, who kept it in Stirling until November last year, doing the odd repair job to keep the building in shape.
The couple are in the process of restoring the church and plan to use it as a wedding chapel and funeral venue on their 1ha property, Argyle Cottage Garden.
Mrs Close said the restoration project was coming along very slowly.
"An awful lot of work has gone into the church already. It's very traditional, although there were a few modernisations. We'll restore it to its former glory. We've got a fair way to go yet, but it should be up and running by the end of the year."
- Written by Helena de Reus.
