St. Faith's Anglican Church stands on the Muruika Peninsula at Ohinemutu in Rotorua.  It looks out over Lake Rotorua and Mokoia Island, and its entrance faces southwards to Te Papa-i-Ouru marae and Ōhinemutu village. The Church was opened in 1914 and enlarged in 1966/1967. It occupies the site of the first St Faith's Church, called Te Hahi o Te Whakapono, which was built in 1885.  

Architectural features:

"Its interior is filled with traditional Māori art such as whakairo (carvings), kōwhaiwhai (traditional patterns), taniko (weaving) and tukutuku panels. The pews, altar, pou, and framing on the inside are covered with whakairo, and there are painted kōwhaiwhai patterns on friezes around the church as well as adorning the heke in the Galilee chapel. Chapels were added to both the east and west sides of the church in the 1960s, with the Galilee chapel on the east side housing the famous sandblasted “Māori Jesus” figure on a large bay window overlooking the lake. The replica flags of Gilbert Mair’s “Flying Column” of Te Arawa fighters hang inside the entranceway of the church (the originals are now housed by Rotorua Museum)."

Source: Heritage New Zealand: Te Hāhi o te Whakapono / St Faith's Anglican Church Ōhinemutu  https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/9705

"Under the pulpit are five carved figures representing atua, Māori gods holding up ‘the word of God’ the pulpit. They act as reminders of the past, of the old ancient Māori world. In between the carved panels are taniko panels created by using dyed and plain muka fibre that has been finger woven to create various patterns and designs. The tukutuku (lattice work) on the walls feature many different patterns like poutama, stairway to heaven, roimata toroa, tears of the albatross, patikitiki, the flounder, ngā purapura whetu, the multitude of stars and many others. The tukutuku panels on the front of the altar features the pātikitiki, the flounder pattern with crosses in the centre."

Source: Heritage New Zealand: Te Hāhi o te Whakapono / St Faith's Anglican Church Ōhinemutu  https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/9705

Backstory:

Naming of Ohinemutu

Around 1340AD, the Te Arawa waka left Hawaiki, captained by chief Tamatekapua and navigated by the tohunga (priest) Ngātoroirangi, and arrived at Maketu. The settlement of Ōhinemutu was named by Tamatekapua's grandson Īhenga. It commemorates the burial of his daughter Hinetekākara who had been found murdered on a  small beach of Lake Rotorua north of the present Ngongotahā township.  Ihenga sang a lament that included the words ‘O Hine Mutu’ (“the ending of the girl”) and laid his daughter's remains at Muruika on the peninsula just north of the St Faith’s Church. He placed a large boulder over the top to mark a rāhui (prohibition) on the tapu area. 

Muruika Pā

The area later became the site of Te Arawa's fortified Muruika Pā, with its southern gateway where St Faith’s Church now stands. During the 18th century, Ngāti Whakaue of Arawa led by Pukaki fought against their Tūhourangi relatives and took possession of Muruika Pā after the battle of Paitau.  

First Christian service, 1831

Following a request by Ngāti Whakaue chief Hamuera Pango to have a missionary based at Ohinemutu, Archdeacon Henry Williams and Reverend Thomas Chapman travelled from the Bay of Islands for an initial visit in 1831. 

" In August of 1831, Pango Ngawene, the great chief and tohunga of Ngāti Whakaue, sent an invitation to the missionaries in the north, requesting that one of them come and live amongst his people at Ōhinemutu. Already in 1828, Pango had led a group of Te Arawa to the Bay of Islands to request that a missionary be sent to Rotorua. Initially, the missionaries decided that Archdeacon Henry Williams and Reverend Thomas Chapman would at the very least visit the community, and so they prepared to sail south."

Archdeacon Williams and Reverend Chapman held the first Christian service in the Rotorua Lakes District at the Pā on Friday 26 October, followed by the observance of the Sabbath Day on Sunday 30 October.  

 Source: Heritage New Zealand:  Te Hāhi o te Whakapono / St Faith's Anglican Church Ōhinemutu 

Mission houses established

Archdeacon Williams and Rev Chapman  also helped advise on the potential site for a new mission station and selected Te Koutu near the Pā, which Ngāti Whakaue would build when the opportunity arose. Later in 1835, Chapman and his wife Anne moved from the Bay of Ialands to establish the mission station and a raupo chapel at Te Koutu. Both had journeyed from London as CMS lay missionaries and arrived at Paihia on 1 August 1830. 

Following inter-tribal warfare between hapū of Te Arawa and an alliance of Ngāti Hauā and Ngāiterangi led by Te Waharoa, the mission station and chapel at Te Koutu were destroyed in 1836.  Afterwards, Rev Chapman and his wife re-established a mission station on Mokoia Island in 1838. For the following seven years, his missionary circuit involved travelling  around the settlements of Lake Rotorua, and as far afield as Maketū and Ōpōtiki.  In mid-1840, the Chapmans shifted the  mission to Te Ngae, on the eastern shore of Lake Rotorua. Later they moved to set up a new mission in  Maketū in 1851 and then moved to Auckland in 1861.

