CHAPTER II - CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN LIFE

27My Life - Church and Christian Life

CHAPTER II - CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN LIFE

KAIKORAI PRESBYTERIAN PARISH - cnr Nairn Street and Taieri Road

Ministers during our membership included J D Smith; Tom Campbell; Reid Harper (who

performed the marriage ceremonies for Alan, then Ian); Jack Smith (who married David and I,

then Margaret).

CRADLE ROLL Parents of all pre-school children, right from birth were invited to enroll

their children who were then sent birthday cards, and as toddlers given the same little picture/text

ticket as they entered church, as all Sunday School Students.

SUNDAY SCHOOL [Beginners, Primary, Junior and Senior Departments] was held in the

afternoon from 2 - 3 pm with teachers’ training after. Later children went out of church mid-

service for SS but that did not leave enough time for lessons and hymns so it changed to 10 am

before church at 11 am. This meant that children were involved for two hours as most stayed for

the Church service with their parents. It also meant Bible Class changed from 10 am to evening

before the 7 pm service as many BC members were SS teachers.

HALLS AND ROOMS There was the main SS Hall at the back of the Church, and a block

of 2-3 rooms along the top boundary at the side of the Church. These were wooden structures.

The Beginner and Primary classes (up to age 8) met in the Church owned house known as

Sutherland Hall (after an early Minister of this Parish). To gain entrance classes went through a

gate at the top corner of the Church grounds and across the path of the lane from County Road

where it joined the bottom of Chapel Street. This building was leased through the week by the

Kaikorai Kindergarten. This house still stands, used as a private home, but the hall and other

rooms were replaced eventually. See (NEW HALLS later)

YOUNG WORSHIPPERS’ LEAGUE Certificate On entering the morning service each

child received a small verse/picture ticket from which the minister took the children/s talk. If by

attendance enough were saved by the end of each year we received a shield sticker to place round

the edge to form a shield shape of shields. The total nine (years’) attendance shields showing

THE FRUITS OF THE (HOLY) SPIRIT, - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Goodness, Kindness,

Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control, - gave a completed certificate to be proud of. During the

periods when SS was not held during the service, the children left before the sermon to attend

Young Worshippers’ League when we were shown lantern slides of Bible Stories or hymn words

from which we sang. This was taken by a kindly short white haired man - Mr Todd.

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One year in SS a small gold medal was offered to all who could stand up and recite from memory

the 23rd

Psalm - “The Lord is my Shepherd”--- but I missed doing this because I was sure I’d

make a mistake. Years later when I was a SS teacher I remember how we made good use of the

musical abbreviations in the word book of Sunday School hymns each child used (before

overhead projectors and screens), to get right into the spirit of the words of the hymn for loud,

soft, crescendo etc. This became so much a natural thing for the children, helped by me following

these with my piano accompanying, that when a member of Session ‘popped in’ on SS one

morning as was the habit of the time, he complained about the weak singing and told us to get

more enthusiastic in our singing, till our Superintendent, John Graham explained and he accepted

it.

THE ANNUAL SUNDAY SCHOOL CONCERTS During the last term of the year

teachers and pupils spent many hours, often frustrating because of sporadic absences of pupils,

preparing for this wonderful event in the SS Hall. Items ranged from solo singing, piano playing,

elocution, and of course, costumes (much making up of crepe paper by parents and teachers) for

the class items, including the traditional Maypole Ribbon Dance, which never went smoothly till

the concert night, flower fairy plays, comic items, etc. As ‘hall’ pianos become out-of-tune from

constant mis-use we always had a piano tuner come that morning, but sadly by night it was often

‘off’ again. I well remember one year when we had to shift the piano from the hall to the stage in

the usual method of backing it up to the front of the stage and with a ‘lift and manouver’ slid it up

on its back onto the front of the stage, then to upright. This year we let it ‘slip’ heavily on its back

then when we then tried it we got no sound. HELP! But it was only the sounding board fallen

forward, easily fixed.

The programme started and ended with The Choir, seniors taking descant parts or lower

harmony, and the second half usually started with The Orchestra, Bible Class members using

their own instruments or those borrowed from KETC and practising on Sunday afternoons.

