0Last Thursday our own Papanui Rotary member Geoff Haworth spoke about his latest publication, “Guts and Grace”, the history of the Christchurch City Mission.
He explained that it was virtually a Rotary production. As he wrote, Jenny his wife published it, and Cheryl Colley was an editor. In addition, a significant group of Papanui Rotarians turned up at the book’s launching on July 9th at the Transitional Cathedral.
For Geoff the book was a retirement project which he began shortly before he retired in June 2014.
To research the history, he had to work his way through many boxes of material stored at the Mission plus refer to other material in the Diocesan archives and the Christchurch Library. He also interviewed over 30 people who had worked or still do work for the Mission.
“Guts and Grace” shows how the Mission began in 1929 as the Great Depression was taking hold In Christchurch. It originated in the school room at St Luke’s Manchester Street where teams of volunteers provided lunch for unemployed men.
Mission staff and volunteers in 1930
Within three month, the Mission had a headquarters in Salisbury Street. Despite the severity of the Depression, public and church support was such that the Mission purchased a site at 199 Antigua Street and built a specialist headquarters building which still survives at 275 Hereford Street where the Mission moved to in 1968.
“Guts and Grace” tells the story of how the Mission was founded, how it grew and found support from throughout Canterbury, and how it began new services and laid off ones that had outlived their usefulness as it kept track of the city’s changing needs and demands.
Over the years it has set up separate Night Shelters for men and women, a chain of op shops, the Mt Grey Downs Centre outside Rangiora, the Caravan in the Square, Thorpe House, Walsh House, and build teams of social workers. It still depends on volunteers and regular donations of food and money.
It served the city very well in the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes and opened its new headquarters in 2012, debt-free. It is a flexible, compassionate and well-run organisation and does great work at the heart of Christchurch’s Christian caring networks.
The Mission today
We thanked Geoff for his insights into the Mission as it grew and evolved over the decades.