A centenary is a time when you blow the cobwebs off the archived photographs, share a few memories, then return the pictures of long ago back to the boxes to collect another decade of dust and cobwebs. But for their one hundred year celebration, Hastings Baptist is painstakingly adding the archives onto the web. The world wide web, that is.

One of the centenary projects for Hastings is to capture and store as much as possible of its history on the church's website. It is intended to be a valuable reference for the church members who will follow in the years ahead.

A growing number of churches are putting themselves on the web. It is very much part of how a new generation explores the world. Approximately 45% of Baptist churches in New Zealand have a website.

Last year the Hastings site went through a significant upgrade so that visitors could get a "virtual feel" for the church from the comfort of their desktop. Included were photographs of real people who come to the church; information about the church's ministries and programmes; presentations of what the church believes; as well topical articles dealing with issues like race and money. Particularly popular has been a series of articles that Martin Sutherland has kindly allowed to be hosted about what it means to be Baptist.

Each week the Sunday morning sermon is recorded and put up on the website which, along with some older sermons converted from tape, is offering teaching from a number of books of the Bible.

For the centenary year the site has taken another big leap forward. The intention is to capture as much historical material as possible including photographs, video, audio and documents.

One of the marvels of digitally capturing old photographs is that the originals can be safely returned to their owners, while the scanned image can be enhanced and restored to its former glory. So far more than 700 photographs are on the website with more coming in all the time. The difficult task can be dating the occasion and naming the people in the picture. The website has the facility for people to leave comments about the images helping to identify people and places.

Old 8mm movies have been converted and uploaded onto the site. These short clips from the late 1950s and early 1960s record the church's entry of floats in the annual Blossom Parade, the Boys' Brigade in its heyday, festivities from the 1960 Jubilee events - there is even some footage of the Queen's 1954 visit to Hastings, which was a big deal for the locals - and the Baptists!

During the coming year video interviews will be recorded with some existing members to preserve the living memory link back to the church's earliest days.

The search is also underway for old audio recordings of sermons and services. A number of the church's former pastors had their sermons broadcast over the national radio network, and the hope is that some of those recordings have been preserved. If so, they will be copied and made available on the website with the intention of giving people a sample of past ministers. There is even an entry of the church choir from 1946 in the Radio New Zealand Sound Archive that is being followed up.

Eleven boxes of documents and memorabilia stored at the NZ Baptist Archive in the Carey College Library are being trawled through for reports and papers from the past. A number of
newspaper clippings from the earliest days and Annual reports mostly from the mid-1930s up to today have been made available online. Likewise, 100 years of Deacons' minutes are being digitally scanned and posted on the website. No doubt amidst the routine affairs of church life recorded in the minutes lie buried a few skeletons from yesteryear.

Brian Smith, a previous principal of Carey Baptist College, has undertaken the Digital Baptist project in which he has been steadily working through old NZ Baptist magazines digitally capturing each page so that they can be searched with a computer. Using Brian's work, references to Hastings have been copied and collated to give a year by year report of the life of the church. Church Reports in the NZ Baptist in the past were much more detailed, listing names and events, which has been very helpful to those piecing the history together decades later.

Hastings has been significantly helped in this task by having Mark Jackson as a member of the congregation. Mark helps Tranzsend produce photographic and video resources; he also supports over 150 websites including Tranzsend's. He has provided the church with the tools and know-how to undertake this project. From his research there are not many churches on the web undertaking the scale of online archiving that is being done by Hastings Baptist.

The website is a work in progress. More material will be added as new events happen during the centennial year, including the celebration at Labour Weekend (24-26 October 2009). The church is keen to hear from anyone with photographic, video or audio material connected with Hastings Baptist.

Those considering attending the centenary weekend should register or phone (06) 878 7844; mail: PO Box 1309 Hastings; email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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