ChristChurch Cathedral, also called Christ Church Cathedral and (rarely) Cathedral Church of Christ, is a deconsecrated Anglican cathedral in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It was built between 1864 and 1904 in the centre of the city, surrounded by Cathedral Square. It became the cathedral seat of the Bishop of Christchurch, who is in the New Zealand tikanga of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
Earthquakes have repeatedly damaged the building (mostly the spire): in 1881, 1888, 1901, 1922, and 2010. The February 2011 Christchurch earthquake destroyed the spire and the upper portion of the tower, and severely damaged the rest of the building. A lower portion of the tower was demolished immediately following the 2011 earthquake to facilitate search and rescue operations. The remainder of the tower was demolished in March 2012. The badly damaged west wall, which contained the rose window, partially collapsed in the June 2011 earthquake and suffered further damage in the December 2011 earthquakes. The Anglican Church decided to demolish the building and replace it with a new structure, but various groups opposed the church's intentions, with actions including taking a case to court. While the judgements were mostly in favour of the church, no further demolition occurred after the removal of the tower in early 2012. Government expressed its concern over the stalemate and appointed an independent negotiator and in September 2017, the Christchurch Diocesan Synod announced that ChristChurch Cathedral will be reinstated after promises of extra grants and loans from local and central government. By mid-2019 early design and stabilisation work had begun.
Since 15 August 2013 the cathedral community has worshipped at the Cardboard Cathedral.
History
The origins of the cathedral date back to the plans of the Canterbury Association, which aimed to build a city around a central cathedral and college in the Canterbury region, based on the English model of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. In the original survey of central Christchurch (known as the Black Map), undertaken in 1850, it was envisaged for the college and cathedral to be built in Cathedral Square. The area set aside for the college was found to be insufficient, and Henry Sewell suggested in June 1853 to move it to land reserved for the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. This transaction was formalised through The Cathedral Square Ordinance 1858 passed by the Canterbury Provincial Council in October 1858. The ordinance allowed for Colombo Street to go through the middle of Cathedral Square at a legal width of with the cathedral to the west.
Henry Harper, the first Bishop of Christchurch, arrived in 1856 and began to drive the cathedral project. Most Christian churches are oriented towards the east, and to comply with this convention, Harper lobbied to have the eastern side of Cathedral Square to be used. That way, the main entrance would face Colombo Street, resulting in praying towards the east in line with custom. The Cathedral Square Amendment Ordinance 1859, formalised this change.
In 1858 the project was approved by the diocese and a design was commissioned from George Gilbert Scott, a prolific British architect known for his Gothic Revival churches and public buildings (he later built St Pancras railway station in London and St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh). Scott never visited Christchurch, but handed over the oversight of the project to Robert Speechly. Scott had earlier designed a timber church, the plans for which arrived with the Reverend Thomas Jackson in 1851, but were never used.
Just before work on the foundations began, the alignment of Colombo Street through Cathedral Square was changed by introducing a curve towards the west, with the western side of the legal road having a radius of 3 chains 75 links (), to place the cathedral slightly further west, making its tower visible along Colombo Street from a distance.
Scott's original design was for a Gothic-style cathedral, primarily constructed in timber. Bishop Harper, however, argued that the cathedral should be built from stone and by 1862 Scott's revised plans, as forwarded to the bishop, showed an internal timber frame with a stone exterior. Continuing pressure for an all-stone church, and concerns over the lack of timber in Canterbury, led to Scott supplying alternative plans for a stone arcade and clerestory. These plans arrived in New Zealand in 1864.