Early history Now occupying its third building, St Paul's is known as the
'Mother Church' of Auckland as it is the oldest church community in the city and was founded within a year of the foundation of the city. The first St Paul's was built in Emily Place, just off Princes Street, in 1841 where a plaque still marks the site of the beginning of the
Christian church in Auckland. During the height of the
New Zealand Wars in the 1860s, St Paul's was used as a safe haven for women, children and the elderly; a traditional church role in times of strife. After the war moved south, however, and Auckland expanded geographically, the congregation dwindled as attendees moved to the new suburbs of
Epsom and
Remuera, and
St Matthew's in the City served the suburbs of
Freemans Bay and
Ponsonby, while the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre served opulent
Grafton.
Early bicultural history On 20 March 1840 in the
Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, paramount chief
Apihai Te Kawau, a friend of
Samuel Marsden, signed
Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the
te reo Māori translation of the
Treaty of Waitangi). Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from
Ngāpuhi as well as a reciprocal relationship with the
Crown and the
Church. Soon after signing
Te Tiriti,
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, the primary
hapū and landowner in
Tāmaki Makaurau, made a
tuku (strategic gift) of 3,500 acres (1,400 hectares) of land on the
Waitematā Harbour to Governor Hobson to establish his new capital, Auckland. All three St Paul's buildings would be built on this land. When St Paul's was founded by Governor Hobson on 28 July 1841, hundreds attended the ceremony including Ngāti Whātua chiefs Apihai Te Kawau, Te Keene and a young
Pāora Tūhaere, accompanied by over one hundred Māori warriors. A temporary wooden church, designed by
William Skinner, was built on the corner of Short Street and Eden Crescent while a permanent church site was identified. That temporary church is now the
Tātai Hono marae, part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The new church building was dedicated in 1894, without the corner tower and
steeple that were part of Skinner's design. The
Long Depression had inhibited building such a monumental church. The interior was kept plain, apart from the
rose window temporarily filled with coloured
cathedral glass and the artefacts gifted by Selwyn.
20th century The appointment of Reverend Cecil Watson in 1908 led to St Paul's being revitalised as a stronghold of
Anglo-Catholicism in a largely
puritanical city. Watson, and his successor Samuel Corbin shaped the church for a half-century, introducing
Sung Mass,
choral music and the concept of spiritual healing, which received some resistance. In 1954 Father Kenneth Prebble inherited a building and congregation both in a poor state, and for the next 20 years he reestablished St Paul's as a centre of Anglo-Catholicism. In the mid-1960s Prebble looked beyond the norm in terms of
high church Anglican practise and embraced a revival of the
Holy Spirit. Polarising the congregation, St Paul's became Spirit-focused, evangelical and contemporary while maintaining its Anglo-Catholic theology. Through its popular music, and a regular coffee-shop outreach to students and young people, Prebble and his successor Father David Balfour, helped create a church with city-wide and international impact through the 50s and 60s. From 1956 to 1973 many repairs and additions were made to the building, including: cleaning, repairing and replacing stonework; replacing the roof; and the addition of the
Endean Memorial,
Christ in Glory and
Patteson Memorial stained glass windows. In 1974 the St Paul's Outreach Trust was formed and by the end of 1976 had produced three records sung by the ''St Paul's Singers
entitled Songs for Prayer & Praise
, Arise my Love and Harvest of Joy
, plus songbooks including New Glory''. However, in the 1970s, the Anglo-Catholicism that had provided the theological framework for the spiritual and social justice revival of the 50s and 60s at St Paul's "dissolved into a bundle of conflicting theologies without strong leadership or good biblical teaching".
21st century During the late 1990s and early 2000s, many young New Zealanders became Christians or renewed their faith at
St Mary's London. Returning home, they wanted a similar church in Auckland. With the blessing of the Bishop of Auckland, a team from St Mary's were invited in 2004 to set up new family and young people-focused services at St Paul's, Symonds Street. Reverend Mike and Bex Norris and a core group of about 80 people whom had previously attended St Mary's in London, oversaw huge growth, with 1,335 members on the parish roll by 2009. A key part of the event were Christmas films produced by St Paul's including
The Christmas Story which has had 4 million views on YouTube. The 2012 documentary short film
O Little Town of Bethlehem was shot in modern Bethlehem. In 2013 St Paul's
priest in charge Reverend Mathew Newton officially asked the
Anglican Diocese of Auckland synod to divest from
fossil fuel industries due to the threat of
climate change. It agreed and became the first New Zealand institutional body to do so. In 2015 St Paul's published a hard cover book of personal testimonies and photos of 128 children, youth and adults from the church called ''St Paul's Stories.'' From 2015 to 2019, St Paul's produced
Alt Carols as an alternative Christmas experience, combining creative elements of music, art and design.
Volume One of the remixed carols from the events was released as an album in 2017,
Volume Two in 2019. From 2019 to 2022, St Paul's
Restoration leader Esther Grant, heritage & conservation architects
Salmond Reed Architects and structural & seismic engineers worked to repair, strengthen and refresh the church building. Seismic strengthening was needed to reach building standards changed after the
2011 Christchurch earthquake. In 2020, Reverend Dr Nathan McLellan was ordained as a priest into the
tikanga Māori Te Pīhopatanga o Te Tai Tokerau and, uniquely, was then licensed by
Bishop Ross Bay to minister at St Paul’s, which is a part of the
tikanga pākehā Auckland Anglican Diocese. In 2025, St Paul's had a staff of 17 which included a vicar, two assistant priests, a worship leader, four other full time employees, three part time, three additional Sunday workers and three contractors. == Discography ==