The decision is expected next month ahead of the first anniversary of the Grassmere earthquake.

The small red-brick church, built in 1923, was damaged in the 6.6 earthquake which caused cracks in its tower and water damage from a broken cylinder.

It was deemed dangerous, and Marlborough District Council had requested information about the future of the building. Continue reading

The parish priest of St Mary of the Angels, Fr Barry Scannell said that at present it met between 15 and 20 per cent of the new building standard and would need significant work on its foundations and structure to bring it as close to 100 per cent as possible.

Engineers, architects and geotechnical consultants had spent months preparing plans for the project, which was expected to take 18 months to complete.

Scannell said money needed to be raised before work could start. He expected the strengthening would have to be done in two stages.

"The first stage is the structural stuff below the floor slab. The cost of that is about $2.8m and we would like to get on to that as soon as we raise the money."

The church would need help from wherever it could get it because the archdiocese, which had responsibility for many other churches, was not able to help.

St Marys also had a small pool of parishioners - before the quake an average of 650 people attended mass each week.

Read interview with Fr Scannell in the Marist Messenger

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: Marist Messenger

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

The closure is as a result of a series of recent Wellington earthquakes, the largest registering a magnitude of 6.5 on the Richter Scale.

"The safety of our parishioners and Church users is paramount, and therefore we have made the decision to close the Church so that the design and strengthening work can be fast-tracked", said Parish Priest, Fr Barry Scannell.

During the closure, weekday Mass will be celebrated in the church hall, and Sunday Masses will be celebrated at St Joseph's Mount Victoria and Sacred Heart Cathedral in Thorndon.

The St Mary of the Angels Restoration Committee was planning to begin restoration of the Historic Places Category one building later this year, however the recent earthquakes highlighted the urgency to complete the work sooner.

With the church now closed, Fr Scannell said priority is now given to fund-raising.

Calling St Mary of the Angels a "Wellington landmark", Fr Scannell says there will be an all out effort to raise the necessary money in order to secure the future of this Wellington icon.

As well as a central-city parish church, St Mary's is used for many other significant musical and cultural events, and Fr Scannell is calling on all Wellingtonians and people throughout New Zealand to get behind the project and make this beautiful setting safe for people to use.

Source: Society of Mary NZ

After the 6.5 quake hit at 5.09pm, the biggest of a swarm of more than 230 that have struck the upper South Island and lower and central North Island since Friday, the celebrant Fr Tom O'Connor invited the congregation to vacate the church which displays warning notices about its vulnerability to earthquakes at each of its entrances.

Last year it was decided that the continued use of St Mary of the Angels was defensible, subject to appropriate signage, information for Church users and continued development of a credible strengthening strategy.

On Monday an assessment team inspected the building, and according to the parish priest Fr Barry Scannell, no damage was discovered. He is now waiting for a written report.

In the meantime Mass will be celebrated in the hall at least till the end of the week, when a further assessment of the situation will be made.

Sunday's earthquake was the strongest earthquake experienced in Wellington since 1942.

Image: Stuff.co.nz