St John’s Presbyterian Church in Opotiki was opened in 1907. A bronze memorial tablet inscribed with the names of 14 members of the congregation who fell in the First World War was unveiled on 26 February 1928. A similar Second World War memorial tablet with 20 names was installed in 1946, as was the three stained glass windows behind the altar, which commemorate the fallen of both World Wars (“Their name liveth for evermore”). The church is today known as St John’s Union Church. It has served a combined Methodist and Presbyterian congregation since 1972.
See: ‘War Memorial Unveiled: Ceremony in Opotiki’, NZ Herald, 28/2/1928, p. 10; ‘St John’s Church’ (Heritage New Zealand, 24 June 2005); Opotiki Town Centre Historic Heritage Study, Part Two, Auckland, 2006, item 25.
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