New $8.3m church set to open for Easter

A new church is rising on a plot of land at a park in east Auckland and it’s hoped the building will become the heart of its local community.

Reverend Warner Wilder is overseeing the project, which entails construction of the new St Paul’s in the Park church and community and will include a café and an adjacent garden at Barry Curtis Park in Flat Bush.

The development will contain an auditorium, two lounges, a hall, offices and meeting rooms.

It will be near the existing historic church and is accessed from Chapel Road.

Wilder says the $8.3 million project required the church to raise a substantial amount of money.

It received $2.5m from the Anglican Church in New Zealand and $2m from the AH Somerville Foundation, named for the well-known late Whitford farmer Archie Somerville.

“I had several meetings with them and they were very supportive,” Wilder says.

He also called on contacts he had through his former role as chaplain at King’s College in Otahuhu, including former headmaster John Taylor.

John Bayley, executive director of the Bayleys real estate company, staged a fundraiser for the project at his Parnell home that drew guests including Prime Minister and Botany MP Christopher Luxon, whose electorate encompasses the site of the new church.

Warner says 50 per cent of the development is the community centre, which is badly needed in Flat Bush.

“There’s a dire shortage of community facilities here. It’s a great place but so many people have said to me we need facilities.

“Part of my challenge is to get out and promote ourselves in the community and say, ‘this is what we’ve got, are you interested, can we help you out?’.

“I also strongly believe the church should be very much part of the community.”

The community centre is intended to serve as a space for a wide variety of events and activities.

“Some will be programmes we initiate and run ourselves,” Wilder says.

“But we’ll tell the community, ‘here’s a place and there will be hire fee, but we won’t be charging through the nose’.

“Another group I’d like to target is young mums with preschoolers. It’s not a daycare so they won’t be dropping them off, but a place for them to come to.

“It will have facilities for the kids to play but it’s as much about the mums sharing, talking, and having some companionship.”

Wilder says he’s grateful to John McClean, director at BSM Group Architects in Highbrook, for his work on the project.

“We have a great relationship. He’s been fantastic to work with and so supportive.”

He also thanks builder McMillan & Lockwood. Wilder hopes the new church and community centre will be open in time for Easter, in mid-April.

“When I have a site visit, I go inside that building and I’m still pinching myself a little bit.

“It’s been a huge challenge getting to this point but I’m really excited and I can’t wait.

“A lot of the congregation still can’t quite believe we are going to be in there.”

Local organisations and groups keen to make use of the church and community centre once it’s open can contact Wilder by email at warnerwilder30@gmail.com.