Jim Allen recalled this commission as arriving in 1962 from the architect F. O. Jones, who had become aware of Allen’s practice through the Futuna Chapel project (Wellington). The commission was for several parts including a “Baldacchino” over the altar, windows for the nave and finally the three glazed walls of the baptistry bay.

The most complex part of the commission was the baptistry for which he made full size cartoons. These were sent to a glass works in Belgium where inch-thick coloured glass could be cast. Allen visited the works in 1968 and sometime after, the completed panes were shipped to New Zealand. A stainless-steel extruded mullion system had already been prepared to allow the windows to be mounted into the concrete structure. This was the same system used in Futuna. Luckily the final panes came back exactly to specification and could be installed “with no problem and the total baptistry was completed in quick time.”

When working on Futuna Chapel, Allen and John Scott had discussed the powerful effects of darkness and light penetrating the depth of a building. These ideas may have influenced the decision to add a veranda to shade the exterior of the baptistry windows. A photograph of the church from 1965 shows the final mullion system fitted with clear glass and no veranda. In this photograph the baptistry is flooded with sunlight.

This work is one of four Allen made for the church. The others are:

• Untitled (Baldacchino)

• Untitled (Nave windows)

• Untitled (Clerestory window)

See also:

• Allen Jim et al. Jim Allen : The Skin of Years. Auckland : Clouds & Michael Lett, 2014, p73-4

• ‘St Johns church’ (1965) by Jim Mandeno. (Te Awamutu Museum Online Collection, accession number 2009.13.343)

• St John’s Parish (official website)