Speaker & Worship Leader:- Betsy Marshall
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Betsy Marshall © 3 December 2023
Today we gather to celebrate the opening of this building on 4 December 1901 – exactly 122 years ago tomorrow.
As Clay Nelson said in his service for new members in 2015, the anniversary of the building is a time to be reminded that “we didn’t get here out of nothing, we are connected to those who came before, and others in the future will be connected to us, a reminder of our oneness”.
The focus of today is not just on the past but also on our aspirations for the future – hopefully a future in which Auckland Unitarians continue as a vibrant faith community as well as a force for social and political good.
Today I am able to highlight some of our forbearers and their achievements thanks to the scholarship and years of painstaking research by Wayne Facer, our Church historian. Without Wayne, we might not have known that while other clergy in Auckland were invited to attend the opening of this building in 1901, none did. Also, the night before the opening, someone painted “This is the house of the devil” on the outside.
This historical information and more, as gathered by Wayne, can be found in his two published books. Thanks to Paul Howarth, some of this information, including Wayne’s entries to various biographical databases, also is available on our Church website. Which is great, because, in the time we have this morning, it’s impossible to summarise our history or identify all Unitarians in New Zealand who clearly made their mark on society.
During the past year I’ve had the privilege of working alongside Wayne and David Fougere in revising the Church Trust Deed. This process would not have been possible without Wayne’s historical knowledge, including the likely intentions of those who developed the first trust deed. Over the next few months you will be hearing more about our process and how today’s service will be contributing to it.
I’d also like to acknowledge John Maindonald, a longstanding member of this Church. Although John now lives in Wellington, he continues to be involved in our Zoom services. John’s excellent and well-researched book “A Radical Religious Heritage” can be downloaded from our website.
As a starting point today and, as Clay did in 2015, I will try to give a whirlwind tour of some of the people who have gone before us. Then we will have a chance to break into groups to tell our individual stories as Unitarians and how we might envision the future.
Early Years
The first Unitarian congregation was established in Auckland in the 1860’s. As many of you will know, especially if you’ve read Wayne’s book, “A Vision Splendid”, William Jellie was the first minister of this, the second Unitarian congregation.
Arriving in New Zealand in 1900, Jellie brought a cultured and intellectual view of liberal religion to colonial life. He not only founded this church but also was instrumental in expanding the cause to other centres in New Zealand.
What particularly interests me about Jellie is that in his final year of study at Oxford, a course in sociology, economics and social problems shaped his world view. Taught by Philip Wicksteed, a Unitarian minister and economist, the course dealt with inequality and human suffering and in doing so made it plain that a Unitarian minister was expected to address these issues and not ignore them.
[In the first decade under Jellie’s leadership our Church became known not only as a place of cultured liberal theology but also of having a high musical standard with its organ, orchestra and choir.]I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the architect Thomas Henry White.
It was White and Jellie who searched for suitable building sites around Auckland and settled on this one, which the newly-formed Trust leased from the City Council. White then designed the church and chaired the committee responsible for building it.
Some of you may be aware that over the past 30 or so years our Church has been able to apply to the Annie Muriel Newland Trust for building-related funds.
Annie’s parents, Annie and Charles Newland, were founding members of the church in 1898. Charles Newland, Jellie and the church’s solicitor formed a committee to draft a new set of rules and the trust deed. It’s this trust deed that Wayne, David and I, on behalf of the trustees, have been trying to untangle over the past year.
When Annie (the daughter) died in the late 1980’s, she bequeathed money that enabled us to freehold the land from the Council A trust was formed with the remaining funds, which has assisted us in undertaking some vital building-related work over the past 30 years.
Many of you also will be familiar with the Macky family, with Joseph Cochrane Macky being one of the founding trustees of the Church.
In 1903 Joseph Macky paid for our Croft organ, which was installed in 1904. The Macky Trust that he established to further Unitarianism in New Zealand made a grant to the church to help fund Clay for the first five years of his nine-year ministry. Some of us continue to meet on a regular basis with descendants of Joseph Macky who maintain a keen interest in the Church and its activities.
Social Justice
As many of you will know, a number of our Unitarian ancestors were prominent New Zealanders recognised for their commitment to social justice.
An example is Harriet Morison who, in 1918, was a member of the Church management committee and from 1923 our first chairwoman.
Prior to her involvement in our Church, Morison had already secured her place in history. She is one of the five women portrayed with Kate Shepherd in her Memorial in Christchurch for her work to win women’s suffrage.
