Our History
Wellington Presbytery (the name given to a regional body of Presbyterian churches) was established in 1857.
The Presbytery of Wellingtons’ establishment could be characterized as being like ‘the tale of two churches’. St Andrew’s and St John’s were the two earliest established Presbyterian Church communities in Wellington City; the Church of Scotland church, St Andrew’s, and a Free Presbyterian Church, St. John’s.
If there was ever a Presbyterian ‘establishment church’ in New Zealand then St Andrews would be it. St Andrews was the first church in Wellington, established in 1840, and it was aligned to the Church of Scotland by virtue of the fact that this was the mother church, with its founding Minister Rev John Macfarlane.
In 1853 Rev John Moir arrived, and so began a Free Church congregation in Wellington, this became known as Willis St. Presbyterian Church, and then later as St John’s. It was to be the efforts and energies of this congregation and it’s Minister John Moir who would become a driving force behind the establishment of the Wellington Presbytery. The first meeting of the Wellington Presbytery was held at Willis Street on the 3rd and 4th of November 1857.
(Information sourced from 'Our Church in Our Communities - Stories of the life or Parishes in the Wellington Presbytery since 1840'. Compiled and edited by David Ross. Published by the Wellington Presbytery 2007.)