Last Saturday night, we enjoyed our patronal dinner at Medbury School.
On Saturday 13 June 2026, over 220 people celebrated 150 years of the Parish of Fendalton at a free parish dinner held at Medbury School, with which the parish has had close links for over a century. Parishioner Steve Wakefield shared a century-and-a-half of parish history in just over 15 minutes with good humour, stories, and great photographs. [Steve’s talk and slides are attached for anyone interested.]
We were joined in person by previous Vicar Rev’d Mark and Pip Chamberlain. We were also delighted to receive a video greeting from an earlier Vicar, Ven. John and Stephanie Day
and a letter from his precedessor Canon Emeritus Craufurd and Jennifer Murray.
Current Vicar Rev’d Dr Andrew Butcher warmly welcomed everyone to the dinner, while Senior Associate Priest, Rev’d Kay Webster was the evening’s outstanding MC. All guests were invited to participate in an action song, led and accompanied by Liz Yeoh and the Lifestreams Band, and a short quiz, before Bishop Peter Carrell said the grace. We also enjoyed a choir performance and ended the evening with a rousing rendition of ‘Now thank we all our God’, both led by parish organist and choir director Robert Aburn.
The Messy Church-style buffet dinner had a three main dishes on the menu for all, as well as dessert with ice-cream. Parishioners lent their multiple slow cookers and rice cookers to Greg Brown who spent countless hours planning, prepping and cooking. He was ably supported by his wife, Angela Brown (also the Christchurch Regional Encourager for Messy Church, New Zealand), and many more volunteers who helped set up, serve the food, clean up, and pack down. It was a great team effort!
Each table was beautifully decorated with fresh rosemary from parishioners’ gardens, and floating tea lights in glass jars (also kindly donated by parishioners). Throughout the evening, the guests were also treated to a photo slideshow of our parish between the 1990s and the first half of 2026. These memorable photographs were submitted by parishioners, and scanned/sourced by the Vicar’s wife, Yvette Koo Butcher.
Guests were also given colourful strips of paper and coloured pencils to write down two things:
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what they are thankful to God for at St Barnabas, Fendalton, and
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what they hope for St Barnabas, Fendalton.
Those strips of colourful paper decorated the pews for the next day’s combined morning service, while the answers to those questions formed the basis of the ‘prayers of the people’ read out by Rev’d Kay Webster and Youth Minister Charlotte Carrell. As a parish, we pray for a deeper growth in faith as we journey through life together with the Lord, and with each other. Praise be to God!
To see more of the 150 photos of the evening taken by official photographer Mandy Caldwell, go to this link, then enter your own email and this password: 150years
Thanks to Mandy for making these available to all the parish!
Attachments
- 2026 June 150th Parish Dinner speech Steve Wakefield PDF, 226.5 KB
- Sesquicentennial Dinner June 2026 with SJW edits PDF, 5.2 MB
