Synod
In 1844 the Rev Thomas Burns wrote to Captain William Cargill concerning proposals for a Scots Church settlement in Otago New Zealand:
"If it shall be God's will that we shall succeed in establishing this
colony, I persuade myself that with His blessing attending us, we
may be instrumental in planting down in these favoured islands a
well ordered God fearing community that may stand in these remote
regions a sample of the Kingdom of Christ which, like a light
burning in a dark place, shall bear no indistinct testimony to the
Truth."
This vision led to the arrival of the first Otago settlers in 1848, with Cargill on the "John Wickliffe" and Burns on the "Phillip Lang". They founded the City of Dunedin, the Province of Otago, and the Presbyterian Church of Otago.
The Synod of Otago and Southland is part of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. The Synod area covers the lower third of New Zealand's South Island being the Otago and Southland regions and is some 80,000 square kilometres in size. To the north is the Waitaki river which marks the boundary between Canterbury (north of the river) and Otago.
There are, at present, some 76 Presbyterian parishes in 5 Presbyteries in the Synod area.
The landscape is diverse with lush pasture in more coastal areas and a more arid inland area with lakes and winter snow-capped mountains as well as the fiords of the Fiordland National Park. The major urban centres are Dunedin, the principal city of the Otago region and Invercargill, the main centre for the Southland region.
Land use covers sheep, cattle and dairying to fruit orchards and vineyards. Tourism is a major feature centred in Central Otago with Queenstown the hub for that industry.
"If it shall be God's will that we shall succeed in establishing this
colony, I persuade myself that with His blessing attending us, we
may be instrumental in planting down in these favoured islands a
well ordered God fearing community that may stand in these remote
regions a sample of the Kingdom of Christ which, like a light
burning in a dark place, shall bear no indistinct testimony to the
Truth."This vision led to the arrival of the first Otago settlers in 1848, with Cargill on the "John Wickliffe" and Burns on the "Phillip Lang". They founded the City of Dunedin, the Province of Otago, and the Presbyterian Church of Otago.
The Synod of Otago and Southland is part of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. The Synod area covers the lower third of New Zealand's South Island being the Otago and Southland regions and is some 80,000 square kilometres in size. To the north is the Waitaki river which marks the boundary between Canterbury (north of the river) and Otago.
There are, at present, some 76 Presbyterian parishes in 5 Presbyteries in the Synod area.
The landscape is diverse with lush pasture in more coastal areas and a more arid inland area with lakes and winter snow-capped mountains as well as the fiords of the Fiordland National Park. The major urban centres are Dunedin, the principal city of the Otago region and Invercargill, the main centre for the Southland region.
Land use covers sheep, cattle and dairying to fruit orchards and vineyards. Tourism is a major feature centred in Central Otago with Queenstown the hub for that industry.