THE MELODY TEN (ten teen-age parish girls) trained by Norrie Sutherland, choirmaster

and accompanied by Doris (Adcock) Routledge, organist, performed to Dunedin groups and old

people’s homes. Later I was a Sunday School teacher and part-time organist and part of a small

orchestra group for concerts and Youth Services.

CHURCH CHOIR The parish had a really good adult choir in which Mum (soprano) and

Aunty Win (contralto) were regular enthusiastic members and soloists, and I think Dad was a

member for a while too. Later I was one of several from our BC who enjoyed being regular

members. Mum sang other solos (previously in a group taken by Mr Rawlinson) and I played for

her. At that time the choir seats were inside the wall at the front of the church below the pulpit.

We had an organ which required someone to pump it, usually an ‘organ boy’. Later organs

became electric, but there were harmoniums which were pumped with foot pedals. There was one

in the Prayer Meeting Room, where we often held after (evening) service singsongs.

SUNDAY SCHOOL END OF YEAR PARTIES were held in the grounds of the big

Manse in Brighton Street (later called Beresford Street) when Rev J D Smith was minister. The

Smiths had six sons and no daughters.


Kaikorai Presbyterian Church

Cnr Nairn Street and Taieri Road

Kaikorai Presbyterian Girls’ Basketball Team Sylvia?, Florence, Annette, Margaret, Francis, Doreen, Myrtle, ??

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Camp Tirohanga – Presbyterian Youth Camp

The main hall reflected in the VERY cold pool 1948/9 – Mary Cumming, Myrtle Black,

Doreen Gilchrist, Margaret Avery

Kaikorai Bible Class Boys’s Basketball Team Forrester Davidson, John Patrick, Bill Sinclair, Edgar Fraser,

Robert Davidson, Jim Flett, Ian Gilchrist


SUNDAY SCHOOL PICNICS up Fraser’s Gully, collecting lobsters in the Kaikorai

Stream, picking apples, plums etc from Sontag’s orchard, an allowable annual event (free), either

at the picnic in their grounds, or by individual families. A good Saturday afternoon’s family

outing. Other picnics were held at Evansdale Glen. Also, sometimes a launch trip was made

down the Otago Harbour to Harrington Point for the picnic, and the fun of sliding down the big

sand slide.

BUSY BEES was an enjoyable church-run group for children to encourage interest and

support for the Christian Missionaries sent from our own country to China, India and New

Hebrides (later called Vanuatu) also NZ Maori Mission. We were taught crafts, to keep or sell at

our little fund raising events. We got to know the missionaries by name as our friends, and

sometimes were fortunate enough to hear some speak in Dunedin, in particular Sister Annie

James who worked so long in China. My Aunty Dorothy Bartlett was our leader for many years.

Aunty Win and Aunty Grace were amongst our SS teachers and Aunty Grace also one of our BC

leaders

PRAYER MEETING GROUP AND MISSION GROUP were attended by faithful

ladies in the parish, including Mum and my aunties.

SPRING FLOWER SHOWS AND FLOWER SUNDAYS These were great annual

events with enthusiastic competition for best floral displays, and for the men, the largest

vegetables. Cake stalls were held and were sometimes included in the competition beside the

flowers along with the jam, pickles and preserves.

BIBLE CLASS When we were young most children we knew attended a SS or BC in some

branch of the Christian Church. Unfortunately when we were teenagers, there was a gap of two

years in boys in our district but up the hill each side there were some. In our district, the valley

and hills either side were Methodist, Baptist, Church of Christ, Brethren, Congregational,

Anglican, Roman Catholic and Salvation Army churches. Near Christmas for many years these

combined for a lovely Carol Service and then over the holiday period the Presbyterians,

Methodists and Baptists held services on alternative Sundays having the ministers preach from

each other’s pulpits.

We accepted the Christian way of life and the truths taught from The Bible reading from the old

King James Version and even though there were many words in hymns, Bible readings and

sermons which we did not understand I somehow seemed to know what the general meaning of

phrases meant. I did not realize till many years later that it was actually The Holy Spirit of God

dwelling within me who made this possible. (More about the Holy Spirit later)

OTAGO DISTRICT BIBLE CLASS COMPETITIONS An annual event for

Dunedin Presbyterian Parishes with fierce competition as top places were sought in such sections

as

piano solos and duets, instrumental solos,

vocal solos, sacred solos, duets, double duets, quartets, double quartets,

Scripture readings, impromptu and memorized,

choirs

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SOME HIGHLIGHTS The year Caversham choir was non-placed because one beautiful

voice was too predominant - it was supposed to be a blended choir.

