So as a venue for Bill Manhire's Tell Me My Name, a performance with song, violin, piano, and a smattering of saucy Anglo Saxon riddles, it worked.
One enters quietly and deferentially, hushed of voice and bowed of head, surrounded by white-haired people wearing sensible red and blue parkas.
The artists enter from front left, and take their places.
Wellington's Hannah Griffin stands quietly for a moment, then with the simplest accompaniment by Norman Meehan on the piano, sings.
A plaintive lyric ripples into the vast space, soon joined by the violin of Martin Riseley, and the whole is a performance that has found its space.
The music is interspersed with Manhire introducing and narrating riddles, translated from Old English or made up by himself.
Those riddles are in the songs performed, leaving the audience an intellectual exercise as they listen to the lyrics.
All of which would have added to the serious and thoughtful looks on the faces in the pews.
