Goodbye St John’s, hello SIT
An old era ended and a new one began yesterday with the last service held at St John’s Anglican Church in Invercargill.
The church was decommissioned and handed over to its new owners, the Southern Institute of technology (SIT) to become part of a creative centre of learning for graduates and postgraduate students.
The church was packed for the service led by Anglican Bishop of Dunedin Steven Benford, with St John’s parish warden and lay minister Dot Muir reading a dedication.
Before the service, Muir said it had been a journey getting to this point and while Sunday’s service had closed the door on the building as a church, it had opened a new chapter in its history.
‘‘On Sunday morning we celebrated the start of Advent [pre-Christmas religious observation], and that was very apt, because a new era is coming, and it’s time to look ahead.’’
However, the service provided an opportunity to look back on the church’s 157-year-old history.
It started off as a little wooden church in 1861, but as the district’s population grew, it was replaced with a much grander building, in 1886.
Parts of the the original church were retained and incorporated into the brick church over the next few decades.
Some of these later additions were never completed, because of lack of funds.
It has several reminders of Invercargill’s early history, including the stained-glass window above the high altar dedicated to the first surveyor of Invercargill John Turnbull Thomson and his wife Jane. The high alter was carved by Invercargill dentist C. C. Jennings.
The church’s distinctive brass eagle lectern, which was donated by the Girls’ Club in 1913, is to be given to St Paul’s Cathedral in Dunedin.
It had 15 vicars in its history, with Reverend R.J. Aitken the last to serve from 2012 to 2017.