A garage sale was held in Timaru last Saturday to raise money for the Sacred Heart Basilica’s earthquake strengthening project, which began in early March.
The project cost is $3.9 million. The parish and its community must raise $1.6m of this.
Parish priest, Father Brian Fennessy, said that so far just over $1m has been received in donations and pledges.
One of the organisers of the garage sale, Kevin Brosnahan, said organisers were “reasonably happy” with Saturday’s sale.
While he was not able to say how much had been raised, Brosnahan said they had sold “a lot of items” at the sale.
Because of the amount and range, it was hard to tell what had sold well, but there was “everything for everybody”, including stainless steel pots, he said.
“Jewellery seemed to sell quite nicely.”
Across town, an early childhood centre is being built on the site of the former St Joseph’s Church.
It had been was purchased by Tauranga company Horizon Resources in April 2017 for $450,000.
The Holy Family parish in Timaru was formed in 2012 by combining two Timaru parishes, Timaru North and Sacred Heart.
The parish also includes St Patrick’s in Waimate.
There were two churches in what was formally Timaru North – St Thomas the Apostle and St Joseph’s.
St Joseph’s Church was deconsecrated in 2013 and demolished about 18 months ago.
The church had not been used for regular mass for the five years prior to its deconsecration.
Since February 2019 all weekend Masses have been held at St Thomas’ while work is being carried out on the Basilica.
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