{"id":474,"date":"2022-07-06T12:18:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T00:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/?p=474"},"modified":"2025-08-09T16:27:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T04:27:31","slug":"strengthening-church-to-benefit-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/?p=474","title":{"rendered":"Strengthening church to benefit community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When an Island Bay church was identified as earthquake-prone in 2012, the parish struggled to see a way forward. Now, after years of community discussion and hard work, the exciting restoration project is across the line.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBack then, having an earthquake notice on our building was a very new thing,\u201d says Rev. Mark Henderwood who manages St Hilda\u2019s Anglican Church in Island Bay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor a few years it wasn\u2019t clear what the right decision was for the parish. Everything came with a price tag and it all seemed too difficult and too expensive.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really didn\u2019t want to be forced into a building project, but we were, even if that meant demolition.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original building was constructed in 1930 with timber framing, lightweight cladding and a large unreinforced masonry fa\u00e7ade facing the street. It\u2019s the fa\u00e7ade that now needs fixing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark\u2019s family joined the church in 2014, a crucial time for decision-making.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First they sought to rebuild the church community so it was viable, before tackling the strengthening project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA seismic assessment completed in 2013 had led to an architect providing some preliminary drawings,\u201d says Mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut within the church community, the predominant vision for the project only went as far as reinforcing the wall, and it wasn\u2019t going to look pretty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe felt that the industry was still developing and the standards were changing, so we weren\u2019t inclined to rush into a quick solution.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early in 2017 they employed a project manager, an architect and an engineer. However, the same month they got a letter from the Wellington City Council saying they had one year to fix the unreinforced masonry wall.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Unreinforced Masonry (URM) strengthening programme required building owners of certain buildings to take action to secure unreinforced masonry parapets and facades by the end of September 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intention behind the initiative was to take a proactive approach to strengthening Wellington\u2019s buildings so that the city would be better prepared for the possibility of further earthquakes or aftershocks following the November 2016 earthquake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This meant Mark and his team needed to move quickly, and find a solution everyone would be happy with – initially as a temporary fix to provide interim safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThankfully we built up a fantastic relationship with the team at Wellington City Council. We discussed shipping containers, protecting the footpath, strengthening the wall. The engineer was able to complete a plan that everyone was happy with and then the Council paid half the bill for this work to be completed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020 the church was successfully awarded $10,000 of funding from the Council Building Resilience Fund. It allowed them to have a detailed seismic assessment and engineering design carried out of the building.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mark says keeping this venue open is extremely important for the community of Island Bay.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the week the church and hall are used for dance classes, garden club, toastmasters, games evening, there\u2019s a playgroup, and various other kid\u2019s groups. Every day after school the kids are in there.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the money to do this work, we\u2019ve had to borrow it with interest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will be a tough journey paying it back but we hope the community will get behind us in agreeing it\u2019s a beautiful building that\u2019s worth saving\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now with building well underway, we expect the project will be completed and looking beautiful later this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When an Island Bay church was identified as earthquake-prone in 2012, the parish couldn’t see a way forward. Now, after years of community discussion and hard work, a $10,000 grant is helping get the exciting restoration project across the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622,"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandbayanglican.org.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}