Church repair work to start soon so congregation can return home

A gaping wound in an inner-city Palmerston North church is about to heal, allowing the congregation to worship in its own surrounds again.

The landmark spire of St Paul’s Church on Broadway Ave was removed just before last year’s lockdown and the rest of the old brick church demolished afterwards, leaving a bare patch of land and an adjoining wall of the Wesley worship centre exposed.

Under an eave in need of repairs, a sign has gone up proclaiming: “New look coming, construction starting soon.”

Wesley Broadway Methodist minister Ian Boddy said the work to put up a new wall would go to the city council for consent and a contractor would be hired.

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“The parish council has agreed to the building plans that we’ve been given,” he said.

“The new church was built back in 1992. It was built against the old church… It got damaged a bit in the bringing down of the old building.”

Boddy said there was no firm date for the work to begin, but it would be in the first half of this year.

The Wesley congregation was worshipping at Terrace Haven Chapel on Main St until its building was repaired and the new wall built.

The hall behind the old church building was being used by a Tongan parish after utilities, previously routed through the old church, were restored there late in 2019, Boddy said.

The church was yet to decide what to do with the land on which St Paul’s used to stand.

The old brick church removed in 2019 was built in 1911. It was an earthquake risk and had not been used for worship since the early 1990s, nor other purposes since the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.