St Paul’s Waiwhetū comes home
After nearly eight years of worshipping next door, the people of St Paul’s Waiwhetū have walked back through the doors of their church.
A celebratory service marked the completion of an earthquake strengthening journey that began in 2012 and, for a congregation long displaced from its sanctuary, a homecoming that was as much spiritual as it was structural.
The service reflected all three communities that call St Paul’s home, with hymns, worship songs and waiata, led by the UkeChurch team.
Preaching on Matthew 21:12-16, Priest in Charge Rev Karl Weeks-Dickson drew a parallel between the cleansing of the temple and St Paul’s own fresh start. He urged the community to look past the physical structure and remember that a church’s ultimate purpose is to be a sacred place of welcome, prayer, hospitality and hope.
“In the scripture, when we see the consequences of letting culture dominate faith, we are reminded that this whare must always reflect Christ first and foremost,” he said. He went on to describe a vision of the church as a space for hope, joy and community.
The move out was abrupt. In March 2018, Hutt City Council issued an earthquake-prone notice on the church, rating it at 10 percent of the National Building Standard. Rev Karl and the parish wardens made the call to stop using the building straight away and shift worship into the church hall next door.
The hall became home for the best part of a decade. Rather than simply waiting it out, the parish used those years to ask harder questions about who they were called to be. In 2021 they worked through a discernment process, Our Song: Te Puna, naming their identity and direction as a parish, and returned to it in 2023 to track how they were travelling against it.
New things also took root. UkeChurch now gathers on the first Sunday of each month at 4pm for an hour of singing, strumming, kōrero, karakia and kai. Also, every Tuesday, the Waiwhetū Fruit & Vege Co-op sees a team of volunteers pack tubs of fresh seasonal produce for whānau across the neighbourhood, while parishioners have also been out planting along the Waiwhetū Stream.
Eight years without a sanctuary did not mean eight years on hold.
Rev Karl described the physical transformation of the building as an “incredible combination of the divine and human”. The structural reinforcement was a genuinely collaborative effort, involving countless designers, inspectors and technical experts.
New Zealand Consulting Engineers Ltd (NZCEL), led by Peter Johnston, served as invaluable partners, delivering innovative solutions to complex engineering challenges. The reconstruction itself was carried out by Malcolm Hammond and the team at MJH, who worked closely and flexibly with the parish throughout. Newly installed steel plates now stand throughout the church as permanent monuments to the collective effort of all those who contributed.
The long journey was spearheaded by the parish’s Seismic Review Committee and successive vestries. The initiative took shape in 2017 after a pivotal cup of coffee between Rev Karl and Colin Hickling, who stepped up to lead the committee alongside Murray Macgregor and Phil Mitchell. Over nearly a decade, this team navigated the complex logistics, council queries and paperwork needed to bring the building back to life.
Amid the celebrations, the parish also paused to remember those who did not live to see the project completed. Tributes were paid to three committee and church members who died during the long seismic journey, leaving a lasting legacy through their early commitment and professionalism.
With the physical work now complete, St Paul’s is looking toward a future centred on its people. As the congregation settles back into its cherished sanctuary it remains fixed on being “salt and light” in the wider Waiwhetū community.
