Cathedral organ rebuild repair

Just after midnight on Monday 14 November, a 7.8 earthquake hit near Culverden in North Canterbury, New Zealand. We pray for those who have been affected by this quake.

* We're absolutely blown away by everyone's generosity so far - 111% funded in just one day. You're all amazing - thank you, thank you, thank you. For those who haven't given yet, please don't be put off. The reality is that we had to set a goal for this campaign, and we didn't expect to reach it so quickly. The cost of the work to come will be significant, so everything you give now will still be of great assistance. Our hope is that we will have a fine instrument that will last for many generations to come - to lead our worship, inspire our musicians and build our community. *

The Wellington Cathedral of St Paul sustained minimal damage from the earthquake, with the unfortunate exception of the organ. Several of the large pedal pipes came adrift, falling both out into the choir stalls as well as into the pipe chamber itself, causing substantial damage to many of the 3,531 pipes, and to the supporting structure of the organ.

The organ plays a significant role in the worshipping life of the Cathedral and the cultural life of the city. The Cathedral's Music Department is based on an English Cathedral model of quality sacred choral music - the organ is a crucial part of its success. Our choirs include the children's choir (for 5-8 year olds), the cathedral choristers (8-14 year olds), St Paul's Chorale (an adult supporting choir) and the main adult cathedral choir. All four choirs use the organ as their main accompanying instrument.

It has been performed on by many of the world's leading concert organists, including Olivier Latry, David Briggs and Colin Walsh. In the absence of the organ in the Wellington Town Hall (removed in 2013 due to the Town Hall being deemed an earthquake risk) the Cathedral organ is the largest and most substantial in the city. Last year the Cathedral's organists Michael Stewart and Richard Apperley presented the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach ('The Bach Project'), and have just had to make the decision to cancel an upcoming festival celebrating the organ works of Olivier Messiaen.

The organ plays a central role in the Wellington community, and is used by many local choirs and for free public recitals. In the week prior to the earthquake, the organ was used to accompany both a CD recording by a local primary school, and a concert in the Cathedral undertaken by the Orpheus Choir of Wellington. It is regularly used for large civic services and diocesan occasions.

The cathedral also provides one of the most active organ tuition programmes in the country, as well as providing education outreach programmes that have drawn children in from hundreds of kilometers away as well as local school classes. There is no other comparable instrument in the city for this kind of education.

The damage to the organ is such that we expect to have to store and assess all the pipework, dispose of the damaged structure, and either rebuild or replace the organ, all of which presents us with enormous expense. Since the terrible Christchurch earthquakes of 2011, none of the Anglican churches in New Zealand are insurable for earthquake damage, so any construction costs will be borne entirely by the Cathedral.

Future plans for the organ are at present completely unknown - we have not been able to get experts into the instrument yet to give a detailed damage assessment, so we do not know how much if any of the existing material could be reused, or even if this is advisable. There will be considerable cost involved with engaging consultants to not only advise on how the organ should be constructed and sound, but importantly to be as safe as possible in the event of a future earthquake.

The $10,000 target set for this Boosted campaign is enough to get us going at the beginning of this project, and will go some way towards covering the costs of having the organ assessed and removed as well as helping towards consultancy fees as we work out the best path ahead. The overall cost of the project will inevitably be significantly more than we are currently asking. All money raised will go to the Dean and Churchwardens of the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul in the Diocese of Wellington New Zealand for the purpose of the repair or replacement of the Cathedral's organ.

We would be very grateful for any support that you can give to help us on the long process of salvage work, consultation and construction to once more allow organ music to ring out in the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul.