The Presbyterian Church was a founding member of the National Council of Churches in 1941 and Presbyterians were active in the council’s leadership. Backĭuring the 1940s support for ecumenism (cooperation between Christian churches) increased. Wellington: Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, 1990, p. Quoted in Peter Matheson and others, Presbyterians in Aotearoa, 1840–1990. William Webster's diary, 23 February 1840. Women deaconnesses and lay people were instrumental in the success of missions. The church also strongly supported overseas missions, notably in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), South China, and the Punjab in India. The ministry was boosted by the ordination of the first Māori ministers, Timu Tioke in 1931 and Hemi Pōtatau in 1933. In 1918 John Laughton opened a school at Rua Kēnana’s settlement at Maungapōhatu, the first of six he set up in the Urewera region. In 1905 the church founded Turakina Maori Girls’ College at Marton. New emphasis was placed on ministering to Māori. By the 1920s most Presbyterians had access to either a minister or a home missionary. Home missionaries (unordained ministers) were sent to areas not served by regular ministers. In the early 20th century the church extended its reach. Female church members outnumbered males but were excluded from church government. The church was strongest in rural areas, particularly in the Scots-settlement heartland of Southland and Otago, where about 50% of the population identified as Presbyterian. A quarter of them regularly attended church, more than the proportion of Anglicans who did so. In 1906, 23% of New Zealanders (203,600) identified as Presbyterians. of giving an occasional week-evening lecture on Astronomy, Geology, Natural History or other secular subject of popular and instructive interest.’ 2 When calling in the late 19th century for a new minister for Christchurch’s St Andrew's parish, the congregation asked that ‘none but a really clever minister should be sent – one who is not only fluent in speech and a good extempore preacher – but capable. The name Aotearoa was added in 1991 to acknowledge the church’s partnership with Māori. The Presbyterian Church of New Zealand came into being on 31 October 1901. This split Presbyterians into a northern church above the Waitaki River and a southern church below it.Ī second attempt at union succeeded after the parties agreed the southern synod could be part of the new church structure but keep its endowments. The southerners feared they would lose their endowments and identity in a national church and formed their own synod (council) in 1866. When the first general assembly of regional presbyteries (courts) was held in 1862, the Otago and Southland presbyteries stayed away.
While most New Zealand Presbyterians were Free Church adherents, differences emerged during attempts to create a national church. Unlike Dunedin, this settlement never grew beyond a small town. In 1854 the Reverend Norman McLeod led some 800 Scottish settlers from Nova Scotia, Canada to create a new community at Waipū in Northland. One-eighth of the proceeds of land sales went to religious and educational uses, endowments that later generated great wealth for the church.
The hub of the Free Church in New Zealand was Dunedin, which was founded in 1848 by Thomas Burns and William Cargill as a Free Church settlement – the only one in the world to become a city.
Some of these people migrated to New Zealand. When they failed to get their way, they left and set up the Free Church. Reformers had argued that congregations, not the state or landlords, should appoint ministers. The Wellington church (later called St Andrew’s) was the only one founded in New Zealand before the Church of Scotland was split by the 1843 ‘Disruption’. This was an excellent sermon and I trust it will produce a deep and permanent impression on us all.’ 1 “If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning”. McFarlane gave us a sermon in the forenoon on deck from the 137 Psalm verse 5.
William Webster, a passenger on the Bengal Merchant, recorded his impressions of the first Presbyterian service in New Zealand, on Sunday 23 February 1840.