(She’s the one holding the wheelbarrow full of camellias). According to the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions website, “Morison leaves an important legacy, as a unionist, suffragist and feminist”. She is “an example of the strong connections between women workers and their fight for women’s rights in Aotearoa New Zealand”.
William and Wilna Constable, shown here, had a very successful joint ministry in our church from 1929 – 1934.
Wilna had the distinction of being the first woman minister in New Zealand, apart from women Salvation Army officers. Through her role on the Auckland executive of the National Council of Women, she ensured that the NCW led the successful lobbying for a change in the Marriage Act to allow women to officiate at weddings.
James Chapple was a notable figure over three decades in our history.
An early member of the Socialist Party, he left the Presbyterians to join the Unitarians, who built a church for him in Timaru that still stands today.
Due to his opposition to World War I, in 1914 Chapple and his family left for America, where he engaged in anti – war work and socialism. When America entered WWI, he returned to New Zealand where his supporters had started a Unitarian Church in Christchurch, where he then served. After speaking out publicly against the war in 1918, he was convicted of sedition and sentenced to 11 months’ imprisonment. The central character in Maurice Gee’s novel “Plumb” was based upon James Chapple, who was Gee’s grandfather.
Several Auckland social service organizations were started or housed in our Church. By 1969 CARE (Citizens Association for Racial Equality), in conjunction with the WEA (Workers’ Educational Association), had set up in the basement of the Church English classes for new citizens, a homework centre for high school pupils; and Maori and Samoan language classes for beginners. Both CARE and the WEA were based in our Church at the time. Moreover, during this time the Civilian Maimed Association started its first day care centre in our Church with the support of leading church members.
[The Auckland Mental Health Association was co-founded by our minister Maurice Wilsie (1958-1963), a clinical psychologist. He also started the Auckland Counselling service.]The Arts
As many of you will know, our church also had strong connections with several prominent writers, poets and musicians. Frank Sargeson, NZ’s famous short story writer, was a fan of the Rev Albert Thornhill, who was minister here from 1920-1932. Apparently Sargeson liked it when Thornhill “gave the Baptists around the corner hell”. Our Church is featured in one of Sargeson’s short stories.
Hone Tuwhare (1922-2008), with a Maori and Scottish background, was one of the leading New Zealand poets of the twentieth century.
In the 1950s he was active in the Workers Educational Association and in the 1960s he attended services here with his family. His poetry appeared in several issues of the journal Motive, a publication of the New Zealand Society of Unitarians. Here you can see Helen Clark congratulating him on his being the first recipient of the Prime Minister’s Poetry Award in 2003
In the 1960’s music became especially important to our Church through the involvement of Thelma and Noel Blyth, parents of Ann, who is here today.
Having read about Unitarians in an American book about comparative religion, they first came to our Church in 1965 to find no minister, no young people and attendance of 5 to 10 people.
The Blyths had a background in professional ballroom dance, and Thelma was an up and coming singer and guitarist. Thelma used her musical talent at the Church and formed the Rafters Folk Club, which met in the upstairs gallery and had great success. The upstairs gallery also was open to the public on Friday evenings and, thanks to Wayne Facer, offered discussion groups and invited speakers.
Numbers continued to grow, Sunday attendances well over 100 with a large number of children. Publicity was generated in a lot of print media about the Family Program at the AUC culminating in a centre double page spread in the New Zealand Herald. Sadly the church committee did not see fit to reimburse the Blyths for their expenses, leaving them with no option but to resign from their role. One of the legacies of the Blyths is the Rafters Folk Club, which still meets here.
Next steps
At the outset I promised a whirlwind tour of some of the people who have gone before us. I’d urge you all to read more that’s on the website and in the books of Wayne and John.
Suffice it to say that with such an impressive history, we have a responsibility to do all we can to build upon this legacy.
For the rest of our time together this morning, our focus will be on our future.
For the ‘Where to from here?’ part of the service the congregation broke into structured small group discussions using a format known as ‘Table Talk’, facilitated by Marlon Drake of Te Ohu Whakawhanaunga.
Meditation / Conversation starter
- What are our purposes as a community?
Links
Opening Words:- “Invoking the Past, Present and Future” by Katie Romano Griffin
Chalice Lighting:- a poem by Nancy Fox, a member of our congregation who in the 1960’s was editor of Motive, a publication of The New Zealand Unitarian Association.