Christ Church (Anglican) is just outside the border of the King Country or Rohe Potae, so was described as being ‘built on the edge of the European land..an outpost of the Empire.’ The little Anglican church is set back from State Highway 3 on a prominent site close to the northern boundary of the town of Kihikihi, a small town associated with the Waikato leader, Rewi Manga Maniapoto (?-1894). Maniapoto was strongly influenced by early New Zealand missionary teachings about Christianity, literacy, and agriculture, promoting pakeha agricultural crops and practices, dramatically changing the area’s landscape from the 1840s. He is remembered for supporting the Maori King movement, fighting against the Crown in the Waikato Land War and being a pragmatist who helped to negotiate peace.
The early 1850s saw the development of the King movement also known as Kingitanga. This was established in the central North Island with the intention of unifying Maori under a Maori King, thus weakening the potential for the British to capitalise on any existing tribal divisions. It was believed that having a monarch who had similar status to that of Queen Victoria, would put Maori on an equal footing with the Europeans. This was a response to the rapid loss of Maori land to the Colonial government and it was hoped through Kingitanga to restrain individual chiefs from selling land. The establishment of Kingitanga was a pre-cursor to the Waikato land wars of the 1860s. Since it was established, the Kingitanga movement and influence have expanded and are recognised and respected by Maori in many parts of New Zealand today.
Maniapoto was influential in the King movement, and in 1858 participated in the installation of Potatau Te Wherowhero, the first King. The bible used at this ceremony was provided by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionary and translator based at Te Awamutu, Reverend Robert Maunsell (1810 - 1894). At the nearby battle of Orakau in 1864 Maniapoto led Ngati Maniapoto against the British military forces, the padres attached to the Regiments are said to have ministered to the dying on both sides, perhaps reinforcing the Anglican link. As agriculture intensified in the district, Kihikihi grew as a trading and commercial centre, with Church services held in the school and occasionally the barracks.
From around 1880 Maniapoto lived in Kihikihi in a house built for him by the government. In September 1880 a section was surveyed for the church on a low hill overlooking the district, and the Church’s foundation block was laid by Auckland Bishop William Garden Cowie (1831-1902) in December, where he expressed the hope that the building would be replaced by ‘one of more durable materials than wood’ in the next fifty years; this humble church building has proven much more durable that the Bishop could envisage. The land was transferred to the Diocese in July 1881.
Reverend Phillip Walsh (1843-1914), then of Taranaki, designed plans for the church which he donated to the building committee. Cowie described Walsh’s churches as ‘ecclesiastically correct, and in good taste’, and Walsh himself as ‘one of the best amateur draughtsmen I ever knew, and ... an accomplished architect.’ Walsh designed according to the principles of the Ecclesiological Society, an influential neo-Gothic group interested in how worship could be physically manifested through architecture, design and music. Most of Walsh’s churches were in Northland and Taranaki, where he lived: Christ Church is the only Walsh-designed church identified in the Waikato.
Christ Church was one of sixty-nine Anglican churches built between 1870 and 1887, varying in seating capacity from one thousand to around one hundred people, making Christ Church with seating estimates between 72 to 90 people, a very small church for the Auckland Diocese. The plans were for an interior space of 48 feet by 19 feet (14.63 by 5.79 metres) and allowed for a future extension of 30 feet (9.14 metres) should it be required. Before tenders were called in early 1881, the women of the church took on most of the responsibility for fundraising, including Miss Maunder, Mrs Anderson and Mrs Minnett, wife of Major Minnett of the Armed Constabulary based in Kihikihi. The largest fundraiser was a Bazaar, which involved a special train being run from Auckland and the event being opened by the Attorney General F. Whitaker. Mrs Anderson was also publicly honoured for her assistance to the building committee. Tenders for the build were presented to Mr Anderson and in April it was awarded to Archibald (Archie) Millar, a local man presenting the cheapest tender of £198, but actually built at a cost of between £250 and £300. Timber, predominantly rimu with some kahikatea, was supplied by Messrs Berry, Gardner and Neill whose mill had recently opened at Orakau. They cut timber from the adjoining properties of Mr Cowan and Mr Hutchinson: J. Hutchinson’s farm incorporated the Orakau pa, site of the battle. Berry and Hutchinson went on to be highly involved in the vestry of the Church, with Hutchinson being both a lay reader and Church Warden. Hutchinson was active in the community more generally, serving on the Waipa County Council, as chairman of the Mangahoe Drainage Board and a member of the committee of the Waikato Agricultural and Pastoral Society. Both the Anglican and the Catholic Church building sites had problems with timber being stolen; nonetheless, the church was dedicated by the Bishop on 5 Dec 1881. The crammed church building was described as ‘well proportioned’ and ‘very pretty’, and (remarkably) completely free of debt. The singing was ‘well led’ by Mrs Hutchison.
