Mount Maunganui Anglican Parish
St Mary's Girven Rd St Peter's Victoria Rd
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St Mary's
St Mary's is on the corner of Girven Rd and Marlin St near the Bayfair shopping centre.
On the same site is the Parish Office, Drop In Centre and St Mary's Family Centre.
The hall at St Mary's is used extensively by community groups and is also the location of Arataki Market, Saints and Angels Party, Growing Through Grief and the Church Fair.
St Mary's was recently visited by a Mystery Worshipper. Check out the website to see what they had to say. http://www.shipoffools.com/mystery/2011/2191.html
Booking the hall for a meeting or function at St Mary's contact the Parish Administrator
Ph 575 9945
Services at St Mary's
Sunday 10am Holy Communion.
A programme for children aged 4-12 runs twice a month during term time. Pre-school children have an activity area in the church.
Wednesday 9.30am St Mary's Family Centre Pre-school Worship
Read about the history of St Mary's below
Want to be involved at St Mary's?
* Join the worshipping community on
Sunday morning
* Volunteer at the Drop In
* Take a stall at Arataki Market
* Train as a companion for
Growing
Through Grief
* Come along to a community
activity
St. Mary’s Celebrates 20 years
Combine the generosity of community people with the vision and hard work of a community of faith and the dream of an Anglican Church on Girven Rd becomes a reality. Val Ready recalls the development of St Mary’s as we look to celebrate our 20 Year Anniversary on 31st May 2007.
In 1962 Mr. Williams donated a section on Girven Rd to the Roman Catholic Church where they built the church of St. Bernadette. He was approached by Paul Neilson, the Anglican Parish Secretary, to see if he would do something similar for them. Mr. Williams had four more sections for sale also on Girven Rd and offered these to the church at £475 each. This was accepted by Vestry, and when they paid for them, Mr. Williams took payment for three and donated the fourth, on condition it was only used for church purposes.
The Ministry of Works had an obsolete building which they sold to the Parish for £6oo., and this was shifted on to the section. But with no extra money for repairs and furnishings, it was left idle for a year and quickly vandalised.
Parishioners came to the rescue on working bees over many weekends, and with donations of labour and materials from the community it was ready to be used for services by 1965.
The Methodists asked to be able to erect a hall alongside, this was agreed, and in 1978 a meeting was held between Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists, to allot use of the buildings at requested times and a combined service at the end of each month was arranged.
In
1979 Homer Woodcraft worked on a communicating
covered way between church and hall, with the painting done by unemployed
labourers from the community. A special meeting was held in March 1984, to
discuss requirements for a permanent Church centre on the St. Mary’s
site.
The area was growing fast with an influx of young families, and the congregation was growing too. A larger hall for use by many groups would also be an asset to the community, and in 1985 the decision was made to proceed. The projected cost was $50,000. Ted Lett was the architect, and the Treasurer Mae Robson was asked to take charge of fund-raising. Fundraising ideas were many and varied - a Talent Programme, Debenture scheme, Buy a Block, Concerts, Fun Runs, Quiz nights, Cake stalls, and an Olde-time dance to Bruce Sheldon’s “Sapphire Band.”
Bishop Peter
Atkins unveiled the plaque to denote the start of building and turned the
first sod, assisted by the oldest Parishioner, Mrs. Win Pedrick.
The sale of Maunganui Rd sections owned by the Parish, an anonymous
donation of $1,000, plus organisation of voluntary parishioners’ labour by
Ted Barker (Peoples’ Warden), and Barry Yeates, enabled the building to
progress steadily. A bequest of $54,000 from Mrs. Pedrick helped to
alleviate the considerable overrun of cost.
Four hundred
people attended the dedication of the completed Church by Bishop Peter
Atkins on 31st May 1987.
The St. Mary’s site is a realisation of the dream of many people, and it
is a continuing asset in the community, used by many groups - Care and
Craft, Girl Guides and Brownies, a thriving Family Centre, Op Shop and
Drop-In Centre, Indoor Bowls Club, Growing Through Grief, Pre-school Music
- as well as the special needs of the church.
As we give thanks for the last twenty years, and look forward to the next,
let us remember those who dared to dream.
Reprinted from Quest May 2007