It was greeted by the Wizard, welcomed by the Bishop, opened with song and blessed with prayer.
They came together to develop a vision and make decisions about the future of Christchurch Cathedral, which was damaged in the Christchurch earthquake.
“The city is still broken, effectively the heart of the city is still broken, and I want to see the heart of the city start moving again,” said Archdeacon Mark Barlow, pastor of the Diocese of Lincoln.
The project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.
“Every step of the way for this diocese since 2011 to build this cathedral has been a difficult one,” Bishop Peter Carrell said.
The original total cost of restoring the cathedral was $103 million, but it ballooned to $248 million, leaving a shortfall of $114 million.
Two months ago, Christ Church Reinstatement Limited warned the project could be scrapped if $30 million was not raised by August.
But now a decision has been made about its future.
“We have recommitted ourselves as a church to embark on this path of revival,” said the cathedral’s Bishop, Ben Truman.
“We are committed to raising $16.2 million to put into the cathedral fund,” Carrell said.
So far, the central government has paid $25 million, $24 million has come from donations, $33 million from church insurance, and $10 million from taxpayers.
The Synod compared the cost of building the cathedral to the current economic climate: one person cited the cost of school lunches and said that restoration should not involve spending large amounts of money, while another said the cathedral should be built solely with donations.
“The decision we made today should allow us to reallocate that $114 million to $85 million, maybe a little less,” Carrell said.
Reducing the scale of the project means there will be no visitor center or staff offices, and the building will be only 67 percent earthquake-resistant instead of 100 percent.
“By reducing the scope of the project, we hope to have less work to do and achieve our goals sooner,” Trueman said.
That’s before the current planned completion date of 2031.