St. Joseph's Church is a modern Catholic church opened in 2004 located in the central city suburb of Mt Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand, on the eastern side of the

Basin Reserve The Basin Reserve (commonly known as "The Basin") is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It has been used for Test matches, and is the main home ground for the Wellington Firebirds first-class team. The Basin Reserve is the only cricke ...

.''St Joseph's Church'', Catholic Parish of South Wellington
(retrieved 23 April 2018)

History

The Catholic presence in Mt Victoria dates from 1885 when a octagonal, wooden, church was built in Buckle St, west of the Basin Reserve, next to St Patrick's College (founded in that year). Later the crèche and incurables hospital founded by

Mother Aubert Suzanne Aubert (19 June 1835 – 1 October 1926), better known to many by her cleric name Sister Mary Joseph or Mother Aubert, was a Catholic sister who started a home for orphans and the under-privileged in Jerusalem, New Zealand on the Whangan ...

were built adjacent to and east of the church. In 1898, nearby land was set aside on the corner of Tory St and Buckle St as the site for a new cathedral for Wellington following the destruction by fire of St Mary's Cathedral. The building of this cathedral was continually delayed and this affected the subsequent building history of the parish as the cathedral would also have served as the parish church. In 1945 the octagonal Buckle St church, which at times was used for functions appropriate to a

pro-cathedral A pro-cathedral or procathedral is a parish church that temporarily serves as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese, or a church that has the same function in a Catholic missionary jurisdiction (such as an apostolic prefecture or apostolic ...

, was demolished because of its decrepit state, and the parish shifted to the east of the Basin reserve, into a renovated hall, beside the parish school staffed by the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

, in Paterson Street, near the residence of Archbishop O'Shea. This is more or less the site of the present church. Sacred Heart Basilica, Hill Street, Thorndon, was dedicated as the cathedral for Wellington in 1984 after the proposed Tory St/Buckle St cathedral site had been acquired by the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

for motorway construction. The octagonal church and the unbuilt cathedral sites are now largely included in the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, which includes the transported and preserved Mother Aubert crèche, with State Highway one running through the Arras Tunnel underneath. The present St Joseph's Church was opened, to great rejoicing, in 2004, replacing the converted hall which had served as the church of the parish for sixty years and after the final definition of the alignment of Paterson St, which is part of

State Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbere ...

continuing to the

Mount Victoria Tunnel The Mount Victoria Tunnel in the New Zealand capital city of Wellington is 623 metres (slightly more than a third of a mile) long and 5 metres (16.4 ft) in height, connecting Hataitai to the centre of Wellington and the suburb of Mount Vic ...

and the eastern suburbs and

Wellington Airport Wellington International Airport (formerly known as Rongotai Airport) is an international airport located in the suburb of Rongotai in Wellington. It lies 3 NM or 5.5 km south-east from the city centre. It is a hub for Air New Zealand an ...

beyond.

Architecture

The building is constructed of concrete and timber. The liturgical area is a large semi-amphitheatre design in a circular-triangular formation seating 300 with the altar at the flattened apse. There is a full-immersion baptistery and a separate

Blessed Sacrament The Blessed Sacrament, also Most Blessed Sacrament, is a devotional name to refer to the body and blood of Christ in the form of consecrated sacramental bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist. The term is used in the Latin Church of the ...

chapel seating about 30 surmounted by a tower with an ascending stained glass window (the "Bahaut window" - see below) by the artist

Shane Cotton Shane William Cotton (born 3 October 1964) is a New Zealand painter whose work explores biculturalism, colonialism, cultural identity, Māori spirituality, and life and death. Life Cotton was born in Upper Hutt with Ngāpuhi iwi affiliations ...

, especially visible from Cambridge and Kent Terraces and the Basin Reserve to the west and south. There is also a large separate area for the parish community to gather for meetings and social activities.Studio Pacific Architecture
(retrieved 23 April 2018)

Stained glass

The church possesses particularly fine examples of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

stained glass from the studio of

Harry Clarke Henry Patrick Clarke (17 March 1889 – 6 January 1931) was an Irish stained-glass artist and book illustrator. Born in Dublin, he was a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement. His work was influenced by both the Art Nouveau and ...

of Dublin. These were imported as part of the New Zealand Catholic Church pavilion at the 1939/1940

New Zealand Centennial Exhibition The New Zealand Centennial Exhibition took place over six months from Wednesday 8 November 1939 until 4 May 1940. It celebrated one hundred years since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 and the subsequent mass European settlement of ...

held in

Lyall Bay Lyall Bay is a bay and suburb on the south side of the Rongotai isthmus in Wellington, New Zealand. The bay is a popular surf beach, featuring a breakwater at the eastern end. It is home to two surf lifesaving clubs and has also been the site of ...

, Wellington. This followed closely on the centennial of the

Catholic Church in New Zealand The Catholic Church in New Zealand ( mi, Te Hāhi Katorika ki Aotearoa) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope in Rome, assisted by the Roman Curia, and with the New Zealand bishops. Catholicism was intro ...

in 1938, leading events of which were held in or near the octagonal St Joseph's Church. These fine works which include the glass crucifix, the glass image of Our Lady on the Plinth (with infant) and the glass

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...

of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

are greatly treasured and the rose image of the Virgin serves as her shrine in the liturgy space of the church. The Bahaut window by

was the gift of parishioners Anthony and Nanette Bahaut and was made in the workshop of Glassworks Studios in Auckland. The images in the window (including fish,

taniwha In Māori mythology, taniwha () are large supernatural beings that live in deep pools in rivers, dark caves, or in the sea, especially in places with dangerous currents or deceptive breakers (giant waves). They may be considered highly respected ...

fantail Fantails are small insectivorous songbirds of the genus ''Rhipidura'' in the family Rhipiduridae, native to Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the species are about long, specialist aerial feeders, and named as "f ...

, open bible, large pot (symbolising the faith), the ''fleur de lys'' of France (for

and the

Marists The Society of Mary ( la, Societas Mariae) abbreviated SM, commonly known as the Marist Fathers, is a men's Roman Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right. It was founded by Jean-Claude Colin and a group of seminarians in L ...

) and the

alpha and omega Alpha (Α or α) and omega (Ω or ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and a title of Christ and God in the Book of Revelation. This pair of letters is used as a Christian symbol, and is often combined with the Cross, Chi-rh ...

, (for

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

) represent the progress of the pilgrim journey of the faith in New Zealand. The church also has English Victorian stained glass windows from the studio of the Atkinson Brothers which were in the original octagonal church of St Joseph, notably the window of St Joseph in the Blessed Sacrament chapel. Five other windows in the same series were given by St Joseph's parish to Sacred Heart Cathedral on its becoming the cathedral in 1984.

Statuary

The large crucifix behind the altar was first installed in the original octagonal St Joseph's Church in Buckle St. The cross from which the figure of Christ hangs was made from heart Kauri and was "blessed with all the mission

indulgence In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The '' Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God o ...

s in 1894." The full size statue of the

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devo ...

stood above the altar of the octagonal St Joseph's and was donated by a convert to the Catholic faith in "thanksgiving to God for the grace of the faith."

Notes

References