Waikanae Anglican Parish

 

Place

St Andrew's Anglican Church - Reikorangi, Waikanae

 

Address

Akatarawa Rd, Reikorangi

Phone: 04 293 1099

Fax:

E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Services held at St Andrew's

• Holy Communion, St Andrew's, Sunday  9:15 a.m.

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History of building

For 100 years the small church of St. Andrew’s has been an ongoing testimony to the devotion and community spirit of local Anglicans. Nestling in the beautiful Reikorangi Valley to the east of Waikanae on the Kapiti Coast, St. Andrew’s was dedicated free of debt in 1908.The literal translation of Reikorangi is ‘Gate to Heaven’. However, the name is also that of a slave who was lost while snaring a bird there. ‘Perhaps she has found the gateway to heaven’ was the family’s response when all searches failed to find any sign of her. The valley, hidden from the Kapiti Coast by folds of hills, was the favourite hunting area for the local Maori tribe Ngati Atiawa. It was also one of the last habitats of the huia, a bird which became extinct early last century. Sale of the land in the area led to the valley being surveyed in 1892–3 with a view to establishing fruit-growing. The ‘Church Acre’ adjacent to the present church was laid out to include a school, town hall, church and churchyard, and a store. The land was given by the Parata family. A sawmill and a dairy factory were built nearby. About this time there were about 68 families living in the valleys in the area. With the growing population of Reikorangi and only a rough track to reach Waikanae (then known as Parata Village) 4.5 kilometres to the west, the need for a church became urgent.The meeting chaired by Rev. H. T. Steely of Otaki, whose parish extended through Waikanae to Paekakariki, and impetus from the Monk family, leading members of the community, led to a contract being let to a local building company. The sum of £30 was set aside for materials. The church was built to the same dimensions as the then St. Luke’s of Waikanae—28 feet, 6 inches long by 16 feet, 6 inches wide with a 12-foot stud (9 metres by 5 meters and a 3.5 metre stud). In 1959 a vestry and chancel were added. Through the chancel window congregations can see the changing seasons of the valley. The church’s bell, from the wreck of the Devon in Wellington harbour in 1913, still calls the people of the valley to worship.

 

In 2001 the church hall was added when the first church built in the Rangitikei was brought to Reikorangi. The new hall has a full Historic Places Trust designation. One hundred and forty-two years old in 2007 (older than St. Andrew’s) the building was situated at the mouth of the Manawatu at Tangimoana and during the New Zealand Wars, complete with musket ports at each side, was prepared for use as a retreat although it was never used as such.