Nowadays, about 25 people attended services at the church every second Sunday, church elder Jim Bootten said.
About 80 people gathered yesterday to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the first service held in the present Iona Church.
There has been a Presbyterian church on the site for the past 156 years and Iona was the third church built. The first church, built in 1852, was a little wooden structure which became too small as the portside town grew as gold was discovered in Otago, Mr Bootten said.
A bigger stone church went up in 1872 and just 10 years later the present Iona Church was built, when the second church also proved too small.
As the town's population gradually dwindled in the following century, so did congregations, and the Methodist and Congregationist churches eventually joined the Presbyterian church.
Services are held at Iona Church on alternate Sundays with the Sawyers Bay Presbyterian Church. The church was also open when cruise ships were in port and many passengers commented the church spire was the first thing they saw as they sailed up the harbour, Mr Bootten said.
