Wairarapa, “Churches are about relationships.”

Alan Maxwell from St John’s Anglican Church in Featherston says that the parish's capacity to be adaptable during lockdown bodes well for the post-Covid-19 future.

When lockdown was declared, Alan—who is also a leader at St. Andrew’s church in nearby Martinborough—was classified as an essential service worker. Other than the police, there were few other “essential services” available in Featherston. Alan coordinated with others to distribute firewood and food to those who needed it in the community.

While many people from the parish were keen to help, there was a need to “manage risk”, Alan said, as St John's has many vulnerable elderly people—as well as families with young children. However, there were ways for everyone to help. “A lot of church people who couldn’t go out would be part of the phone ringing.” Phone networks helped those who couldn’t go outside stay in touch with others in their community.

“It’s a community with strong connections,” Alan said. The loss of freedoms that came with lockdown could have made those connections weaker, but a wide range of people didn’t want to see that happen. “All the churches in this town worked to [connect]; the RSA, United Church, Catholics.

“We were the hands and feet,” Alan says. St John’s was able to partner with a lot of local institutions to ensure access to essential services; including the council, iwi, foodbank, and waste services.

Home church was also an opportunity for community-building. “People being invited to home church feel more comfortable [to engage],” Alan said. “We’ve been able to go deeper with the few[er numbers present at home churches].”

House church is a reminder to St. John’s that the logistical enterprise of Sunday services is not the only way to connect those around them with the love of Jesus. “Corporate gatherings are so much part of who we are as the Anglican church,” Alan said. “But house church showed me that there’s fruit in [smaller gatherings] too.”

Featherston and south Wairarapa is an area used to missing out on resource funding, and subsequently “rolling their sleeves up and doing it on their own”, Alan said. The connections within the community that unfolded during lockdown will keep going, and the church will be a core part of that in different iterations. “Churches are about relationships,” Alan said. “We don’t need to [just] go back to what it was before.”

By Shanti Matthias