St John's church plans progressing slowly after fire

Parts of the gutted church had to be demolished for safety reasons./Ben Fraser

A St John's Presbyterian Church minister says plans for a rebuild are progressing slowly after the devastating February fire.

Reverend Lance Thomas said the church was still working with the insurance company to settle its claim and begin working on a design for a new church building.

"It's a slow process," he said.

The church building was gutted by the fire, which also spread to the neighbouring hall.

Mr Thomas said he believed the slow process was likely usual for a large-scale rebuild.

"It's pretty consistent with this part of a journey like ours."

He said he hoped they would be able to begin work on a design for the new church building "hopefully two months from now".

Mr Thomas said he and fellow St John's minister Reverend Ed Masters wished to publicly thank the community for its support since the fire.

"We would like to say thank you to the community for all the support we've received.

"We have been just so blessed with the response from caring people who have made it possible to continue with our ministries."

Church services were being held on Fenton St, in a building which used to house the Rotorua Club and was previously home to another church group.

Mr Masters said the church services were likely to be held there for "a few years", until the church could be rebuilt.

A concert was held on April 2 to raise money for the church, which runs a foodbank and other community programmes.

Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust gave a $20,000 grant to go towards buying a van for its community work.

The fire at the church on the corner of Ranolf and Victoria Sts, was initially thought to have been deliberately lit but was found to have been caused by faulty lighting.