Family History 1.136

Gaze History:

NSG Memoir

 

The shift back to the inner suburbs

Noel had learned from his mother about the work of the Mission to Lepers.  In 1949 the supporters of that organisation decided to start setting up an independent New Zealand organisation to grow support here, and Noel was elected to the first committee planning that process.  He remained involved in this process until his death. 

Early in 1950, Noel and Mary found a house in Grange Road, about a mile away from Julia and Doris, and bought it. From then either Noel or Mary or both would spend one or two nights a week relieving Doris in the care of Julia. Living in Mt Eden again was much closer to work.  This was the last year or two of the tram system in Auckland, and Noel sometimes went back to the public transport. The extra pressure on the parents meant the children had to take over more of the household chores. There was still lots of laughter in the family when they were together; Noel at this stage of his life was fond of reminding everyone that he was “rapidly approaching fifty”. 

With the move to town, Noel and Mary began to look around for a church.  Their children were at the stage of needing careful support through adolescence; they themselves wanted to find a church that needed workers, not one that meant they could sit back and relax. Baptist Churches differed from one another in theological emphasis; Papatoetoe had been too fundamentalist for Noel and Mary if they had ever made an issue of such things and they were hoping to find a more balanced theology. They settled on the Epsom Church, which had and still has the reputation as a more tolerant congregation than some others, tolerant of differing theological positions, and less dogmatic about what had to be believed to be acceptable. It had the added advantage that Papatoetoe and Epsom Churches had recently held a combined “House Party” at Carey Park, the Baptist Campsite, where Noel and Mary had started to know some of the Epsom congregation. 

Noel had, as he later admitted to Olwyn, doubts about the Virgin Birth of Jesus, and hints of doubts too about the bodily resurrection. He needed a church where he would not find his private thoughts castigated in every sermon.  And Mary was starting to get interested in Pacifism.  She later joined the Christian Pacifist Society, and admired the work of the Riverside community near Nelson. 

Epsom Baptist Church was a small congregation and welcomed the Gaze family with open arms. Soon after they joined, in 1951, the secretaryship became vacant, and Noel was elected to fulfil that task. Mary got involved in the women’s organisations, and Franklin and Olwyn became leaders in Bible Class, Boys and Girls Brigades and joined in with the Saturday night youth programme and the children provided three more members for Sunday School and Bible Class. As far as Auckland-wide activities were concerned, living in Mt Eden and belonging to the Epsom Church put the family right in the centre