Recently I read through a brief history of the Diocese of Waikato published on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 1976. This now forms the major part of the Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki. The history also gives an overview of the church in the Waikato in the time prior to 1926. Two major themes ran through the booklet.
One was the financially precarious position of parishes and the Diocese through most of their existence. The Waikato region was not always rich dairy land. Initially farming was quite difficult on those soils. The inhabitants did not have great wealth to support the church. Nor was church necessarily that important to the settlers there. However, the worst time was the Great Depression in the early 1930s. Many parishes had gone into significant debt to build churches and facilities. In the 1930s all that came crashing down. With very low returns on commodity prices and high unemployment, people had little and the church received very few offerings. In addition, any investments also did not generate much yield. It was only in the 1950s and 1960s in which regular church attendance combined with a measure of wealth to put parishes and the Diocese on a more stable footing. Unfortunately, that means that today many parishes are saddled with churches and halls from the 1960s that are too large and difficult to maintain.
The other theme running through the booklet was the long shadow of the Land Wars. They happened in the 1860s, included some atrocities and resulted in large tracts of Māori land being confiscated. But even in the 1970s Māori felt a sense of betrayal not only by the British, but also the Church, in particularly the Anglican Church. As a result, ministry among Māori was hard, even more so when many Māori moved to the city for employment. Even today the Land Wars are given as one reason for the distrust between people and Church, and people and government.
I think it goes to show that life has never been easy for the Church and that has made grave mistakes in the past and probably will continue to do so in the future, alongside the good done. The organisation is all too human, but the light of Christ continues to show through it.