Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and government officials marked the 50th anniversary of the formation of the faith's Wellington New Zealand Stake on Sunday, 30 August.
The occasion was marked by the planting of a tree at the stake center in the Wellington suburb of Hataitai.
A stake is a group of Latter-day Saint congregations in a geographical location.
The tree planting symbolized the creation of the first stake in Wellington 50 years ago.
- Wellington Stake Tree 50th
- Wellington 50 years tree 2
- Wellington 50 years 30 August 2015 Tree
- Wellington 50 Years 30 August 2015
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
Latter-day Saint and other guests included Maori Party Co-Leader Marama Fox; Labour Party Deputy Leader Annette King; Wellington City Councilor Paul Eagle; Elder David J. Thomson, senior regional leader of the Church; Peter Thomson, stake president of the Church in Wellington; and Roy Ditchburn, who was present when the stake was organised in 1965.
The Church was recently recognised by Wellington City Mayor Celia Wade-Brown with an "Absolutely Positively Wellingtonian Award" for its "Mormon Helping Hands" community service programme.
Church members regularly take part in community service projects across the city including cleaning public parks and cemeteries, painting schools, donating to the Wellington City Mission, among others.
From a few hundred members 50 years ago, the Church has grown in the Wellington region with over 6,000 members now in congregations reaching as far as Masterton in the east to Paraparaumu in the west.
Wellington has an important part in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand as the first baptism in the country took place in Wellington's Karori stream over 160 years ago.