St. Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin

St Paul's Cathedral is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Dunedin, in New Zealand and the seat of the Bishop of Dunedin.

Location

The Cathedral Church of St Paul occupies a site in the heart of the Octagon, and hence Dunedin. The land for St Paul's Church was given by the sealer and whaler Johnny Jones of Waikouaiti.

History

t Paul's Church

The first parish church of St Paul was built on the site in 1862-1863. The first St Paul’s was built of Caversham stone and could accommodate up to 500 people. Unfortunately, construction methods used were not very good. The stone weathered badly and the tall spire was removed after just a few years. The man consecrated to be the first Bishop of Dunedin, but never enthroned as such, Bishop Henry Lascelles Jenner visited the Diocese in 1869, officiated at St Paul’s, and gave a lecture on church music illustrated by the St Paul’s choir. He is remembered as the composer of the hymn tune "Quam dilecta".

t Paul's Cathedral

In 1871, Samuel Tarratt Nevill was elected Bishop of Dunedin. To begin with, Nevill made no mention of the necessity of a cathedral for the diocese. It was not until the 1876 Synod that he broached the subject, but the issue was ducked by forming a commission to investigate the whole matter. This commission later recommended that St Paul’s should become the mother church. However, Nevill favoured St Matthew's Church, and the impasse remained. In the early 1880s the impasse was revisited, and again no resolution found. However, in 1894, 18 years after the issue was first raised, all sides agreed to the proposal for St Paul’s to become the cathedral. The Cathedral Chapter was formed and took up the responsibility for running the cathedral from 1895.

Building a new cathedral

In 1904, William Harrop, a prominent Dunedin businessman died and left the bulk of his estate for funding a new Cathedral. However, releasing these funds was conditional on the Chapter raising £20,000 towards the cost of the building. Nevill threw himself into the fundraising effort, but it was not until 1913 that the £20,000 was raised and work could begin. The first in a series of plans and modifications were submitted by Sedding and Wheatley, an architectural company based in England.

On 8 June 1915, the foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid. Huge foundations, large piers and a tremendous vaulted ceiling rose from the ground, forming the new Cathedral’s nave. Unfortunately, finances precluded construction of anything other than the nave. There was no money for the crossing or the chancel, as per the original plan. In the end, it was resolved that a temporary chancel should be constructed, using material saved from the old St Paul’s. The new Cathedral was consecrated by Bishop Nevill on 12 February 1919.

1930s

During the 1930s the Cathedral began to take up a role as a venue for public services, notably for the state funeral of Sir Frederick Truby King, the founder of the Plunket Society. Social work featured prominently in the Cathedral’s life at this time, with the synodsmen, vestry and church leaders all publicly opposed to the government’s Depression policies. The Cathedral administered a food bank and distributed food parcels for the citizens of Dunedin. Shortly after the Second World War, the Cathedral suffered the loss of Dean Cruickshank, who moved to the Diocese of Waiapu, and of Professor Victor Galway. Galway, an organist and Professor of Music, had been immensely popular, attracting large crowds to his recitals and performances. He had also regularly broadcasted his performances, paving the way for the Cathedral broadcasting its services on radio.

New chancel

In the 1950s the vestry made the important, though difficult, decision that the Cathedral would never be completed to its original design. The dean suggested that ways be examined to link an extension to the existing structure, and the vestry agreed to investigate the possibilities. In 1966, the decision was made to progress with a new chancel. The plans had been drawn by E.J. McCoy of the firm McCoy and Wixon. Construction began in earnest in December 1969. The old chancel was stripped and demolished and new columns began to rise from the debris. Construction and clearing up finished on Saturday 24th July 1971, and the Cathedral reopened the next day.

The newly constructed chancel was built along modernist lines, was as high as the existing ceiling and with tall windows reaching from the floor almost to the ceiling. The altar was freestanding and the furnishings matched the walls. Features of the new sanctuary were the free standing altar, (unusual for the time, clear glass windows, specially designed candle sticks and laudian altar frontal and a Perspex cross containing stripes of the liturgical colours.

The sanctuary was re-ordered in 2003 with the altar moved forward into the nave. This forward movement is consistent with neo-Anglo-Catholic tradition of placing the "table" within the sphere and proximity of those receiving the Eucharist.

In 2004, the Perspex cross was moved temporarily to the crypt to accommodate a production of the bi-annual Otago Festival of the Arts. A decision to restore this cross or replace it is still pending.

During the Lenten season of 2007, a simple wooden cross which had been used many years earlier was placed in the chancel. It remains there while the congregation, vestry and chapter consider whether or not to replace or restore the Perspex cross.

Consecration of a woman bishop

In 1989, the world's attention was on St Paul's when Dr. Penny Jamieson was consecrated and enthroned as Bishop of Dunedin. Bishop Penny was only the second woman bishop in the Anglican Communion and the first woman diocesan bishop in the world. Her appointment had been paved by the hard work of two women priests in the Cathedral: Claire Brown, Assistant Priest at the Cathedral from 1985-1989 and again 2006-present, and Barbara Nicholas, Honorary Priest Assistant.

New millennium

As the world prepared for the change from 1999 to 2000, St Paul's invited people gathered to celebrate in the Octagon to come into the cathedral, have a moment of silence, light a candle and pray for the new year and millennium. Over the course of a couple of hours thousands of people came into the cathdral and lit a candle. People placed their candles in sand arranged in the shapes of alpha and omega in the chancel, reminding us that Christ is the beginning and the end.

Dr. White controversy

Difficulties between three successive deans and the then Director of Music, Dr. Raymond White, came to a head publicly when in 1998 Dean Kirkpatrick dismissed Dr. White, and the affairs of the Cathedral were briefly headline news in newspapers, magazines and television. Dean Kirkpatrick resigned in 2001.

Deans of St Pauls

*1st Alfred R. Fitchett (1895-1929)
*2nd
*3rd
*4th Cruikshank
*5th Walter Hurst
*6th Peter Sutton (later Bishop of Nelson)
*7th Timothy Raphael (1966-1973)
*8th Robert Mills (1973-1991)
*9th Dr. Warren Limbrick (1991-1996)
*10th Jonathan Kirkpatrick (1996-2001)
*11th David Cappel-Rice (2002- )

External links

* [http://www.stpauls.net.nz/ St Paul's Cathedral site]