Tuesday 4 April 2017

A new church and a railway line

It's been ages since I discovered a new church.  This one is pretty old, actually, but new to me.  It caught my eye a few weeks back when I first went past it, then last week when I headed that way to photograph the bridge over a stream, under a railway line I stopped in for a closer look.

The sign out front announced that it is Waikiekie Undenominational Church.  I thought the little church in my local village was a Nondenominational Church but now that I've checked I see it too is undenominational.  After poking around with Mr Google for a while I discovered that the Whangarei Central Baptist Church support both these churches with one of their members taking a service in each place once a month.  So if services are once a month at the church and that service is conducted by someone from the Baptist Church, doesn't that make it Baptist?  Or am I old fashioned in my views?  I had figured an undenominational church would not be any part of a larger denomination.  And I always wonder how that would work in practice. 

 The old fence has definitely seen better days 
but someone has recently painted the cheerful red doors.


 A paddock separates the church from a well tended graveyard.


Before I visited the area a few weeks ago I thought I hadn't heard the directions properly when I was told I'd come to a hard left hand turn, then go down over the bridge under the railway line.  But, sure enough, that is exactly what I encountered.

I think I may have over straightened the photo above.  The line is seriously downhill.

17 comments:

  1. I would have thought similarly to you re the church, Pauline.

    I see that the flow-on from Cyclone Debbie is now upon you guys over that way. Take care...stay safe and stay dry.

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    1. Hi Lee, Yes Debbie's tail has reached these shores. A lot of heavy rain and some flooding, road closures, etc. My daughters are suddenly interested in the weather as they are attending an outdoor Dixie Chicks concert in Hastings (near where Graham used to live) on Saturday. She arrived south of here so we only got the tail end of her tail.

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    2. I went to one of the wineries with the children years ago to see a Dixie Chicks concert: probably the same one.

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  2. Very nice, thanks for sharing these with us!

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    1. Thanks, Karen. I was glad I went back for a second look.

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    2. Pretty sure my great great grandfather built this church

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  3. Interesting old church. I'm sure I'd go by and think it was a house.

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    1. There are two lots of clues when it comes to these little old country churches, Red. They are all a similar shape and most are painted white with red roofs.

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  4. Many denominations try to set aside certain of their preferences in "non-essential" doctrine to reach anyone who wants to come. That's why nondenominational or undenominational is used, they are not supposed to press any point beyond the basic tenets of faith almost all major Christian flavors share.

    Anyway, it's a nice looking place, i wouldn't mind attending a service there myself.

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    1. Thanks for that, Messymimi. That makes sense. Although it looks to me like the Baptist church has their foot in the door of the two local churches.

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  5. What is the difference between nondenominational and undenominational?

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    1. I don't think there is a difference, Tabor, just a different name. Messymimi's explanation above makes the matter a lot clearer to me.

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  6. Yes my understanding is that non or un denominational churches are ones which don't have an established faith 'in charge' so to speak and simply allow worship in a general Christian way being led by any denomination or none.

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  7. What a quaint little church!

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  8. ...yep, Nondenominational is the term that we would use!

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  9. Hi Pauline - visiting the Church tomorrow

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