Several Maori people were present at the dedication including Maniapoto, so the closing dedicatory prayer was said in Te Reo Maori. It has been argued that Maori of the period were less concerned about denominational or even religious divisions. Maniapoto’s longest association was with the (Anglican) Church Missionary Society (CMS), but he was educated by the Wesleyans and also had contact with the Catholics from 1844. However, the New Zealand Herald report of Maniapoto’s funeral in 1894 stated that he belonged to the Church of England.
By January there were requests to increase the frequency of vicar-led services from once a month to twice a month, to purchase lighting and to start a Sunday school. In July, plans were underway to lay out the grounds with assistance requested from the local Armed Constabulary, via Major Minnett. This is likely to be the period when it was arranged to import oak trees from England for the gardens. In October plans were afoot to paint the new church.
It was not until 1883, after negotiations between the Crown and key Maori King Movement leaders (including Maniapoto), that an agreement was reached in Kihikihi that permitted Europeans access into the King Country. In 1884 it was decided to obtain a font, proposed by Hutchinson and seconded by Berry. That same year the Minnett’s sold their Kihikihi belongings and arranged to leave town, as the Armed Constabulary was being disbanded. Major Minnett went on to briefly become Government Instructor in Musketry.
Many locally significant families have had a long association with the church, such as the Temples, Hutchinsons, Wynyards and Maunders. When Cowie visited the church in 1887 he noted that many congregation members travelled long distances to reach the church, including the Hutchinsons. The Church Warden at that time was formerly of the 40th Regiment, while Charles Temple was a Forest Ranger who fought at Orakau in 1864 and served with the armed constabulary. His children and grandchildren were the main bell ringers in the church. His granddaughter Isabella Temple (ca.1898-1991) is particularly remembered as an influential Christ Church member, a long-term bell ringer (including ringing in peace at the end of World War One), one-time secretary of the Anglican Church Guild and League of Mothers, as well as for her role as counsellor at the Waikeria Youth Institution for many years: she brought some of her young charges to church with her. She was very active in the community more broadly, including serving as a secretary for the National Party, belonging to the Red Cross Society and the Country Women’s Institute, and taking an active part in fundraising for a retirement home in Te Awamutu. She learned to fly at a time when few women were so ‘unmaidenly’.
At the Church annual general meeting of 1890, it was decided to postpone erecting a vestry. The mid-1890s saw a decline in church membership, as many parishioners relocated to the Paeroa gold fields.
In 1931 the Parish of St John, Te Awamutu was created, which included Christ Church. In 1940 the Kihikihi Anglican Women’s Guild was formed, and as with many such guilds they raised funds to look after church property: one of their first fundraisers was for painting the church. In 1944 they mooted removing an oak tree in front of the church as part of tidying up the grounds. However, this idea was overturned as the oak was said to have been planted by Mrs Minnett some 60 years before. In 1957 the Guild raised money to have the church carpeted.
In the early days of the church the vicar gave one morning a month to visiting Christ Church, but Evensong was held every Sunday, led by Lay Readers. It was not until 1963 that the congregation was determined to have become large enough to support their own vicar, and Reverend E.D. Brown was inducted to oversee the Parochial District of Orakau. The same year it was proposed to build a new hall on the church land. The hall was opened in 1966 and was designed to seat 160 people. The same year saw the property subdivided but also increasing cooperation between various denominations at Kihikihi. In 1968 the old church hall was sold to the Assemblies of God church, and around the same time evensong was discontinued. In 1973 the 11am service was discontinued. The 1970s were also marked by the theft of a number of brass ceremonial items.
The period saw greater awareness of the needs of Maori, and a Maori Pastor was appointed to the Waitomo Pastorate. The Woman’s Movement was also to have an impact: Christ Church was the first church in the Waikato Diocese to have a female vicar, Reverend Anne Elisabeth Thornton Riley (? - 1985), in 1981, the same year the church celebrated its centennial with 180 people attending. The commemoration was marked in part by the donation of a brass cross by two long standing members, Isabella Temple and Molly Maunder (organist), replacing a stolen one. Later the same year Riley was the first woman vicar in New Zealand to give birth.
During the 1980s considerable work was done on the church’s interior furnishings with the Bishops chair undergoing refurbishment, three new chandeliers were installed, two altar candle sticks with a snuffer were acquired, new seasonal church hangings were embroidered by four of the church women, including Riley. She died in 1985 while still in office, and is remembered with a plaque. Riley was succeeded by another woman, Stephanie Owen, Priest in Charge. In 1987 a tornado lifted roofing iron revealing wooden shingles still in place underneath, and smashing some of the windows.
In 1990, upon the departure of their vicar, a Ministry Team was licensed to lead the church instead and this arrangement continues to the present.
The 1880s had been a period of active church building in Kihikihi, with four denominations represented. Today, only Christ Church remains in use as a church.
