Agency of Hope: The story of the Auckland City Mission 1920-2020

Description

A CENTURY OF AUCKLANDERS HELPING AUCKLANDERS. This lively history by well-known historian Peter Lineham features over 100 photographs and takes readers inside a remarkable organisation working at the front lines of a society in which poverty has become entrenched. For 100 years the Auckland City Mission has been the lynchpin of the citys compassion towards and support for the poor, the marginalised and the homeless. Perhaps the best known of the citys charitable organisations many thousands of Aucklanders have been involved with the work of the Mission. Its story, marked attimes by struggle, is colourful and peopled by memorable characters.

Professor Peter Lineham has for many years written and lectured extensively on the religious history of New Zealand. His recent work has focused on broader trends in contemporary religion. His most recent book is Sunday Best: How the church shaped New Zealand and New Zealand shaped the church (2017). He is currently engaged in various projects on new religious movements in New Zealand, and on Brethren, Protestant, Evangelical and Anglican history.

Judith Nathan reviews Agency of Hope by Peter Lineham at Scoop Review of Books; 'Noted historian Peter Lineham has done a meticulous job chronicling the complex history of the Auckland City Mission, founded by the Anglican church. He has clearly waded conscientiously through the records of countless meetings over the years. What emerges, in varying intensity throughout its history, is a surprising number of tussles with the diocese (with which it now has only tenuous links) and with other agencies, such as the Methodist Mission and the Salvation Army. Alongside these are the many variations in the mission's diverse activities as it adjusted to meet the changing needs of its clientele - sometimes seen as city-wide but now focussed on the inner city.'