Auckland church supporters aim to raise $1 million in 23 days to buy building

Monday, 10 May 2021

Supporters of an Auckland church want to turn the building into a music centre.

Supporters of an Auckland church have launched an ambitious fundraising campaign to save it, aiming to raise $1 million in 23 days.

St David’s Church, also known as the Soldiers’ Memorial Church, was built on Khyber Pass Rd in 1927 as a “living memorial” to those who died in the war.

Friends of the church said they were “blindsided” by news it would be put up for sale following the dissolution of the congregation in November last year.

Lisa Bates and Paul Baragwanath for Friends of St David’s Trust are fundraising to turn the church into a music centre.

They’re hoping to raise enough to repurpose the church into the St David’s Centre for Music, for acoustic concerts and workshops. They fear it will be turned into apartments, offices or a cafe if it is sold commercially.

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The raked seating means everyone in the audience is able to see the performers.

The centre would provide affordable rehearsal and recording space that’s sorely lacking for Auckland musicians at the moment, chairman of the Friends of St David’s Trust, Paul Baragwanath, said.

Preserving the church was about honouring the Anzac motto, we will remember them, while also creating a place of “civic wellbeing”, he said.

A unique stained-glass window depicts Māori with Christ.

With more people living in tiny apartments, “we need places to come together in community”, he said.

“It's an essential human need. This building is vital for the future of the city.

The trust is hoping the centre will be a venue for rehearsals and workshops as well as performances.

“That's really the crux of it: it’s remembrance, and it's to make life worth living.”

The vision for the centre would see it run as a not-for-profit, used for masterclasses and rehearsals, by choirs and soloists, by dance or drama groups as well as musicians.

The building is a rabbits’ warren of rooms they say have potential to be a chamber music hall, rehearsals spaces, green rooms and admin offices.

He is asking people to donate to save the church, because “people need food, and they need accommodation – but they also need a reason to live, and a quality of life”.

If the group doesn’t meet its fundraising target, it will still put forward a tender. If that is unsuccessful the funds will be used to ensure the building’s heritage status is protected, and donated to charity.

Trustee Lisa Bates said she was “immensely ambitious” about meeting the fundraising goal.

There was nowhere else in Auckland where up-and-coming musicians “feel they have a home,” she said.

The centre would provide a home for everyone, she said, not just professional musicians.

Renowned tenor Simon O’Neill is one of the founding patrons of the proposed centre.

“The atmosphere, acoustics and scale of St David’s create an incredibly valuable opportunity for music in New Zealand,” he said.