Source:  Philip Andrews. 'Chapman, Anne Maria and Chapman, Thomas', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 1990, updated November, 2001. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1c13/chapman-anne-maria  

Māori missionary

Reverent Chapman was assisted by Ihāia Te Ahu who was of Ngāpuhi descent.  As  a boy, Te Ahu was a member of the Chapman's household at Kerikeri and  had travelled with them to set up the first mission station at Te Koutu.   He was baptised on 9 May 1841, and by 1845 was taking Sunday services when Rev Chapman was indisposed. Te Ahu was ordained as Deacon on 3 November 1861 by Bishop William Williams and became  involved with the care of the Maketū-Rotorua Diocese during the Land Wars.  During the ‘Te Kooti rebellion' in the 1870s, he was responsible for the Rotorua Lakes District. When the Chapmans moved from Maketū  to Auckland in 1861, Te Ahu took over the mission station at Maketū.  Later in 1881, he moved to Rotorua and became the first vicar of the Ōhinemutu pastorate in 1882.  Te Ahu left Ōhinemutu for St Stephen's College, Auckland in 1889.

ohinemutu Village grew: mid-1860s -

During the period of peace after the inter-tribal wars, the pā at Muruika fell into disuse as a military fortification. The village grew and further crops were sown. 

TAMA TE KAPUA MEETING HOUSE built 1864-1873 

Ngāti Whakaue built the wharenui Tama te Kapua between 1864 and 1873 on Te Papa-i-Ouru marae to ratify the peace between the Te Arawa and Waikato tribes.   

Land gifted for a Church, 1880

In 1880 Ngāti Whakaue gifted an area of land named Waikareao within Muruika Pā at Ōhinemutu beside Lake Rotorua for the building of a church:

"On 11 October 1880, a meeting took place at The Lake House Hotel of Ōhinemutu where the principal chiefs gathered to discuss a proposal to set aside a piece of land upon which the first [permanent] church would stand. Chief Paora Te Amohau had always been a supporter of the church and was present at this meeting. The site proposed was near the promontory of the Muruika peninsula, an extremely sacred area since it was the place where the remains of Ngāti Whakaue rangatira had long before been interred. All who attended the meeting, including the chiefs, agreed unanimously that this sacred part of Muruika would be the site of the new church."

Tohūnga Tūhoto Āriki performed rites to lift the tapu on Muruika:      

"Tūhoto Ariki, a famous Te Arawa tohunga was sought out for the task of removing the tapu from the land proposed for the church and he did so through a series of chants, karakia and incantations. It is said that through his karakia, Tūhoto drove the intense tapu from the land and bound it all within a large flax bush which grew on the western side of the peninsula. For a long time, the flax bush was considered extremely tapu and anyone who knew of its significance knew not to approach it. After that, fundraising began for the construction of a new Te Hāhi o te Whakapono / St Faith’s Church, which was very much desired by Reverend Ihāia Te Ahu, the residing Reverend at the time."

Source: Heritage New Zealand:  Te Hāhi o te Whakapono / St Faith's Anglican Church Ōhinemutu  https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/9705

First St Faith's Anglican Church consecrated 1885

The first church of St. Faith built in 1885 was called Te Hahi o Te Whakaono, The Church of the Faith.  The architectural plan was prepared by G. Cummings and incorporated an Anglo-Saxon building-style. Following the tender process, a tender by D. Lundon of £390 was accepted. Building began in June 1884 and the Church was consecrated on Sunday 15 March 1885 by Dr E. C. Stuart, Bishop of Waiapu and Ihāia Te Ahu, the first Vicar of Ōhinemutu,  The parish extended from the hills north of Lake Rotorua to Tokaanu at the southern end of Lake Taupō more than 140 kilometres away.  

Second St Faith's church built, 1914

By the early 1900s, the first church was not large enough to accommodate all the regular worshippers. Plans were drawn up to build a new Church, including re-siting the original Church alongside to use as a hall, and fund-raising activities were held.  The new Church was built in the mock Tudor style by Rotorua architect Edward La Trobe Hill (1887-1966).  Reverend Frederick Augustus Bennett (1871–1950),  who had moved to Rotorua in 1905 as superintendent of the Māori mission, was influential in the interior being decorated with traditional Māori art.  The Church was dedicated in April 1914 by Bishop of Waiapu William Sedgwick, assisted by St Faith’s vicar Reverend Rewi Wikiriwhi, and consecrated in 1918.  Rev Bennett left Ōhinemutu in 1917 and was made Bishop of Aotearoa in 1928 at Waiapu Cathedral. He died in 1950 and was buried in a vault beside the altar at St Faith's Church.  

TAMA TE KAPUA MEETING HOUSE REBUILT, 1943

The meeting house was demolished in 1939, but was rebuilt and opened again in 1943.  Also known as the Centennial Meeting House, it's restoration was intended as a memorial for the New Zealand Centennial in 1940.   

St Faith's Church enlarged, 1966/67

By the 1960s, the number of parishioners had increased to include Western Heights, Selwyn Heights, Kawaha Point and Ngongotaha. During 1966/67, the Church was enlarged under the direction of Rev Manu Bennett, and later Rev N. T. Te Hau. Additions were a new Choir-room, sacristy and chapels to both the east and west sides of the Church, which were designed by architect G. Lane of Cambridge. The Galilee Chapel on the east side houses the sandblasted “Māori Jesus” figure on a large bay window overlooking the Rotorua Lake.  Six carved pillars, new tukutuku wall panels and extra carvings were added to the interior. The Church was rededicated in 1967 by the Archbishop N. A. Lesser.

Find out more: 

• Heritage New Zealand: Te Hāhi o te Whakapono / St Faith's Anglican Church Ōhinemutu  https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/9705 
• 'Ōhinemutu war memorial', URL: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/ohinemutu-new-zealand-war-memorial, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 17-Apr-2020 
• St Faith's Anglican Church: Art & Culture:  https://www.stfaithsrotorua.co.nz/art-culture