Christine Stride is Executive Assistant to the Baptist National Leader and works at the Baptist National Support Centre in Auckland. She is a member of Titirangi Baptist Church in Auckland.
At 97 years old, Don Hopkins is our oldest Baptist pastor; he graduated from Carey Baptist College in 1952 with a Diploma in Ministry. Don recently arrived by taxi at the Carey library in search of an award-winning photo he features in, and we thought his visit was worth celebrating.
Published in the Baptist Magazine Assembly ’76 November issue, the photo by David Brown was taken during the baptism of Miss Susan Hawley in the Opanuku stream behind West Auckland’s Carey Park Christian Camp. Stepping out of the stream in their flowing baptismal robes, Don and Susan could almost be walking on the water.
Don, then pastor of Rānui Baptist Church in West Auckland, remembers there had been a fair bit of rain, making the ground quite muddy and turning the little Opanuku Creek into a small and quite fast-moving river.
He recalls a special moment during the baptism when a kererū (or wood pigeon) flew down “it was quite noisy … they’re not small birds” and perched on a nearby branch, observing the activities.
The photo of Don and Susan won the Baptist Magazine’s Best News Picture, describing an occasion or an activity in a church or church-related situation.
Don attends Beachlands Baptist Church, where he pastored for one year before his retirement in 1989. He is also a former pastor of Parklands Baptist Church in Christchurch, Ōtāhuhu Community Baptist Church in South Auckland and Waihi Baptist Church in the Bay of Plenty, where he first began pastoring in 1952.
Photos: by Julie Polglaze
