St Mary's Church - Saving a town Icon

The Friends of St Mary's, Hokitika, is a group of supporters showing strength in numbers to save this beautiful piece of history in a small West Coast Community.

Funds raised here are linked with the work group called Friends of St Mary’s Church Building

Donations received will go towards a second engineer’s building assessment of the Church, A NZ Heritage Building.

Any surplus funds will be voted on by the 400+ Facebook people connected to the Friends of St Mary’s Hokitika restrengthening membership as to how the money will be spent.

Many donations of small amounts will show tangible support from the community.

The financial donations from our local community provide a clear indication to external funding organisations, the Christchurch diocese and the St Mary’s Parish committee the degree of interest and support from the community for the re-strengthening project.

Funds raised here will contribute towards positively influencing decision-makers in government, NZ Heritage and other funding organisations to provide further funding assistance for re-strengthening.

St Mary's Catholic Church of Hokitika is a local icon, home to many fond memories of the local West Coast community. Standing out like the Duomo di Firenze or Florence, St Mary's is a true icon in the Hokitika community dominating the sky line for 106 Years. Since the 2011 Christchurch earthquake the Church underwent a structural assessment, and was deemed to be not structurally sound and has been closed since 2012. It is estimated at over $7.12 Million is required to restrengthen the building. So we here at he Friends of St Mary's Catholic Church are looking at getting another opinion on the engineer reports, seeking further assessment, before the task of strengthening can begin. But as we know nothing comes for free. We would love to restore the spirits in everyone and have them return to their loved church, see the tourists admiring the architecture, art and stain glass windows once again. St Mary's Church has been a pillar of the West Coast Community, it would be a shame to loose one of New Zealand's heritage listed buildings and a symbol of the Hokitika community and the Catholic Faith on the West Coast.

For more information about the church history please visit https://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details/1705

Photo courtesy of Will Savage. Many thanks.