In January this year, Blueprint Pioneer Mission Unit sent out six of their young adults to replant Brooklyn Parish. For the Ven. Scottie Reeve, this move took on special significance. “My grandparents, Arthur and Jacqui, met at St Matthew’s and served the parish until they moved into a retirement home later in the life. Though I’ve never lived in Brooklyn, there has been a sense of whakapapa and coming home to this place. Like I have roots here already.”

Working with the Diocese, they purchased a building at 2 Todman Street on the main intersection of Brooklyn, and began dreaming what a fresh expression of church could look like in the suburbs. The building has three retail spaces at street level, and two apartments above which they have moved into as a missional community. “We are blessed with an incredible space, but we knew it was important to make sure that we filled it with something that genuinely engaged with the nature and needs of Brooklyn.”

To find out what was needed, the team spent this year volunteering in the local community through initiatives like distributing surplus Kaibosh food to the Central Park Flats alongside Mosaic Church. They got to know the local Brooklyn and Vogelmorn Community Centres, went along to the residents’ association AGM, seniors’ association meetings, Owhiro stream clean-up days, and poker nights at the local pub. As they built a picture of their community, the rooms of the new building began to take shape.

“We knew that we were called to pray over Wellington City, so we put a chapel at the centre of all the spaces. We found two stained-glass windows from an old Christchurch church that we installed at one end, and we asked a local carpenter we met to build us an altar. It’s been a beautiful and collaborative process,” Scottie explained. The Chapel is the heart of things, where their team meet each morning at 7am to pray, and on Sundays for church. The Brooklyn Community also partnered with their wider Re-New Communities Movement recently to host forty-eight hours of prayer in the chapel space as well.

The shop front area was split into two for different purposes. On one side, they opened a second-hand clothing store. Dreamed up by Shop Manager Fiona Maddever, this aims to provide a further point of daily engagement with the Brooklyn community, and a revenue engine for their ongoing projects in the community. Adjacent to this is a community room for exhibitions, events, and community meetings. Already, several community groups including ante-natal classes and neighbourhood watch groups have begun to use the room. At the rear of these spaces is Brooklyn Co-Workers, an office space for local artists, entrepreneurs and designers to work together.

“In the end, we know that ministry isn’t about buildings, but because of our location and facilities we have a unique opportunity to serve our neighbourhood, and to be good news. We wanted to think carefully and deliberately about how we used what we have to build more connectedness in our neighbourhood. That means not just connections between our neighbours and us, but between one another even when we’re not directly involved,” Scottie explained.

The team are running an opening event for the space, Two Todman, this Friday the 20th from 5.30-7.30pm. All locals are welcome to come and celebrate.

By Holly Morton