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WHAT PITT ST PEOPLE LIKE
In preparing this page I asked regular members at Pitt St what they liked about their church. Top of the list came the friendliness of the church, and the music.
Once a month we have a simple free lunch together and these are getting more popular. Also, about once a year we have a parish camp to have fun and get to know one another.
The family mood extends to all ages. Our kids join in the first few minutes of our Sunday worship. They have a chat with the preacher, then go to Sunday school or youth group. Near the end of the service the Sunday school kids come back into the service to show and tell what they have been doing. This year our former youth group decided they were no longer youth and started a young adults session, led by the members.
DIFFERENT CULTURES:
A feature of Pitt St's friendliness is the mutual acceptance of a large proportion of Samoan members with their palagi (mainly European) friends. Auckland has a large number of Polynesian people, but those who are Christians mainly worship in their own ethnic churches. Pitt St has broken that pattern. A large number of Samoans joined in the 1950s. They were mainly new arrivals in New Zealand and they wanted to share the homegrown culture to the full.
The sharing was mutual. The palagi members enjoy being multicultural and in the last few years have made two "pilgrimages" to Samoa to see where their friends come from.
Pitt St also prides itself on being a place where gay people are welcome.
DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS
Pitt St is also fairly tolerant of different people's thinking. While most ministers and quite a few members are liberal, there are also many members and leaders with an evangelical emphasis, and the two flavours get on so well that most of us would be hard-pressed to say who was which.
Someone even commented that she would like to have a sign outside Pitt St saying "atheists welcome". Taking up the challenge, I invited an atheist who used to be a church choir member to join the choir. She does occasionally. Singing is something that can cross differences of belief.
Occasionally you can get a theological debate going in the choir, when some will object that a song is too sexist, or too feminist. But musically the choir is popular, singing a mix of traditional and modern tunes and theologies.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
So Pitt St is pretty tolerant of different viewpoints. But don't take my word for it; come and see. And prove me right or wrong by adding your own thoughts on our "COMMENTS" page.
David Hines, for the Pitt St pages.
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