Mormons admit closure of Church College will be a loss

Philip Hague (L), Elder Rolfe Kerr and Elder Paul Johnson announce the closure of the Church College of New Zealand. Picture / Richard Robinson.

The only Mormon school in New Zealand is closing because leaders say the church's resources could be better used elsewhere.

Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said yesterday the 700-student Church College at Temple View in Hamilton would shut down in stages from next year to 2009.

United States-based Elder Paul Johnson told the Herald it was decided to close the school because New Zealand's education system was "one of the strongest in the world".

Church resources would be better directed into teaching programmes in other regions, such as Africa and developing Europe.

Elder Johnson and Elder Rolfe Kerr are visiting New Zealand this week, and last night broke the news to parents, staff and pupils.

It is Mormon policy to close schools in areas where there is quality local education, Elder Kerr said.

However, the school's ageing facilities were also a factor in the closure.

Church College, which is privately funded and rated decile 3, has been operating since 1958.

It will not admit any new students from the end of this year.

New Zealand's changing society meant the school had "in a real sense" achieved its objectives, Elder Kerr said.

The school had opened at a time when most of the population was rural-based and often lacked quality schools to which parents could send their children.

Nowadays, however, more people were now living in towns and cities and the schools were of a higher standard.

Elder Johnson said church leaders in Utah had thought long and hard before closing the school, but felt happy that other delivery programmes already established would step in to get the Mormon teachings out to young followers.

Daily religious instruction existed outside the school, and that would be expanded to fill the gap left by the closing of Church College.

The Mormons have run a seminary programme in New Zealand for the past 40 years, he said.

"Our young people get together for lots of different reasons outside the church.

"There's the church, then there's the Church College," he said.

New of the closure saddened Hamilton West MP Martin Gallagher, who yesterday described it as a "devastating blow".

He said the school had made a wonderful contribution to the district for almost 50 years, and it was a "very sad loss" to the Waikato community and the education of its young people.

It was expected the college's 50-odd teaching staff would be absorbed into the New Zealand school system, athough vacancies could be created at teaching posts around the Pacific.

The Mormon Church has schools in Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga and Samoa.

Non-teaching staff, also numbering about 50, will be "redeployed" or retrained on a "case by case" basis, Elder Kerr said.

Although he was sorry to see the college go, Elder Johnson did not think the closure would weaken the church in this country. "I don't think it will affect the growth or the strength of the church in New Zealand, but it will be a loss."

A spokesman for Education Minister Steve Maharey said there were no plans for the Government to take over the running of the school.

Who are the Mormons?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded by Joseph Smith jnr in the United States in the 1820s. It has a worldwide membership of about 12 million (5.6 million in the US), and there are about 40,000 Mormons in New Zealand - of whom about 7000 are school-age. Famous Mormons include Butch Cassidy, Gladys Knight, the Osmonds.