St Paul's Church was a heritage-listed former

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in Cashel Street,

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

. Built in 1877, the church was registered by the

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of ancestral sites and heritage bui ...

as a Category I heritage building. Following the February

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. New Zealand Daylight Time, local time (23:51 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the Canterbury Region ...

, the building was removed from the heritage list and demolished.

History

St Paul's was built in 1877 as a Presbyterian church on the corner of Cashel and Madras Streets in the

Christchurch Central City Christchurch Central City or Christchurch City Centre is the geographical centre and the heart of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is defined as the area within the Four Avenues (Bealey Avenue, Fitzgerald Avenue, Moorhouse Avenue and Deans Aven ...

. It replaced an earlier church on the corner of Lichfield and Madras Streets built by a breakaway congregation from St Andrew's Church. Both church buildings were designed by Samuel Farr; the later one commissioned by the reverend John Elmslie. In 1969, St Paul's merged with the Trinity-Pacific Congregational Church taking on a new name – St Paul's Trinity Pacific Presbyterian Church. Rev. Leonard Jones and Kenape Faletoese lead the new multicultural church under its new format. The Palangi membership of the church declined over the next three decades and by the time of its destruction in the February 2011 earthquake, the church membership was mostly of Samoan heritage. On 5 August 2009, the church was the victim of an arson attack that caused considerable damage. The building was restored, but suffered damage in the

2010 Canterbury earthquake The 2010 Canterbury earthquake (also known as the Darfield earthquake) struck the South Island of New Zealand with a moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.1 at on , and had a maximum perceived intensity of X (''Extreme'') on the Mercal ...

, and partially collapsed in the February

. By June 2011, the church had been demolished.

Heritage listing

St Paul's was listed as a Category I heritage building by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust on 2 April 1985 with registration number 305. The building was removed from the register during 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Paul's Church, Christchurch Religious buildings and structures in Christchurch Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in the Canterbury Region Presbyterian churches in New Zealand Churches completed in 1877 Buildings and structures demolished as a result of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake Buildings and structures demolished in 2011 Christchurch Central City Former churches in New Zealand Christianity in Christchurch Listed churches in New Zealand 1870s churches in New Zealand Destroyed churches 1877 establishments in New Zealand