The year we were all nervous because of the phrase ‘it sufficeth us’ in the scripture passage

where Christ was speaking to Philip (King James Version).

The year four Kaikorai boys, not specifically trained in vocal skills, knowing how keen the girls

were to enter the double quartet section, got together on their own and really worked hard to learn

the parts and sing with us, from memory, with good results ‘Sweet and Low'’. They were John

Patrick, Bill Sinclair, Forrester and Robert Davidson.

HIKES, BIKE RIDES, PICNICS, CAMPS Saturday hikes on the Otago Peninsular

with leader Marge Robertson, Sunday hikes to the top of Flagstaff, or to pick blackberries at Half

Way Bush.

Sunday afternoon bike rides, and the day the girls biked out to visit the boys’ camp at Turahunga,

West Taieri, only to find the boys were more interested in mushrooms hunting than our visit!

EASTER CAMPS at schools at Green Island, Port Chalmers, Palmerston etc, Queens

Birthday, Labour Day (nearly always WET) and every other holiday weekend at Turahanga or

Wesleydale --- and -?--who put the soap powder in the saveloys?

REGIONAL AND NATIONAL CONFERENCES starting on Boxing Day - picnic

Christmas Dinners on the train, missing the train from Wellington to Masterton because the

official couldn’t find some ‘left luggage’, and catching it up in a taxi at the next train station.

Other places, Nelson, New Plymouth, Napier, Palmerston North, and Invercargill when some

Kaikorai members joined in the after-conference trip up the Hollyford and Eglinton Valley Route,

which should have ended at Martins Bay but had to be shortened because that year there was a

search party using the huts because two girls (from some other tramping trip) went missing and

were found drowned. A real damper on our trip. Some of us knew one of the girls.

BIBLE CLASS SOCIALS AND DANCES Each parish usually invited several other

local BC’s and all parishes were invited to the monthly social/dance at Caversham, or sometimes

Musselburgh. Before dancing was included (allowed) our local socials included the usual The

Grand Old Duke of York, He had Ten Thousand Men … and all the usual old games. When

dancing was permitted in our parish at first only one dance was allowed, after supper.

DEACONESS COLLEGE, Alva Street, Mornington was where ladies trained for parish

work, while the men trained at Knox Theoloxical Hall in North East Valley to become parish

ministers. Margaret and I got to know many of the Deaconess students, mainly from BC Camps,

and some took turns for several years walking over to our home for Saturday night tea. Many

years later Deaconess training in the Presbyterian church was discontinued with those already

trained having the opportunity of further training to become full parish ministers, following the

permitting of female ministers in the Presb church.


About October 1959

(Bartlett sisters and brother) Jim Gilchrist must have taken photo or Ian.

Darryl ran out of sight. Margaret and Ron absent

Kaikorai Presbyterian Church Sunday School Teachers

About 1948

Back Row: Myrtle Black, Bill Sinclair, Marge Robertson, Dorothea Edmonston Doreen Gilchrist.

Front Row: Margaret Avery, Mary Cumming, Nola Sutherland, Patricia Adcock Forrester

Davidson

Conference photos

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Queenstown New Plymouth

Lazing on shore of LakeWakatipu Doreen swimming in Brookland’s pool

Mary Cumming, Doreen Gilchrist, Pat Simmers, Margaret Heron, Margaret Reid


Doreen and Barbara at Portobello Martha and Doreen Conference 1946

Doreen and Martha at Bible Class Conference Dec 1946 Portobello

Martha, Doreen, Nancy at Bible Class ConferenceNapier 1945

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QUEENSTOWN GIRLS’ HOLIDAY & TRAINING CAMP

Run by Presbyterian Youth Council

1954

LEADERS

1951

KAIKORAI GROUP Vere Chalmers, Doreen Gilchrist, Margaret Davidson, Nola Sutherland, Mary Cumming,

Carol Anderson, Marie Johnson, Dorothy Dickson


QUEENSTOWN HOLIDAY AND TRAINING CAMP for girls 13-17 year was run

by the National Youth Council. This was a ten day camp in weeks 3 and 4 of January. It was a

wonderful opportunity for young girls from town or country. Some had never had a picnic ever,

or seen a lake. The person in charge was a Deaconess and always two others in training, and

senior BC members were leaders, including several from Kaikorai over the 7-8 years I was a

leader, in my 20’s. It was a great training for us too, being with these students, preparing our

study lessons. Some were Marks’s Gospel, The Parables, The Kingdom of Heaven, etc.

