There’s a new plan to reopen the Christ Church Cathedral in stages.
It comes after the reinstatement of the iconic building reached a standstill last year, when the project was unable to secure the $85 million to $95m it needed.
The new approach still has a funding shortfall of between $40m and $45m. The Anglican Church has agreed to commit a further $20m to the project.
The staged reopening will involve the entranceway, rose window and nave being reopened by 2030.
This news is the latest in a saga that’s haunted Cantabrians since the cathedral was severely damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes of 2011.
After the quakes, the cathedral sat broken and neglected for years, and what to do with it was hotly debated. Should it stay or should it go was the back and forth heard in meetings and courts over six years before, in 2017, a decision was finally made.
The reinstatement would cost around $107m, with the Government to front $25m in loans and grants, Christchurch City Council to add $10m and the rest to be raised in the coming years. It was expected to be open by 2027.
Former National MP Nicky Wagner was Minister Supporting Greater Christchurch Regeneration at the time and involved in the many conversations had about the cathedral’s future.
She told The Front Page the debate was always intense, heated and passionate.
“The feeling was that until we put this debate to bed and make a decision, the city can’t move on. For many people, it was like the heart of the city, and it wasn’t just the building itself; it was Cathedral Square as well.
“It was a really strong statement that while this building is looking broken, Christchurch will be seen to be broken and felt to be broken,” she said.
Seven years later, it would be revealed the cost of the reinstatement had ballooned to $219m and restoration needed to stop.
When asked whether she thought the project would actually stick to the agreed-upon plan, Wagner said “probably not”.
“We’ve always been optimistic about the timing for the rebuild of Christchurch. But, when I look back on it, I’m really glad we were.
“When we first started talking about rebuilding Christchurch as a whole, overseas people said it takes 25 years to rebuild a city. And we sat there and said, ‘Really?’”
Bishop Victoria Matthews had remained steadfast in the idea of a modern rebuild and a lot of people held a lot of animosity towards her, Wagner said. She would resign from her post six months after the final 2017 decision was made.
“You’ve got to consider the context. Everybody’s looking for a scapegoat. The argument was, ‘She doesn’t understand us’, or ‘she’s foreign, she doesn’t know’.
“[Looking back] everything she said was very reasonable and very thoughtful and actually in line with what the church should do.
“We had long conversations. I would meet with her every Sunday afternoon and we would have coffee and we talked and talked. She felt bullied by some of these groups. Her intrinsic belief was that we should be looking after the people and that it’s only a building. But she could get no traction.
“She became a scapegoat and people were rabid about how they spoke about her, and it was very unfair,” she said.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about the latest in the Christ Church Cathedral reinstatement plans.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.