By Yvonne Wilkie
Director of Archives

A request to the Archives regarding the first New Zealand Presbyterian Church Book of Order has revealed a curious story of procrastination and indecision.

In contarst to those in the southern Otago Synod, the formation of Northern Presbyterian churches was somewhat haphazard.  The Southern Presbyterian settlers arrived under the jurisdiction of the Free Church Presbytery of Edinburgh and they adhered to its practices, rules and doctrines. In the north however, the first congregations generally formed as Presbyterians in the community sought each other out.  The constitutions of these early congregations reflected the nature of the various Scottish parent Churches of their ministers.

The first officially constituted Presbyterian congregation was established in Wellington in 1843 under the Rev. John McFarlane, a Church of Scotland appointment. It was named the First Scotch Church, later St. Andrew's on the Terrace.
It's Constitution adhered to the doctrines and disciplines of the Church of Scotland as laid out in the Westminster Confession of Faith and other standards.  The Church was to be ‘inalienably in connection with the Established Church of Scotland' and worship to follow the Church of Scotland's forms and practices.

By 1849 Trinity Nelson was the third congregation to formulate its constitution. Four Free Church Ministers had settled in New Zealand and one minister from the Reformed Church. In 1850 a new Church of Scotland minister was appointed to Wellington. The Presbyterian membership however, was made up of every branch of Scottish Presbyterianism : Established, Reformed, Free, Cameronians, and Seceders.

As the population increased and congregations formed, the call for ministers extended to Canada, USA, Australia, Ireland, England and all branches of Scottish Presbyterianism. The congregations accepted ministers from the Congregational, Baptist, Free and Primitive Methodist churches.  Hence formulating a set of rules and procedures for the New Zealand Presbyterian Church did not prove to be as straightforward as the ‘fathers' of the first General Assembly of 1861 anticipated.

The 1862 Committee wanted the rules and procedures to reflect the colonial nature of the Church.  To ensure agreement within the diverse membership the Assembly recommended preparatory work be carried out.  In the meantime each congregation would adhere to the forms and procedures of the parent church of its minister.

Each year the Committee reported little or no progress and each year it moved to recommend the use of the Book of Order from the Presbyterian Church of Victoria.  In 1877 the newly published Synod of Otago and Southland Book of Order took precedence.

At the same Assembly, the Committee reported it had completed the long awaited draft copy but lack of funds hindered its publication.  Assembly made no acknowledgement of the draft or the need for funds but by approving the use of the Synod ‘Book of Order' it under-cut their own Committee's years of effort.

It is what is not written in the years that follow that cause us to ask questions.  Did the original Committee which does not appear to be thanked or discharged, resign? Was the new Committee appointed in 1879 a publishing Committee?  Was it discharged in 1880 because the Assembly Expense Fund required it to be in a more solvent condition?   Why did the 1883 Assembly form a new Committee to prepare a Code of Rules and Forms of Procedure?  What had changed so that in 1885 the Assembly could accept the use of the Presbyterian Church of England Book of Order with necessary modifications?

Maybe the wish for a united Presbyterian Church appeared too far in the distance, or maybe the divisions felt between the various Presbyterian branches were no longer an issue.   The evidence is unclear but after 23 years of indecision it took only two years to choose a manual and then revise, publish and circulate it.   How it differed from the original home grown manual we are unable to ascertain; it is no longer extant.