Following the Dream: The Century of Russell Methodism

By Dave Mullan and David C. Pratt

Following The Dream tells the story of a small group of faithful and dedicated people whose huge vision built the Russell Methodist Church and maintained a living congregation for just a few months short of one hundred years. The book was initially inspired by many touching and memorable reminiscences contributed to the Centenary celebrations in April 2012. Sadly, the event coincided with the closing of the congregation which had dwindled to just a couple of members.
Looking at the wealth of material shared in the closing and discovering some remnants of historical records, the authors proceeded to explore the possibility of a printed publication. Dave Mullan sketched out at outline around the different stages of the life of the congregation. David Pratt buried himself in the Methodist Archives in Auckland every Tuesday for several weeks. What came together after a few months is an interesting account of what is known about this congregation.
There are some fascinating anomalies. The title Methodist Church” on the noticeboard always belied the outstanding leadership of people of many other denominations. The fellowship that in 1913 built a church to accommodate a congregation of 100 never grew to more than 27 members in the whole century. The obsessive dream to build their own parsonage and have their own resident minister to themselves was only ever partially realised.
The book asks several questions regarding Russell Methodist Church mission goals. Were they realistic or achievable? What was the role of the national church in relation to Russell’s own ambitions? What is to be learned about future strategy for development of small churches in the future?
The book strongly reflects the convictions of the authors that small churches matter and should be fostered. They may not function in the same way as larger church communities but they have many special characteristics that give them great strengths, especially in small, discrete communities such as Russell.
In assigning titles to various phases to the congregation’s life, such as “The Family Church”, the “Sunday School Church”, authors designated a new label for the congregation that is ageing and able to do only a limited amount of work for itself but deserves to be assisted to continue. So they chracterise the last couple of decades of the congregation as the “Hospice Church”. Afterwards, they noted that a writer in Christian Century used the same term.
A labour of love, the writing and publishing of this little book, together with a publishing grant from the Bay of Islands Uniting Parish, enabled it to be distributed free to all who attended the centennial and closing service. In that spirit, this e-book version is also offered free.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dave Mullan
• Release date: Mar 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781877357145

Dave Mullan

Retired Presbyter of Methodist Church of New Zealand. Passionate pioneer in Local Shared Ministry, consultant in small churches, publisher of over 100 niche market books, producer of prosumer video, deviser of murder mystery dinners and former private pilot. I trained for the Methodist Ministry at Trinity Theological College and eventually completed MA, Dip Ed as well. Bev and I married just before my first appointment in Ngatea where our two children arrived. We went on to Panmure and Taumarunui. Longer terms followed at Dunedin Central Mission and the Theological College. During this time I was also involved as co-founder and second national President of Family Budgeting Services and adviser to the (government) Minister of Social Welfare. My final four years were part-time, developing the first Presbyterian or Methodist Local Shared Ministry unit in this country and promoting the concept overseas. Retirement has brought a whole lot more opportunities and challenges. We are now living in our own villa in Hibiscus Coast Residential Village.

Book preview

Following the Dream

Memories and Insights

from 100 years of Russell Methodism

Dave Mullan and David Pratt

ISBN 978-1-877357-14-5

ColCom Press

28/101 Red Beach Road,

Hibiscus Coast, Aotearoa-New Zealand 0932

[e-mail]

http://www.colcompress.com

http://dave-mullan.blogspot.co.nz

Copyright 2015

Dave Mullan and David Pratt

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all who contributed to the Closing Celebrations or sent in personal reminiscences. All this material will be filed in the Parish Office and the Methodist Archives in Auckland. Resource material and photographs may be available on request to the Publisher or the Parish, P O Box 353, Paihia 0247.

Our special thanks to Helen Laurenson and Donald Phillipps, Wesley Historical Society; Jo Smith and Cynthia McKenzie, Methodist Archives; Graham Langton, Archives NZ; and Shelley Arlidge, Russell Museum for their help with research documents and information for the Land Story and this book.

The authors acknowledge a generous grant by Bay of Islands Uniting Parish from the proceeds of the property sale to subsidies the print version of this publication.

In case it needs to be stated, the views expressed in this book are those of the authors alone.

Contents

Foreword

1—Family Church. Establishment of the congregation and building the church. The central role of the Williams family and the family nature of small congregations. Insights.

2—Ecumenical Church. The ecumenical nature of the congregation throughout its life and witness. Insights.

3—Silent Church. The decades of very sparse records and no personal memories. Insights.

