St Paul's Cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Dunedin, in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and the seat of the Bishop of Dunedin.

Location

The Cathedral Church of St Paul occupies a site in the heart of The Octagon

The Octagon, Dunedin

The Octagon is the city centre of Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand.-Features:The Octagon is an eight sided plaza bisected by the city's main street, which is called George Street to the northeast and Princes Street to the southwest...

 near the Dunedin Town Hall

Dunedin Town Hall

The Dunedin Town Hall is a municipal building in the city of Dunedin in New Zealand. It is located in the heart of the city extending from The Octagon, the central plaza, to Moray Place through a whole city block. It is the seat of the Dunedin City Council, providing its formal meeting chamber, as...

 and hence Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

. The land for St Paul's Church was given by the sealer and whaler Johnny Jones of Waikouaiti

Waikouaiti

Waikouaiti is a small town in East Otago, New Zealand, within the city limits of Dunedin. The town is close to the coast and the mouth of the Waikouaiti River....

.

St Paul's Cathedral Church

The first parish church of St Paul was built on the site in 1862–1863. It was made of Caversham stone and could accommodate up to 500 people. Unfortunately it wasn't well constructed. 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, Bishop Henry Lascelles Jenner, visited the Diocese in 1869. He 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

Hymn tune

A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm , and no refrain or chorus....

 Quam dilecta.

St Paul's Cathedral

In 1871 Samuel Tarratt Nevill

Samuel Tarratt Nevill

The Most Reverend Samuel Tarratt Nevill, DD was the first Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Dunedin in Dunedin, New Zealand....

 was elected Bishop of Dunedin. Initially he made no mention of the need for a cathedral for the diocese

Diocese

A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...

 and it was not until the 1876 Synod

Synod

A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...

 that he broached the subject. 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, Dunedin

St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin

St. Matthew's Church is an inner-city Anglican parish church, located on the City Rise in Dunedin, New Zealand. Designed by William Mason the foundation stone was laid on 11 July 1873 and the building was consecrated on 3 December 1874. It cost 4,874 pounds to construct which wasn't paid off until...

, and the impasse remained. In the early 1880s the question 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

Chapter (religion)

Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....

 was formed and took up the responsibility for running the cathedral from 1895. Thomas Whitelock Kempthorne of Kempthorne Prosser

Kempthorne Prosser

Kempthorne Prosser & Co. Ltd, also known as the New Zealand Drug Company Ltd, was the leading drug and fertiliser manufacturer in New Zealand from 1869 until 1978. Their complete name was Kempthorne Prosser & Co.'s New Zealand Drug Co. Ltd, established in Dunedin.Thomas Whitelock Kempthorne and...

 Ltd was a generous supporter of the cathedral and a memorial stands inside.

Building a new cathedral

In 1904, William Harrop, a prominent Dunedin businessman died and left the bulk of his estate to fund a new Cathedral. However, release of the money was conditional on the Chapter raising £20,000 towards the cost of the building. Nevill threw himself into the 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 Wheatly, an architectural company based in England. The author of the final design was Edmund Harold Sedding

Edmund Harold Sedding

Edmund Harold Sedding was an English architect who practised in Devon and Cornwall. He was the son of Edmund Sedding and the nephew of J. D. Sedding. He was articled to his uncle, and initially employed by him, later setting up his own independent practice in Plymouth in 1891...

 (1863–1921). The supervising architect in Dunedin was Basil Hooper (1876–1960).

On 8 June 1915, the foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid. Huge foundations, large piers and a tremendous vaulted ceiling, the only one in stone in New Zealand, rose from the ground, forming the new Cathedral’s nave. Unfortunately, finances precluded construction of anything more. There was no money for the crossing or the chancel, as originally intended. In the end, it was resolved that a temporary chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

 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

State funeral

A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honor heads of state or other important people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of military tradition...

 of Sir Frederick Truby King

Truby King

thumb|Sir Frederic Truby KingSir Frederic Truby King CMG , generally known as Truby King, was a New Zealand health reformer and Director of Child Welfare. He is best known as the founder of the Plunket Society....

, the founder of the Plunket Society

Plunket Society

The Royal New Zealand Plunket Society is an incorporated society in New Zealand which provides a range of health services to healthy babies and young children...

. Social work featured prominently 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, St Paul's suffered the loss of Dean Cruickshank, who moved to the Diocese of Waiapu, and of Professor Victor Galway. The latter, an organist and Professor of Music, had been immensely popular, attracting large crowds to his recitals and performances. He had also regularly broadcast his productions, paving the way for services to be aired on radio.

New chancel

In the 1950s the vestry made the important, though difficult, decision that it wouldn't complete the Cathedral 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 build a new chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

. The plans had been drawn by Ted McCoy

Ted McCoy

Edward John "Ted" McCoy ONZM is a retired Dunedin, New Zealand architect. He designed the sanctuary of St Pauls Cathedral, completed in 1970 and the Richardson Building of the University of Otago, completed in 1979, among many others...

 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 24 July 1971, and the Cathedral reopened the next day.

The new chancel was modernist, as high as the existing vault, with tall windows reaching from the floor almost to the ceiling. The altar was free standing 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, a Laudian altar front 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 is consistent with the 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 (and initially) to the crypt to accommodate a production of the bi-annual Otago Festival of the Arts. Finally, a decision was reached by the current Dean Trevor James to restore the perspex cross to the sanctuary, and it was returned to its position at the end of 2009.

