Story: Pacific churches in New Zealand

Members of the Newton Pacific Islanders Congregational Church (PICC) leave the church after a service in the 1960s. At the time it was customary to wear formal ('Sunday  best') clothing to church: the men sport suits and ties and the women wear dresses and hats. The first Pacific Island church in New Zealand, the PICC was founded in 1947 in the inner-city Auckland suburb of Newton. The community took over an existing building (left), and in 1962 opened a new church next door (right). The original building was demolished in the late 1970s and replaced by the Elisi and Fisher halls complex.