Rev. Fr. Varghese Philip Idichandy arrived and took charge as vicar on 22nd May 2004. From then on we had regular church services on Sundays and the regular functioning of the spiritual organisations. During his term which lasted three years, several families were added to the church. But venues were difficult to get for regular worship. The parish became more aware for a permanent place of worship. Rev. Fr. Idichandy’s tenure also kick-started the public fund raising events begin-ning with a Food festival, which eventually turned out to be annual event for fundraising in the years ahead.
One day during that difficult period for us, Mother Wendy who was in charge of the St.Alban’s church, had a vision of St.Dionysius. It was Mother Wendy who permitted us to have our first Holy Eucharist at the St.Alban’s Church. She used to attend our services sometimes. In her vision, St.Dionysius told her that his people didn’t have a place to worship and re-quested her to accommodate them in her church. He also said that the present membership in her Church would grow. St.Alban’s had only a dozen or less mem-bers for years. A few days later, she saw the emergence of new members at her church and suddenly recollect-ed the vision she had few days ago. She then sum-moned our parish P.R.O and narrated the vision. She suggested replacing an existing shrine they had inside the St.Alban’s Church and agreed to call it the Shrine of St.Dionysius. The vision she had and the outcome was informed to our parishioners and they were overjoyed to have a shrine dedicated in the name of their patron saint; especially in one of the oldest churches in Auck-land. The shrine was dedicated accordingly and regular intercession prayers started at this place.
Consequently, towards the end of the tenure of Fr. Idichandy, with the generous donation of one of our members, the Auckland Car Club hall at 44 Stoddard Road, Mount Roskill was leased for a year to conduct our services on Sundays. Also there was a proposal to develop it to a community centre to fulfil the social objectives of our church.
Rev. Fr.Idichandy completed his tenure in June 2007