Numbers increased from the 30’s to about 58. I was in charge of the brave ones who ventured to

swim in the cold Lake Wakatipu at 6 am each morning. Every day we had a picnic tea

somewhere beside the lake, only once was that cancelled by a little rain, but held in the school

grounds when it cleared. Each year we did a day trip up the lake on the steamer Earnslaw – ‘Lady

of the Lake’ to Elfin Bay then a walk through to Erie Lake. It was always fine! Our Camp

Hymn was Almighty Father of all things that be.

NEW KAIKORAI CHURCH HALLS In the 1950’s when the present hall became a

hazard and rooms unsuitable, monthly concerts and other fund-raising events including a film

evening, were held to raise money to build a new Hall and Kitchen fronting onto Taieri Road,

with new Sunday School or Meeting rooms and toilets below. It was about this time that Taieri

Road was widened and many properties including the church’s had their boundaries moved back.

These new halls were regularly used by church and community. Our parish had become the

Kaikorai Union Parish, (reverted to full Presbyterian during 1998).

I was married in this church on 24 November 1956, as were previously my parents, also my two

brothers and my sister, and later our daughter. We had all been Baptised there, and later my

oldest son Geoffrey who later was ordained there as a Presbyterian Minister. I became a

Communicant Member in my teens before I started teaching SS. It was the venue for most of my

mother’s family’s and also my parents’ funerals.

One special feature inside this church is the raised arch at the front with the Burning Bush

emblem of the Presbyterian Church at the top and in Gold lettering round this arch, the words

from The Bible - O Worship The Lord in the Beauty of Holiness.

WEST HARBOUR PARISH During 1957, the year after our marriage, my husband David

and I joined the Ravensbourne congregation of this parish, as we had bought a house in that

district along that side of the Otago Harbour. There was also a St Leonards congregation as part

of this parish. The Christian fellowship in this Parish was great as we brought our children up in a

Christian Atmosphere with families they knew through neighbourhood and school. Our next

three children were Baptised here. A special group for me was a young mothers’ singing group.

Our four children were part of Busy Bees and SS.

During our 14 years of membership with the Ravensbourne Parish my main involvement was as

choir mistress and as organist in shared ministry with David Troughton, the minister’s son, and

Gwenda Wilden and later Christopher Norton, a later minister’s son.. We had a dedicated adult

choir and a really enthusiastic children’s choir who really enjoyed their singing of Praise to our

Lord. For the last two years I enjoyed again teaching a Sunday School Class. For many years

David taught Sunday School and led the Bible Class made up of young people from both ends of

the Parish, who met after the evening service each Sunday alternately at Ravensbourne and St

Leonards and then he provided transport home for those who needed it. The numbers grew over

the years.

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David became a member of Session and I of Deacon’s Court. Geoffrey joined the nearest Boys’

Brigade who met at Dundas Street Methodist and Sharon joined the local Girls’ Brigade, then

called the Life Brigades. Ministers were Rev Hessel Troughton, Rev Dr Ed Norton (who taught

David to preach) then ? ?

NEW CHURCH AND HALL these were built in Ravensbourne, later St Leonards also,

during our years in this district and eventually the Methodist and Congregational Churches

combined with ours to become a United Church.

In 1972 we shifted to live in BALMACEWEN ROAD and transferred membership to the

MAORI HILL Presbyterian Parish where Rev Don Fiest was minister till about 1987

then Rev Fraser Paterson became our minister at the end of 1989 until February 2000.

