is there more to life?
A Greyfriars Alpha Course is running from 25 September to 4 December.
The Alpha course is a ten-week opportunity to explore the validity and relevance of the christian faith in your life today. It is a practical introduction to the basics of christianity centred around a meal, a talk and a small-group discussion. It particularly caters for:
- people inquiring about spiritual meaning
- people seeking a faith with meaning for the future
- those wanting to investigate christianity
- newcomers to church and/or christianity
- those who want to refresh their faith
To register, or if you are just interested in learning more, contact the church office or email alpha@greyfriars.org.nz
Find out more about Alpha here
Limapela Education Project
Faith in Action
This project aims to provide quality education to children in Zambia's Copperbelt Province.
Presbyterian worship services began in Mt. Eden in July 1915, meeting in a hall in Woodside Road. The first minister, Rev. J. W. Shaw, later lecturer in English at Auckland Teachers' College, was inducted in 1917, the year that the present historic 300-seat church building was opened.
Greyfriars has had ten ministers since 1917. Four have served as Moderators of the Presbyterian Church : Very Revs. J. Douglas Smith (1947-48), John A. Allan (1955-56), John O. Evans (1993-94), and Robert M. Yule (2000-2002). The longest serving was the twenty-year ministry of Scotsman Dr. John Evans (1982 - 2001).
From Greyfriars Rev. John Allan went on to become Professor of New Testament and later Principal of the Theological Hall, Knox College, Dunedin (1937), where his scholarship, integrity and leadership gave the church's college a national profile. Rev. Robert J. (' Bob') Blaikie was also a notable theologian, and wrote an important critique of secular theology, Secular Theology and the God who Acts.
For half a century Greyfriars has had an evangelical ethos, since the ministry of the Rev Douglas Watt (1953-67), who had a notable ministry of divine healing. Two subsequent ministers had been accomplished sportsmen, Rev. Wynford Davies being a former Welsh rugby international, and Morrison Yule, father of the present minister, a former New Zealand universities, Otago, and Southland hockey representative.
Greyfriars buildings were developed over its first half century. In 1952 the Memorial Hall was opened-at the time the second largest hall in Auckland next to the Town Hall. In 1958, the cloister, choir room, vestry, extra seating, vestibule and spire were completed, giving Greyfriars its distinctive Mt. Eden Road frontage. New Sunday School rooms, the 'Youth Centre', were added in 1967. More recently, the area beneath the church, called 'Loco Foco', was made into a café for youth, and the Memorial Hall kitchen was fully refurbished in 2001.
Since 1995 Greyfriars has shared its facilities with the Auckland Korean Presbyterian or Lord's Church. In that time it has grown tenfold to be one of the largest Presbyterian churches in New Zealand, with over 600 active members. Early in 2005 the Lord's Church left Greyfriars and moved into its own premises in Mangere.
The contents of Ivan M. Moses's book The Tower by the Hill - Greyfriars Presbyterian Church Mt Eden 1915-1990 are available as scanned images - see links below.
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