Memorial Minute for Rev Maurice Anderson Brown

Maurice Brown was the tenth Minister of St. John’s. Maurice was born in India and raised in Scotland. He trained as a horticulturalist. As a young man Maurice migrated to New Zealand. In Dunedin he studied at Otago University and then completed Theological training at Knox College. While studying Maurice resided at Knox College where he was elected as the student president. During this time he met and after a whirlwind romance, married Mary Hayward. Maurice was ordained for the Ministry in 1966.

He served as Assistant Minister at St. Andrew’s, New Plymouth, Minister at St. Clair, Dunedin and St. Ninian’s, Christchurch prior to being called to St. John’s. His ministry at St. John’s began in January 1986. Maurice and Mary and their three school aged children, Katie, Graeme and Jennie, soon endeared themselves to the congregation.

Maurice’s ministry at St. John’s can be described as one of change and innovation. Some of it substantial, some subtle – all of it introduced with Maurice’s keen eye for detail. Dismayed with the rapid departure of the congregation following morning worship, Maurice solved the problem by shifting the time of the service from 11 am to 10 am. Consequently more people were prepared to stay around for a leisurely chat after church.

The change in time was not without its critics. One elderly member of the congregation protested on the grounds that in all her long years attending St. John’s the service had always started at 11. A 10 am start was too inconvenient. She backed down when Maurice pointed out that when he arrived before 10 am each Sunday to prepare for the service, she was already there, sitting in her car having secured a prime parking space.

Another change was establishing a presence on the St John’s site during the working days. Apart from Sunday worship and mostly evening activities and meetings during the week the church site looked abandoned. As Maurice reflected; ‘I didn’t see how I could run a city church if I wasn’t present on the site during the week.’ Maurice established a Minister’s office in Spink’s Cottage. Betty Harris became Parish Secretary, also located in the cottage. Assistant and Associate Ministers also had their offices there. The Cottage soon became a thriving hub.

Maurice introduced the idea of establishing a professional counselling service on site. The idea was enthusiastically endorsed by Session and the congregation. There was one, then two counsellors operating in the cottage. The service offered free, ‘off the street’, pastoral care. Maurice’s vision that St. John’s did not appear to passersby to be empty buildings in the heart of the city, but a thriving Christian community operating week days as well, had come to pass. Fittingly, during this time the naming of church changed from St. John’s to St. John’s in the City.

Maurice had an ecumenical outlook, fostering relations with neighbouring parishes. This included combined service with Central Baptist and St. Mary’s of the Angels during the season of Advent. When St. Mary’s of the Angels was closed for extensive renovation, Maurice offered St. John’s for them to hold their services. The offer was gratefully accepted and a warm relationship between the two congregations followed.

These bonds were further cemented when, years later St. Mary’s was forcibly closed again to enable earthquake strengthening to take place. Once again St. John’s extended their invitation for St. Mary’s to use the church for services. Once again the offer was readily taken up.

Maurice liked to tell the story of a St. John’s member who confided to Maurice that following St. Mary’s services the smell of burning incense lingered in the sanctuary for many days. Along with the person, Maurice set out to investigate. The offending smell turned out to be the furniture polish that was being used to clean the pews.

Maurice was minister during the church’s ambitious rebuilding programme in the early 1990s. The selling of the ‘plot ratio financed the rebuilding as well as creating an ‘Outreach Fund’ and financing the free counselling service. Development along the McDonald Crescent frontage, a new hall and associated rooms and the chapel began following the 1987 stock market crash. Prior to the crash you could count upwards of 40 cranes operating on building sites, transforming central Wellington. In the post-crash recession, there was only one – at St. John’s.

Maurice kept a keen and informed eye on the building programme. His particular interests were the chapel, housing the Aitken windows and the courtyard. Maurice was responsible for the shrubbery in and around the courtyard, including the planter boxes. Both the chapel and the courtyard were made available during the week for members of the congregation and the wider public to seek a place of quiet amidst a busy city.

Maurice’s quite extraordinary creativity manifested itself in a myriad of ways during his ministry. This was evident in services, thoughtful and challenging sermons and church social events. A couple of his artworks in the church today bear testament to his talent. One is the enamel burning bush which occupies a space where a clock was once placed in the church. The other is the enamel cross located in the MacKay Chapel.

Maurice’s passion for art and support of young artists inspired him to initiate ‘Art Fest.’ The very best of secondary school art was put on display in the Hall and adjoining rooms. ‘Art Fest’ attracted appreciative crowds, who hitherto had limited opportunities to view what talented young artists were creating. Prizes to individual artists and grants to Art Departments were additional bonuses. Goodwill was a further outcome.

Maurice was an excellent pastoral minister. A family devastated by the news that a younger sibling had been killed overseas in an air crash didn’t know who to turn to. Then they remembered attending a christening at St. John’s and the warmth exuded by the officiating minister. They headed to Maurice’s office. Like so many people with pastoral concerns before and since they found him attentive to their needs, considered in his advice and above all compassionate.

Maurice had a special way with children. His Easter Day Easter Egg rolling down the aisles was a particular favourite with the children. On one occasion a particularly enthusiastic young participant decided to throw, not roll his Easter egg down to the front of the church. The Easter egg travelled in a perfect arc before landing fair and square on the head of a gentleman sitting in the pews. I am sure that Maurice would have quietly relished the incident.

During Maurice’s ministry christenings were held regularly. The congregation waited expectantly for the day when during the christening or Maurice’s subsequent walk up and down the aisles with the newly christened infant, the baby would cry and scream out in protest. They waited in vain.

When Maurice retired in February 2000 he had infused the church with the confidence to be an effective Christian presence in downtown Wellington for the start of the new Millenium. Such was the Ministry of this exceptional man.

Robert Anderson