In memory of the Evans and Blackwell families, the window in the Kaiapoi Cooperating Parish church has been dedicated to the 257 people who died in the Mt Erebus disaster in November 1979, when Air New Zealand flight 901 crashed into the mountain in Antarctica.
Recently during the painting of the Kaiapoi Cooperating Parish church, work was done to renew the protective covering over the stained glass window which faces Fuller St.
It has also been lit up from within the church so it can be enjoyed by the community passing by at night.
Kaiapoi has been home to the Mt Erebus commemoration window since 1982.
Rosemary Whyte (nee Blackwell), who has researched the history of the church and window, says the Methodist and Presbyterian churches united in 1979 to form the Kaiapoi Cooperating Parish.
A dedication service was held on March 7, 1982, for a new, stained glass window at the church on the corner of Fuller and Peraki Sts.
She says it was commissioned by the Evans and Blackwell families. It was designed and made by Graham Stewart from Stewart Stained Glass Ltd in Christchurch and now Loburn to remember Richard and Fanny Evans, and Joseph Henry (Harry) and Margaret Brown Blackwell.
The design was decided on after consultation with David Blackwell, the great-great-nephew of Fanny Blackwell Evans and grandson of Harry and Margaret Blackwell, about a memorial to the Erebus disaster.
Margaret May Blackwell, daughter of Harry and Margaret Blackwell, provided the funds for the window through the Margaret May Blackwell Trust.
A plaque near the window has the inscription: "This window was presented by Sarah (Cis) Evans and Margaret Blackwell to beautify this sanctuary in memory of their parents."
A polycarbonate protection was added to the exterior a few years later.
Whyte says the window carries the words from Psalm 139: In the wings of the morning: If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me and Your right hand shall hold me.
Stewart was inspired by the words of the psalm given to him by the Blackwell family.
Whyte said, at the time, no memorial had been decided to commemorate the air disaster.
It was decided last month that a memorial would now be installed at the Cracroft Reserve on the Port Hills in Christchurch.
Whyte says the figure reaching upwards in the window could be any New Zealander, or represent those lost on Erebus looking up to the light or the Holy Spirit.
When asked about the design Stewart said: "The light and colour in the window add to the drama of it".
At the time, he had also just worked on the Basilica. He was inspired by Canterbury artist Phillip Trustrum’s work and impressionist use of light in his paintings.
The new window replaced an earlier stained glass window, The Last Supper, which sadly deteriorated.
It was provided by the estate of Sarah Edith Evans (Cis), who died in 1964 aged 93.
In her will, Cis Evans made a bequest for a window in memory of her parents, Richard and Fanny, and sister, Ethel Mair Evans, who had died in 1917 of tuberculosis.
A stalwart of the Kaiapoi Methodist Church, Cis Evans was asked to lay the foundation stone of the present church, which was built in 1934.
She was the treasurer of the church fund appointed in 1928 to oversee fundraising for the new church.
She was a teacher, held the position of Home Mission secretary, Sunday School teacher, and Bible Class leader.
She was president of the Ladies Guild and involved in youth work and convener of the committee which collected names for the Methodist Roll of Honour now hanging in the church beside the Presbyterian Roll of Honour.
Whyte says the present church opened in February 1935. The architect was Roy Lovell-Smith of Christchurch.
The Neo-Norman designed church is significant for its interwar concrete construction, including a Norman tower, and detailing by local builder WC Tourell.
RA Blakeley of Kaiapoi was the cabinetmaker and made the beautiful wooden pulpit and pews.
