Patea church burglars could be occult group

COLIN ROWATT | 27th January 2006

WITCHCRAFT could be behind a Patea church being twice desecrated by burglars.

Patea's historic Anglican church has been hit twice in the past two weeks and thieves have targeted religious artefacts and icons, leading to speculation about an occult connection.

The bizarre events have St George's lay minister Howard Anderson Howard Anderson hot under his (clerical) collar.

"And that is putting it mildly," he said yesterday as he continued to try and understand why anyone would break into the church twice to steal religious artefacts and alter "furnishings".

The more Mr Anderson and Patea police have pondered on the crimes, the more weird the offences have seemed, leading to a strengthening opinion that the thefts might have been carried out by members of some occult or witchcraft group.

A pointer to that possibility is that the stolen items ? including a 2m tall processional cross, two solid brass altar crosses, a travelling communion set with glass wine and water decanters and a silver platter, two warden's "wands", two candle snuffers, a small silver bell and two altar candles ? were all consecrated pieces with special significance as symbols of faith.

But other items, potentially saleable whole or as scrap metal, were left.

The idea that "furnishings" some of which have been part of St George's Church for the past 121 years and are central to Anglican services of worship, could be being used in pagan-type ceremonies makes the thefts even more disturbing.

Police have appealed for Patea residents to be on the lookout for the stolen items.

St George's Church is on the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Category One register of historic buildings.

Its parishioners are toiling to raise the $300,000 needed to restore the church.

"So we could have done without this right now", Mr Anderson said.

While the stolen items were insured (as part of the overall insurance policy), their intrinsic, symbolic and spiritual values and the fact that many were donated or memorial articles means they cannot actually be replaced ? except by those who stole them.

And that is something Mr Anderson and his flock would dearly love to see happen.

At this stage, Mr Anderson is definitely not in turn-the-other-cheek mode.

Christian forgiveness (at least with regard to the thieves) is not in his lay minister's bag of tools.

"It will come back in due course? but it is not there at the moment," he said.

Due course could be brought a long way forward if the thieves returned the articles, even anonymously (if that can be arranged) and preferably undamaged.

However, if he could meet the thieves face-to-face, Mr Anderson would ask them why they had stolen the items and "what they would do if someone desecrated some of their precious things".

Meanwhile, for Sunday's scheduled service at St George's the altar furnishings have had to be borrowed from among the Patea district's other Anglican churches.

"We could hold church in the middle of an open paddock. But the (missing) articles are more than just trappings? they are symbols of the basis of our faith," Mr Anderson said.