The Coptic Orthodox Church is developing a multi-million dollar Melbourne CBD high-rise to house its newest parish.
At each corner of the A$90 million development, four steel boxes containing gospels have been lowered into the ground.
In the centre, a time capsule was buried.
It contained the Bible, a wooden cross, money, the newspaper of the day and a declaration of the building’s purpose and names of the clergy present.
“This is a tradition going back to the Scriptures,” the head of the diocese of Melbourne, Bishop Suriel, said.
“We wanted to put those foundations there so that if a long time from now this building is ever knocked down people will know its significance, they will know it was a Coptic site.”
The 44-storey Eporo Tower is a collaboration between the Coptic Orthodox Church and Singaporean investment company Ho Bee.
It is due to be completed at the end of next year.
The lower levels of the tower will include a place of worship for the church’s 20,000 Victorian followers, a hall, classrooms and campus for its theological college.
The building’s 307 one and two-bedroom apartments have been sold.
Fr Mark Attalla, who scoured the city for a suitable site, said the development was aimed at building a community around the parish.
“We wanted to have a church within a community; the bottom floor being commercial, the next three and a half floors spiritual and the rest residential,” he said.
Bishop Suriel said he believed other churches would be watching the mixed-use development model with interest.
The blade-like high-rise will have classic finishes including six five-metre high stained-glass windows facing the street and a Coptic cross motif adorning the cladding of the tower.
The city block where the development is being built was once home to a gay sauna for more than three decades.
Sources
- Sydney Morning Herald
- Image: Twitter