4—Sunday School Church. The decades of vital Sunday School and Youth work, well recorded and full of warm memories. Insights

5—D.I.Y. Church. Building the parsonage, managing the York St hall and other examples of vigorous programmes of development. Insights

6—Minister Church. Accounts of the only four presbyters to live in the Russell parsonage and reflections on the residential ministry. Insights

7—Proper Church. The congregation's aspirations to be a proper church with the features and programmes of a much larger membership. Insights

8—Hospice Church. The final decades of declining initiative and increasing dependence and a rationale for maintenance of declining congregations. Insights

9—Future Directions. Suggestions for strategy for small congregations. Dreams

Appendix: Summary of chronological events

About the Authors

Foreword

In 2012 the little congregation of Russell Methodist Church had been dwindling for a couple of decades, mainly due to removals and deaths. Leaders of the Bay of Islands Parish had recognised for some years that closure was inevitable. But they had waited for the members themselves to raise the issue. And there grew up an unwritten consensus that the church might stay open until the centenary in April 2013.

As it happened, the death of the oldest member, Doris Edwards and the departure of two others for an extended overseas vacation, meant that Sunday services ended in August 2012, just a few months before the centenary.

The celebration and closure took place within 24 hours of one hundred years since the opening. Research for material for a suitable closing service and reminiscences from those attending all drew attention to the special qualities of the congregation and its place in the lives of its members. The authors saw potential for a book to draw together the loose threads of the conversations that day.

But they also wanted to reflect on the significant features of the story of this interesting venture. Russell was an example of the kind of church that held up the Methodist flag in every corner of the country decades ago. In the 1950s, some small churches were closed by being merged into enlarged circuits, primarily to make better use of ministry. In the 1960s, after the enthusiastic votes on the principle of a united church in New Zealand, many smaller congregations opted to merge their identity in favour of ecumenical ventures. Neither option was ever open to Russell. It was committed to a denominational identity.

We thought that it might be interesting to identify any broad principles which might inform and assist the wider church and other similar small congregations. Capturing a little of the essence of the anecdotes of the closing celebrations and setting them in the greater story of the hundred years was the challenge of this book.

Our intention has been to avoid a simple chronological account—though a brief summary of this kind is offered as an appendix. Instead we have recognised that the congregation has exhibited styles of life that seem to have predominated at certain times. These characteristics have suggested to us our main chapter divisions. They are somewhat related to the passing decades of the century.

Overlaid on these changing styles we have seen some basic dynamics that are peculiar to this church community. As we have admired the initiative and determination of this little group, we have sensed also the isolation that was both a strength and a weakness. By exploring these themes we hope to draw some broad conclusions that may be of interest to those who study history, theology and mission.

In particular, we offer these reflections to those who contributed reminiscences and reflections at the time of the closure. It was their contributions rather than our possibly esoteric theological considerations that started us on this journey.

So this work is respectfully and gratefully dedicated to them and the memory of their forbears.

David Pratt (1967-69)

Dave Mullan (1991–94)

1 — Family Church

Russell is infamous as the hell-hole of the Pacific. Its waterfront was lined with shanties offering every kind of relaxation for visiting whalers and sealers. Liquor, drugs and women were all vigorously marketed. But it was not a target for the vigorous evangelism of those early Methodists who opened their missions by preaching on barrelheads in places like Thames and Hokitika. There was no enthusiastic Puritan invasion of this remote settlement. But we can identify some clues about how a vigorous little Wesleyan congregation came to be established there in later decades.

Anglican territory

In the first place, under agreement reached by the pioneering missionaries, Bay of Islands was identified as an Anglican mission area, managed by the mission which commenced in Rangihoua in 1814 and which moved to Paihia in 1823. In the Bay, ministry to European people was through the medium of the Anglican Maori Mission. Wesleyan missionaries would have regularly visited the Paihia Mission and were often invited to give leadership in worship by Anglican Henry Williams—that is until Bishop Selwyn came on the scene and put a stop to his people fraternising with their ecclesiastical rivals. The development of separate Methodist congregational life among Pakeha (non-Maori, settlers) would be initiated later, but by the new residents themselves rather than the denomination.

Settler Reluctance

Secondly, Russell was not a conventional European settlement. The first arrivals were connected with the marine industries of the day and were merchants and vendors rather than settler farmers. If the Treaty of Waitangi might have been seen by some as encouraging the orderly development of settled communities, this did not take place in Russell.

The first regular troops to be stationed in New Zealand arrived in the Bay of Islands on January 30th, 1840. They were followed shortly afterwards by elements of various regiments. When Russell became the scene of one of the first major confrontations between Maori and Pakeha, most of the little community’s infrastructure was destroyed in the bombardment and conflagration. The result was that the Bay of Islands was flooded with soldiers.

Almost immediately what remained of the township was distanced from conflict. Few European residents remained in Russell. Many of them decamped to Auckland, not a few giving up their plots of land and their businesses. Even when the first Maori Land Courts attempted to identify legitimate owners, some failed to appear to press their cause. At least one of these defaulters would become an important element of the eventual story of Russell Methodist Church.

