Lady Chapel
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
The Lady Chapel was formerly the parish church of St Paul's in Paraparaumu. Designed by the diocesan architect Frederick de Jersey Clere, 1856-1952, the church was opened on its Paraparaumu site in 1905. In 1990, there was a need for a larger church in Paraparaumu nearer the main residential areas. After this was built, Paraparaumu Parish generously donated the historic church to the Cathedral to serve as its Lady Chapel. On May 12, 1991, it was consecrated as the Lady Chapel by the Most Reverend Brian Davis, 9th Bishop of Wellington and Archbishop of New Zealand.
A Lady Chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary has long been part of cathedrals and major churches. In England, the more famous of them include the Chapel of Our Lady, in the Norman crypt at Canterbury Cathedral; the 12th century Lady Chapel at Durham Cathedral and Winchester's 13th century Lady Chapel.
The Lady Chapel at Wellington Cathedral is located along the ambulatory to the left of the pulpit. A plan for a Lady Chapel in this position was part of the original vision of architect Cecil Wood in his design for a Cathedral, a plan which was adopted in the late 1930s.
Here, as in many cathedrals worldwide, the Lady Chapel offers a quiet place for reflection and prayer. The chapel is also used for the 8.00 a.m. Sunday eucharist, weekday lunchtime Eucharists, baptisms, weddings and funerals.
Originally, it had been planned to move the sanctuary and chancel of Old St Paul's from Mulgrave Street to the Cathedral to serve as the Lady Chapel. The foundations and walls to support this move were begun when the Cathedral's sanctuary and chancel were being built. This move of part of Old St Paul's was not to be; the church was sold to the New Zealand Government, and restored.
By 1990 the area reserved for the Lady Chapel looked similar to a monastic ruin on the side of the cathedral, with concrete walls about a metre high forming the outline of the base.
Despite the modern design of the Cathedral, it was still, however, thought appropriate to have an old wooden church as a Lady Chapel, a reminder that the first parish in Thorndon was just such a simple wooden structure.
In New Zealand, where churches, like houses, are often made of wood, there is nothing unusual about moving a building to a new site from many kilometres away. After foundations had been laid at the cathedral, the old church was removed from Kapiti in two stages.
First, it was trucked north by the contractors to a yard on the bank of the river at Waikanae so additions made to the building in the 1960s could be removed. Then on the night of September 10, 1990, the main section of the building was loaded on to a truck for the journey south to Wellington. The roof followed the next night.
Once on site, the building was extended. One bay and an apse were added to enlarge the sanctuary and a short connection of similar construction was built to join the new chapel to the Cathedral. The building was refurbished in late Victorian-Edwardian style to match the period in which it had originally been built.
The Lady Chapel Organ is a Walker "Positive" extension organ of three and a half ranks distributed over two manuals and pedals, and eighteen stops. It was built by J.Walker & Sons, London in 1961 and was first installed in the Calvary Hospital Chapel, Wellington. The organ was subsequently moved to other locations and was used for a time in the Roman Catholic Church in Newlands. It was from there that it was dismantled, shifted and installed in the organ chamber in the Lady Chapel in December 1991, and in April 1993 was purchased by the Cathedral as a gift from the Arthur Button Trust. This is a delightful instrument for accompanying services in the Chapel and for the Cathedral organists to teach and practise upon.
