Moon memorial church, Te Uku

In 1945 Arthur and Jessie Moon donated land and money to the Methodist Church to establish a church and cemetery at Te Uku, near Raglan. The church was built as a memorial to their son, Warrant Officer Keith McFarlane Moon, an RNZAF pilot reported missing in action in North Africa on 9 July 1943.

Arthur died in 1947, but Jessie laid the church’s foundation stone on 4 March 1950. She died in 1958 and is buried alongside her husband in the cemetery adjoining the church.

In 2003 the Surfside Church of Raglan bought the church from the Methodist Church of New Zealand.

Sources: ‘Gift of Church’, NZ Herald, 24/9/1945, p. 6; ‘Memorial Church to be Built at Te Uku’, Waikato Times, 6/3/1950, p. 4; R.T. Vernon, Te Uku, Hamilton, 1975, p. 93; R.T. Vernon, Raglan, Hamilton, 1984, p. 85.