This page is also available in Russian
Our parish is under of Jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
THE HISTORY OF OUR PARISH.
Time passes; events and people fade from our memory. Yet we must not lose our links with the past, especially with the past of our church. Here, far away from our motherland, Church becomes our haven, without which our lives lose their meaning. The first immigrants who reached New Zealand after the Second World War included Soviet people who went through concentration camps or forced labour in Germany and those Russians who moved here from Manchus. The first Russian migrants, who arrived by sea in June 1949, were placed in Pahiatua Camp, a special camp for displaced people, located in a small township called Pahiatua, located between Masterton and Palmerston North. Even at the start of their life in the new country, they held common prayers regularly. A few months after their arrival, they started to settle down in Wellington, Christchurch, Danedin and Auckland. Those who settled in Wellington wrote to the Australian Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, asking to send a priest to New Zealand. In September 1950, father Alexei Godyaev was sent to Wellington, the only Russian Orthodox priest in New Zealand. On the 20th of October 1950, he was already welcoming a new group of Russian immigrants, who arrived on board the ‘Hellenic Prince’.
First services took place in an Anglican church in evenings because father Alexei, who had qualifications in chemistry, worked in a dairy factory during the day. Both he and his parish longed to have their own church. They found a house in Pirie Street, in central Wellington. They paid the house off in 1955. The money for the purchase and refurbishing came from donations, paid concerts and the rent paid by the tenants of the rooms upstairs. Father Alexei and the parish turned that large house into a church. Regular services started immediately.
Father Alexei was the key figure, and the parish united around him. He worked for the Church for almost 40 years. Even as a very old man, he held services in the four main cities of New Zealand: Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. The earthy remains of this great church worker are burried at the cemetry in Waikanae.
This was an extremely important period in the life of our parish. Church linked the people with the motherland they had lost and with the culture of their ancesters. Especially so as in those sombre years of Stalin’s rule, most people had no hope of returning home. People were united because they had their fate and their faith in common.
Father Alexei Godyaev
People came to church where everyone understood everyone else, where there were friends ready to help and support, which is so important for those living in a foreign land. An important role in keeping the parish together also belonged to the church council, founded in 1955. Among those who worked especially hard for the common good were Mr. George G. Lavrentev, the families of Michael Horvat, Ivan Kursunji and Zacharia Z. Zelenevich, who organised and led the church choir.
Zoya R. Peltzer (McLenagen) put much effort into organising a library in the Church building. Zinaida M. Demchenko, one of the founding members of the church council, remained on the council for 40 years, 25 of which she acted as its treasurer. She had an organiser’s talanet, and she organinsed people for work, celebrations, Christmas parties or just coming together for a cup of tea. In 1980, Michael Fitkevich was elected head of the church council. All his life Misha worked for the parish. He was a person of great spiritual beauty, always attentive to others’ needs, well–balanced, level-headed. His kindness and friendliness atracted people. He was helped by his sister, Irina Berezovskaya, who was on the church council and revision commission until her death in 2004. Olga, her daughter, sang in the church chior for over 10 years. She also was an important member of our sisterhood.
Michael Titov became teasurer at approximatly the same time. When he was a young boy, he used to help father Alexei at the altar. Michael reamained treasurer for 30 years. Everyone loved and respected him because he was a man of honour and integrity, and he also had a business acumen. The contribution to the life of our church made by the entire Titov family is hard to overestimate. Lidia Mikhailovna Titova, Michaels’s mother was head sister for more than 20 years. A hard working woman, she used to arrive at the church before the service, bringing along all the laundered and ironed church covers and clergy vestments. She travelled by bus, with all those heavy objects. She believed that maintaining peace and love in the parish was the most important matter, and she also wanted the church to look clean and well cared for. Tamara, Michael’s wife was her mother–in–law’s loyal helper. Later on, that hard-working, highly responsible and gentle woman became the head sister herself, blessed by father Vladimir. Her mother, Eugenia Sidorik, also participated in the sisterhood’s housekeeping activities and also sang in the chior for many years. An important role in the church’s life was played by Irina Dudarenko. She was on the church council as its secretary for 12 years. She also led the church chior, which included Alena Sold, Vlad Pavkovich, Nina Maklakova, Iosif Vylegzhanin, Ilia Platov, Irina Kostrykina, Olga Berezovskaya and Tamara Shchigel.
The church in Pirie street survived for 40 years. The building was sold in 1995, and another building, in Webb Street, was purchased. Father Ambroise was the priest at that time. The parish expanded thanks to new arrivals from the ‘perestroika’ Russia. The new immigrants included a number of seamen from Russian fishing vessels, who jumped ship in New Zealand. Father Ambroise gave them a shelter and helped with food. The parish remembers his kindeness and help in those hard times.