Primitive Population

So from its beginnings, Russell was no place for ordinary farmer and merchant settlers. It had been primarily a Maori kainga (village) with a gradually increasing population of irregular and disorganised Europeans. There were hardly any families. Rather, the township, such as it was, continued to be populated by disgruntled sailors who had deserted their ships and a handful of entrepreneurs who saw benefits in offering hospitality—largely of the liquid nature—to visiting ships’ crews. There were also a few who planned to trade in land; they stitched up whatever deals they could with the local hapu or sub-tribe. Some of the very first such alienations of Maori land have survived from this period, generally becoming subject to the Maori Land Court established in the late 1850s. The names of Duke, Pollack, Clayton, and Stephenson, have some relevance for the small Russell property that later came into the hands of the Methodist Church of New Zealand.

Methodist Beginnings

In his book Marsden and the Missions—Prelude to Waitangi, Eric Ramsden (AH & AW Reed, Dunedin 1936) provides us with a fascinating record of early Wesleyan contact with Russell.

In February 1840, Rev Joseph Orton, Superintendent of the Hobart Wesleyan Circuit set out for Tonga. He was to review the Wesleyan Mission’s work in northern New Zealand while on his way to Tonga. He travelled with John Bumby, the newly appointed head of the Mission in NZ. They sailed from Sydney on 30th January on the ship Superb and were at sea when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed on Feb 6th. The Superb arrived at the Hokianga Harbour on 17th February 1840 but as a storm raged they could not cross the Hokianga bar and continue to Mangungu. Instead they sailed around the north and down to Russell.

It was Orton’s second visit to the area but this time he hardly recognised Russell, the new seat of government. The town had attracted settlers of a speculative turn of mind by glowing prospects grounded upon fictitious representations. Many of its inhabitants were in extreme distress. Hobson, the newly appointed governor, granted Orton’s request to hold a service in Russell, and condescendingly superintended the needful preparations in person. The attendance was distinctly disappointing.

At Russell Orton met a shoemaker named McLeod, who mended his dilapidated boots for nothing. The pleasure it gave him to do the job, he said was simple payment. McLeod and his Maori wife had once assisted a Wesleyan missionary to obtain a hearing in the village—though the shoemaker’s educational prejudices were against field preaching. After that the Wesleyan missionaries from Hokianga always stayed with McLeod and his old woman, as he referred to his spouse. We parted with many kind wishes toward each other, commented Orton.

It seems clear that, although there was general acceptance that Maori work by the three missionary churches would be conducted within some territorial limits, the missionaries were free to make visits in other areas where there were pakeha settlers.

The Williams Connection

The Williams family is inseparably linked with Russell Methodist Church from the earliest years of permanent settlement. There has been some confusion over the name, but this family is not related to the Anglican descendants of Archdeacon Henry Williams who had pastoral oversight of Russell from Paihia.

The first John Bernard Williams of our story arrived in Russell in 1847. He was among the relatively few pakeha who elected to settle in the sacked township after the 1845 conflict. He apparently became well established, and was held in high esteem among the community and was first treasurer of the cricket club. He was a merchant and hotelier and was elected to the County Council, serving at least one term as its chairman. He was foremost among those who presented an appeal to the Provincial Superintendent for some kind of immigration policy to develop Russell after it was left to languish after the disaster of 1845.

Separation

A devout Christian, JB Williams (the same Christian names were given to a son and a great-nephew) seems to have been active in Christ Church. At some point a profound but now completely unknown difference of opinion resulted in the exit of his four sons from the Anglican Church. This was probably after his death from a long and painful illness at the age of only 49 in 1867. But he himself may have been involved in the disagreement and the exodus from Christ Church.

The details are not clear but by the end of the century, our Williams brothers are known to have been fostering regular gatherings under the Wesleyan umbrella. It could be that John Bernard had been an active Wesleyan in Australia or the United Kingdom and linked up with Christ Church because there was no other option. But it is possible that in the separation he and or his sons cast around for some other ecclesiastical organisation to lend some authority to their initiative in establishing another worshipping community.

Whatever their background, the Williams venture would have drawn other families with nonconformist tendencies. At some point the Wesleyan Home Missionary from Kaikohe pioneered the Russell fellowship and led worship from time to time. This formal association of a recognised denomination would no doubt encourage any other members of the local community to participate in a church of their own rather than join with the Anglicans.

It is well established that worship was regularly held in family homes and the Cricketers Arms Hotel. This was situated on the waterfront and owned by the Williams family. Members of the family supported this little corner of the Wesleyan Church