JUBILEE OF ST. BARNABAS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 98, 16 July 1927, Page 1

JUBILEE OF ST. BARNABAS

FOUNDING OF THE PARISH LINK WITH BISHOP SELWYN On July 15, 1877, residents of Maungawhau took part in the first Anglican Church service held in the district, and to-morrow the parishioners of St. Barnabas’s Church, Mount Eden, will celebrate the jubilee of the event. Next Christmas Day they will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the dedication of the older portion of their church, which was erected in 1847 by Bishop Selwyn on St. Barnabas’s Point, Mechanics Bay, and removed to Mount Eden 30 years later. Before 1877, what now constitutes the parish of St. Barnabas was part of Holy Sepulchre parish, and in consequence of the rapid progress of Maungawhau suburb, it was deemed necessary to establish a separate parish. Bishop Cowie and Archdeacon Dudley, vicar of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, officiated at the first service of the new parish, which was held in a small schoolroom, the only suitable building the district possessed. Church For Mount Eden Not content with the makeshift building the residents soon took action to acquire a church and site, with the result that St. Barnabas’s Church, Parnell, was moved by permission of the diocesan trustees to the present site on the corner of Mount Eden and Belle Vue Roads. In course of time additions in wood were made, and on December 11, 1907, the foundation stone of a new chancel and transcepts, in red brick, was laid by the Governor-General, Lord Plunket. The name of the old church was retained, and is still in use. Erected on its original site for the use of the large number of Maoris who frequented Mechanics Bay in the early days, St. Barnabas’s served as a house of worship for 30 years until fewer and fewer natives came to the Waitemata, and in 1877 the church was removed. Incumbents of the Parish The present vicar, the Rev. E. E. Bamford, is the eighth incumbent of the parish. His predecessors were the Revs. H. O. Sparling, J. K. Davis, W. Beatty, T. H. Sprott (now Bishop of Wellington), W. H. Johnston, Canon E. J. McFarland and Canon H. H. Foster. To mark the jubilee a teaching mission has been conducted by several clergy, and special services will be held to-morrow. The preachers will be the Rev. G. Gordon Bell, vicar of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the mother parish of St. Barnabas’s, and Canon McFarland.