Vicar Dino Houtas outside Kaitaia's St Saviours Anglican Church, one of the country's oldest churches at risk of closing due to financial woes.
Vicar Dino Houtas outside Kaitaia's St Saviours Anglican Church, one of the country's oldest churches at risk of closing due to financial woes.
Not even churches are immune to the current cost of living crisis, with an historically and culturally significant Far North church appealing for help to stay open.
Kaitaia’s St Saviours Anglican Church is one of the country’s oldest churches, yet has started a Givealittle campaign to raise $70,000 by August 10 to pay for running and maintenance costs, and provide oversight for its faith-based social services agency, Rongopai House Community Trust, which serves about 200 people per week.
St Saviours was established in 1833 and was built with the support of missionary Revd. Joseph Matthews, William Puckey and Te Rarawa rangatira/chief Nōpera Panakareao.
It was also the country’s first church to deliver services in te reo Māori and English.
St Saviours Vicar Dino Houtas said many churches had been been struggling financially, first from Covid-19 and now with the cost of living.
He said given the church’s historical significance and importance to local whānau, he hoped the appeal would provide some much-needed financial support to keep it going.
“The DNA of the church was to serve the needs of the community out of the values of the gospel, so my purpose has been to bring the church back to that DNA, to care for people who are hurting and to show the church’s impact in real-time,” Houtas said.
“All of the street names here are the names of people who loved this church and who are buried here, yet not a lot of people understand this significance.
“Many people come here for funerals, weddings, baptisms - this town is inextricably connected to the church - and yet I think people think we’re loaded, but we’re broke.”
Houtas said traditionally the structure of the church had been based on providing services to regular worshippers through their donations from within.
These days, however, Houtas said St Saviours had been operating by supporting and caring for community needs in the hope the church would survive.
“We help a lot of people through our programmes like Feed My Lambs, but as I’ve been told, “poor people don’t pay the bills”, so we’re needing to be entrepreneurial and think of ways of keeping the place open,” Houtas said.
“The church has its expenses and we currently can’t afford any of those because we are running at a deficit of about $5000 per month.
“We don’t need to make a profit, we just need to make ends meet and I think if the people who love this place knew it was in financial strife, they would want to help it survive.”
St Saviours Anglican Church vicar Dino Houtas says the church is currently running a deficit of $5k per month.
Since the campaign started in May, the church has raised $7,444 of its $70,000 goal.
Supporters can donate via the Givealittle page or set up a small weekly automatic payment.