Again David was involved with Session, SS and a Bible Class (Youth Group) which grew in

numbers to about 80, including many from other areas of Dunedin, who regularly spent the

afternoon with local young people, and again David drove many home to outlying areas. Most

Sundays we had several young people join us for mid-day dinner and we arranged camps at Lake

Waihola and a few times at Lake Hayes complex called Koinonia, run by Peter and Jill Yarrell.

Church camps were held at Waihola and Pleasant Valley, Palmerston.

Sharon transferred to Wakari GB and Robert, then Bruce joined Wakari BB, but they all became

members of the Maori Hill SS, and later BC. I again was involved with Deacons’ Court and now

as a choir member and sometimes soloist and for several years was part of the Music Group.

Sometimes I relieved as organist, and David as a lay Preacher over the holiday period, until he

closed our shop to become the Regional Rep for the BIBLE SOCIETY IN NZ for the

Otago/Southland area for 7-8 years, and was required to speak or preach each Sunday in other

churches. When he retired at age 60 he assisted full time at the North Invercargill Presbyterian

parish for five months, then after an overseas trip we made, he became an Ordained lay-Preacher

for the Saddle Parish for 18 months up till the time of his death. David had over the years

attended part time Courses with the Dunedin Branch of the Bible College of NZ, gaining Passes

in 11 Units.

David’s first involvement with leading in Christian work arose after his full Conversion,

following a local Crusade by World Renowned Evangelist, Billy Graham. In the 1990’s he was

also involved in leadership in LIFE IN THE SPIRIT COURSES, and a board member of

Christian Business Men’s Association, Child Evangelism Fellowship, Youth For Christ and The

Otago Church Bookstore, which then adjoined the Bible Society Office in Dowling Street.

CHOIR I enjoyed singing in the Maori Hill Church choir where we sang a hymn or anthem at

least once a month in the morning Service and at the end of most years we brought in some extra

singers and presented a Cantata. These were wonderful occasions, enjoyed immensely by the

singers and enjoyed also by the Congregation. We were led by very good conductors and had

some very able, musical organists and pianists .We had a very good Music Group with piano,

keyboards, flute, clarinet, violin, piano accordin, sometimes trumpet and guitars and for several

years our minister of the time Martin Stewart made a valuable contribution playing the string

bass.


WOMEN’S AGLOW CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP Following attending Life in The

Spirit Courses at Maori Hill and an Aglow Retreat at Pukerau (for whom David was an Adviser)

my life was changed with a real Spiritual Awakening and Rededicating of my life as a Born

Again Christian. I became a regular enthusiastic attender at Aglow monthly meetings and retreats

and weekly Bible Study Groups where I grew in my Spiritual walk with Christ, our Lord, and

sought to gain a fuller knowledge and understanding of His Holy Scriptures.I saw and personally

experienced the Healing, both emotional and physical, of our Lord and Saviour, our Redeemer,

Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, by the anointing of His Holy Spirit, given so freely by the Grace of

God, to all who Confess their sins, believe in Him and would receive Forgiveness and

Redemption.

THE MARCH FOR JESUS became a world-wide two-yearly event in the Christian

Church starting in the mid 1990’s and then the ALPHA COURSE spread world wide with

thousands of courses being run. This was a basic course built around the questions Is Christianity

Relevant? Boring? Untrue? In today’s world. Many people whether believers, lapsed believers or

non believers have found this a valuable tool to questioning and understanding more about the

Christian Faith and many came into or renewed their Faith during or following courses.

As we entered the YEAR 2000, the dawning of a NEW MILLENIUM and its FIRST

EASTER CELEBRATION the Christian Church world wide stressed the importance of the

fact that this was the CELEBRATION OF 2000 YEARS SINCE OUR LORD

JESUS CHRIST’S LIFE HERE ON EARTH even though much of the world had

forgotten Him.

WORDS OF SCRIPTURE I loved singing Scripture from, King James or RSV versions, in our

Choral Anthem book at Kaikorai - “Consider the Lilies….”, “Praise The Lord, Oh My soul” etc;

then later the Ravensbourne SS choir enjoyed the Junior Book. Much Spiritual learning and

growth came from these, and later the Scripture in Song books, AND memory verses from SS

days.

Where-ever I go, God is always there, preparing the way, leading and upholding me.

Praise Him!!

Documents

CHAPTER II - CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN LIFE