At the beginning of the zero years, it was established that the church building presented earthquake hazard and thus was in need of urgent reinforcement works. This required $ 150,000 (NZ). This was well outside the means of the parish. The building was sold in July 2000. A building in Darlington Rd was purchased one month later. After the lengthy proceedure of signing documents, the church retained its name: TheChurch of Christ the Savior. This important deed proved to become the last act accomplished by Michael Fitkevich, who died the next day after the purchase documents were authorised. His death shocked everyone.
The building required a lot of work: the altar, gallery and library had to be built. Later on, two rooms for a priest were added upstairs. This hard work was carried out by men: M. Titov, M. Khachiyan, S. Chebotar, A. Berezovsky, M. Khorvat, M. Maklakov, P. Pak, A. Yasinetsky, U. Pravotvorov, Yu. Polyansky. The Platov, Dudarenko, Romanov and Jilin families participated in these works. Galina Utkina’s husband, Greg Walker, although not a member of the parish, helped with bulding the altar, priest’s rooms and library. Some women who were unable to do hard work, organised food for those who worked: Ilìya Ivanovna Arkhipova, Elizaveta Khan and others. The sisterhood played an important role. The new church warden, Aleksandr Timofeevich Karus’, who took over from Michael Fitkevich was at the centre of all these activities. When the works were completed, the building was consecrated, and the first service was held by the Dean Archpriest Nikolai Karypov.
This was a happy time for our Church. Meetings and concerts took place, plays were performed in the hall in the church yard. There were discussions dedicated to A. S. Pushkin, T. G. Shevchenko and to the Russian romance. The 60th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany was celebrated, exhibitions of children’s drawings were opened. T. M. Dudarenko taught children the Russian language, literature and history. She also organised the library, the books were catalogued, more than a hundred books were sent to a bookbinder. The library is now managed by Natalia Platova. Tatiana Khitko taught the childern drawing. Plays for childern were staged.
Time went by, priests changed, and the parish kept changing too. Some people died, some others could no longer participate in parish activities. Problems with the chior appeared and went on for some time. Sometimes, a priest came to serve a liturgy, but there was no chior because there were no trained chior singers. Help came from Helena Faigen, granddaughter of Victor Latyshev, an old parish member. He was very sick at that time. Helena, brought up as a Catholic, came to our church to pray for her beloved Orthodox grandfather. With her musical talents, Helena was able to organise and lead a new church chior. Andriy Pikhtin, regent of the Russian Orthodox Church in Auckland travelled to Wellington with fathers Vladimir and Evgeniy and spent much time training our chior members. The sisterhood, with support from Helena Faigen and Anya Zohrab, organised two charity balls, which proved very popular not only with our parisheners and the Russian-speaking community of Wellington, but also with non-Russian New Zealanders, including young people.
The names of all the priests who served at our church need to be mentioned here for the sake of future generations.
Alexey Gavrilovich Godyaev, mitred archpriest, who founded this parish in 1950, the first Russian Orthodox priest in New Zealand, resigned in 1975 because of poor health. Archpriest Fedor Martynenko was the rector of this church from 1983 to 1984. Hieromonk Ambroise (Muny), a priest of the Serbial Orthodox Church held services from 1984. Father Ambroise came under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad on 5 February 1997. From that time he became the prior of our church. In 2000, father Ambroise founded a Russian Orthodox parish in Palmerston North. Archpriest Michael Protopopov was administrator of all Russian orthodox parishes in New Zealand. From 1992 to 1995 he was the rector of South Australia and New Zealand parishes.
Archpriest Nikolay Karypov was the rector of all the Russian Orthodox parishes in New Zealand from 1995 to 2005. Priest Arkadiy Trashkov–Clery from Christchurch took services once a month from 2002 to 2005. Archimandrite Alexis (Rosentul) was the adminstrator of New Zealand parishes from 2005 to 2006, while father Ambroise held services.
In March 2007, Archpriest Vladimir Boikov, the rector of the Resurraction Church in Auckland and the prior of all New Zealand parishes, was appointed rector of the Church of Christ the Savior. Priest Aleksander Skorik was appointed assistant to the prior and priest at the Church of Christ the Savior in 2011. He serves at our church on a permanent basis.
Archpriest Vladimir Boikov
Written by Tatiana Markovna Dudarenko
Translated by Margaret Borshevsky
(2397)
