 St John 's Church was mostly paid for by Wason , and construction started in 1876 , with the first service held on 8 July 1877 by the vicar of Ashburton , W. E. Paige . A vicarage was also envisaged , but it was never built . A lych gate was added as a centennial project . St John 's belongs to the Rakaia parish of the Waipounamu diocese of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa , New Zealand and Polynesia , with services each second Sunday of the month . The church was registered as a heritage building by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust ( since renamed to Heritage New Zealand ) on 23 June 1983 with registration number 1765 classified as C. With the change of the classification system , the building later became a Category II listing . The church is owned by Church Property Trustees ( i.e. the Anglican Church ) . 
