From 1984 to 2002 Copeland served as the financial administrator of the Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington.

He served as a Member of Parliament from 2002 to 2008 entering the House of Representatives as a list MP for the United Future New Zealand Party.

As a member of parliament, Copeland promoted the importance of the family in building a strong nation.

He was a strong advocate for marriage preparation, marriage enrichment programmes and parenting programmes.

He also wanted to develop policy giving greater encouragement to charities and not-for-profit organisations.

Following his 2005 re-election, Copeland gained the support of other social conservatives for his political views.

But he resigned from the United Future Party in May 2007.

With another former United Future list MP, Larry Baldock, he formed the Future New Zealand Party in May 2007. It later changed its name to the Kiwi Party.

He stood for parliament again in 2008 and 2011 but failed to be elected.

Copeland worked for fourteen years in the oil industry, becoming the chief financial officer of BP in New Zealand.

Later, he worked as a self-employed business consultant with corporate and government clients.

Copeland chaired the Inter-Church Working Party on Taxation (1987-2002) and became a member of the Working Party on Registration, Reporting and Monitoring of Charities that led to setting up the New Zealand Charities Commission.

Peter Dunne, retired former leader of the United Future party, said on Tuesday night he was sad to hear of Copeland's passing.

"I think he made a really strong contribution to the party."

Copeland had a strong financial background and stood by his strong moral and ethical views, Dunne said.

His requiem mass will be celebrated at St Gerard's Church and Monastery, Hawker St, Mt Victoria in Wellington on Friday.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• en.wikipedia.org
• Image: stuff.co.nz

It hoped to receive the results soon, and that they will prove far less strengthening work, or even none, is needed.

In the meantime the Trust has halted fundraising for strengthening work, which has reached about $100,000.

Copeland said a friend told him about a similar 1932 reinforced concrete building in Christchurch, the old High St Post Office, which survived the 6.3-magnitude February 2011 quake unscathed.

Both it and the monastery were built after the 1931 Napier earthquake with higher seismic standards.

Added to that, the monastery's concrete foundations were built on rock, and the buildings were strengthened in the 1980s when steel bracing was put in the church roof and monastery floor.

"Because of the Christchurch earthquakes and the legal liabilities faced by engineers, I think they were being super-cautious," Copeland said.

The Monastery was yellow-stickered after the original seismic engineer's report assessed the buildings as needing major strengthening to reach or exceed 34 per cent of new building standards.

The 1908 unreinforced masonry church was deemed to meet 26 per cent of the building code.

The adjoining reinforced concrete monastery, built in 1932, was assessed to be 18 per cent.

The predicted $10m strengthening bill shocked St Gerard's owners, the Institute for World Evangelisation - ICPE New Zealand, a lay missionary group, which bought St Gerard's in 1990.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: buildmagazine.org.nz

Rex Nicholls, a Wellington property developer and husband of a former Mayor has, by way of a letter to the editor, offered the church some free advice on how to fund the earthquake strengthening of St Gerard's.

"I realise the current use of it can't pay the strengthening costs, but its tenant could operate from an unused church or hall in the suburbs. There are plenty to choose from. The building needs a new use. A high-quality hotel or expensive apartments would work", he says.

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust lists St Gerard's as a Category 1 which means it is considered to be a building of "special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value".

In an interview given earlier this year St Gerard's maintenance and restoration trust chairman, Gordon Copeland, said the Church and Monastery stand at about 27% of the standard required for a new building.

It would cost up to $10 million to bring them up to even 67 per cent of those standards.

Copeland said that was beyond the sum anyone could expect to raise in a public fundraising campaign and he suggested it would probably be more realistic to strengthen the buildings to 34 per cent of code, although it was yet to be determined how much that would cost.

The Historic Places Trust trust has been working with the Wellington City Council to encourage strengthening but it was a challenge, central region general manager Ann Neill said. "There's a gap between the market value of the building, in this recessionary time, and the costs. That's a deterrent for an owner and a barrier to their decision."

The trust wanted to persuade owners they had good reason to strengthen - even if the initial work was minor. She suggested Wellington adopt a strategy from Dunedin, where a targeted rate on heritage buildings will be used to fund low-interest loans for strengthening work.

The church was built by the Redemptorists in 1908, the Monastery in 1932. In 1988 increasing rates and declining numbers forced them to put the property on the market. In 1992 It was purchased by the International Catholic Programme of Evangelisation (ICPE) for use as a retreat and training centre for evangelist missionaries.

In recognition of the monastery's importance as a historic landmark, the Wellington City Council purchased land in front of the monastery to prevent it being obscured by new buildings.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Stuff.co.nz
• Historic Places Trust