cloudyDunedin 24 | 13
Monday, Mon, 3 FebruaryFeb 2025
Subscribe

'Run out of parishioners': Historic church put on the market

Tokarahi local Tara Hutton at St Peter’s Church with her 11-month-old daughter, Ava. PHOTO: JULES...
Tokarahi local Tara Hutton at St Peter’s Church with her 11-month-old daughter, Ava. PHOTO: JULES CHIN
A historic church near Oamaru has "run out of parishioners".

And now the 102-year-old Tokarahi church, 30km inland from Oamaru, is on the market after being decommissioned last year.

Lay preacher and former Tokarahi farmer John Hore described the sale of St Peter’s Presbyterian as the "end of an era".

Until recent years he had led services for the Presbyterians and others who came to the small church.

The church had been decommissioned after it "ran out of parishioners" - although the final service attracted 55 members.

Mr Hore said the Tokarahi congregation had been inclusive, welcoming all-comers.

"We're under the Presbyterian banner, but we've had Anglicans and Catholics and all were welcome," he said.

The church was once part of a parochial area for Presbyterians originally served from Duntroon.

Mr Hore said that parish stretched from Borton's, 7km east of Duntroon, to Omarama in the west and south to Livingstone and Tokarahi.

"In the days of horse-drawn transport, and the nearest church in Duntroon, [the] people of the Tokarahi area gathered for worship at the Tokarahi Homestead and then at the nearby Tokarahi School.

"As the village grew in worship it was held in the Tokarahi Hall. With a growing congregation it was decided to build a church."

The church opened in 1923 and was used regularly until the last service was held in March last year, when it was formally decommissioned.

Mr Hore - a lay preacher at the church until recent years - recalled fond memories of his time serving the Tokarahi congregation after "being thrown in the deep end" to take his first service.

The Oamaru stone church features wooden ceilings and the sale includes many of its fixtures and fittings.

The property includes a Sunday school plus a separate hall with kitchen and toilets, built on to the back-end of the church by volunteers in 1968.

PGG Wrightson Oamaru rural and lifestyle sales consultant Barry Kingan said the property had drawn "good interest".