Deans of St Paul's

• 1st Alfred R. Fitchett (1895–1929)
• 2nd
• 3rd
• 4th Cruikshank
• 5th Walter Hurst
• 6th Peter Sutton (1964–1965, 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 (2002–2008)
• 12th Dr. Trevor James (15 March 2009 – present)

Consecration of a woman bishop

In 1989, the world's attention was on St Paul's when Dr. Penny Jamieson

Penny Jamieson

Penelope Ann Bansall "Penny" Jamieson DCNZM was the seventh Bishop of Dunedin in the Anglican Church of New Zealand from 1989 until her retirement in 2004...

 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 Cathedral women: Claire Brown, Assistant Priest at St Paul's from 1985 to 1989 and again from 2006 to the 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 the millennium. Over the course of a couple of hours thousands came in and lit a candle. People placed their candles in sand arranged in the shapes of alpha and omega in the chancel, reminding those present that Christ is the beginning and the end.

St. Paul's Cathedral Choir

St. Paul's hosts an adult, mixed gender choir. Several notable members from the choir have gone on to have international careers as soloists, including Martin Snell, Jonathan Lemalu

Jonathan Lemalu

Jonathan Fa'afetai Lemalu is a New Zealand opera singer, of Samoan descent. Born in Dunedin, he sings in the bass baritone register....

 and Anna Leese

Anna Leese

Anna Leese is a New Zealand born soprano opera singer. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2006, as understudy for the part of Musetta in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème...

. Other members have gone on to sing as professional lay clerks in English cathedrals such as Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral is the principal church of the Diocese of Ely, in Cambridgeshire, England, and is the seat of the Bishop of Ely and a suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon...

 and St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

The choir sings for a Sunday Eucharist at 10 am and Evensong some Sunday evenings at 7 pm.

The organ

The St. Paul's Cathedral organ was built in 1919 by Henry Willis III, in London and was installed the following year. In 1972, it was entirely dismantled and repositioned by the South Island Organ Company

South Island Organ Company

The South Island Organ Company is a manufacturer of pipe organs in Timaru, New Zealand. The company, in business since 1968, has manufactured and restored over 300 pipe organs throughout New Zealand, Australia and Oceania.-Founders:...

of Timaru. There are four manuals — great, swell, choir and solo. The organ of St Paul's has more than 3500 pipes and is often used for civic performances.

Specifications

GREAT ORGAN

Double Diapason 16'

Open Diapason I 8'

Open Diapason II 8'

Claribel Flute 8’

Principal 4'

Flute Ouverte 4’

Twelfth 2'

Fifteenth 2'

Mixture 19:22:26

Tromba 8'

Clarion 4'

Swell to Great

Choir to Great

Solo to Great

Pedal to Gt Pistons coupler

SWELL ORGAN

Lieblich Bourdon 16'

Geigen Diapason 8'

Rohr Flute 8'
Aeoline 8'

Viole Celeste 8'

Octave Geigen 4'

Lieblich Flute 4'

Flageolet 2'

Larigot 1'

Mixture 22:26:29

Double Trumpet 16'

Trumpet 8'

Hautboy 8'

Clarion 4'

Tremulant

Sub-octave

Super-octave

Unison off

Pedal to Swell Piston coupler

CHOIR ORGAN

Open Diapason 8'

Chimney Flute 8'

Viola da Gamba 8'

Dulciana 8'

Spitz Flute 4'

Nazard 2'

Block Flute 2'

Tierce 1'

Cymbel 33:36:40

Krumhorn 8'

Schalmey 4'

Tuba (from Solo) 8'

Sub-octave

Super-octave

Unison off

Solo to Choir

Swell to Choir

SOLO ORGAN

Tibia 8'

Flauto Traverso 8'

Viole d'Orchestre 8'

Concert Flute 4'

Harmonic Piccolo 2'

Bass Clarinet 16'

Cor Anglais 8'

Tuba 8'

Tremulant

Solo Octave

Solo Sub-octave

Solo Unison off

PEDAL ORGAN

Resultant Bass 32'

Open Wood 16'

Open Diapason 16'

Open Metal (from Great) 16'

Bourdon 16'

Echo Bass (from Swell) 16'

Quint 10'

Octave 8'

Flute 8'

Super Octave 4'

Spitz Flute 4'

Mixture 15:19:22
Trombone (from Tuba) 16'

Double Trumpet (Swell) 16'

Posaune (from Tuba) 8'

Clarion (from Tuba) 4'

Swell to Pedal

Great to Pedal

Choir to Pedal

Solo to Pedal

THUMB PISTONS

7 to Swell

7 to Great

7 to Choir

5 to Solo

Swell to Pedal on/off

Great to Pedal on/off

Choir to Pedal on/off

Swell to Great on/off

Solo to Pedal on/off

Solo to Great on/off

General Cancel on/off

TOE PISTONS

7 Duplicating Swell

7 to Pedal

Swell to Great on/off

Great to Pedal on/off

Pedal Trombone on/off

Full Organ on/off

Balanced mechanical

expression pedals to:

SWELL ORGAN

SOLO ORGAN

Compass:

MANUALS C to c4= 61 notes

PEDALS C to g = 32 notes

External links

• St Paul's Cathedral site