What should be done about the altar in the Teschemakers chapel?
The controversy about this and its background have been well reported so a summary here will do.
Joy Monteath published an excellent article in the Otago Daily Times (11.8.2010) describing the history of the chapel and the associated building and land.
William Teschemaker bought land near Oamaru, Taipo Hill, in 1860.
He built a large stone house there in 1863 and died in 1888.
His son managed the estate until it was sold in 1905 to John McCarthy.
Mr McCarthy died in 1909 and in 1911 his family presented the homestead and some surrounding land to the Dominican Order in Dunedin which decided to use it for a girls' boarding school.
That opened in 1912 and it was decided a chapel was needed.
A Mrs Frances Grant provided the wherewithal and the well-known Dunedin architect F. W. Petre designed the building which was known as "Our Lady of the Holy Rosary".
Five stained-glass windows were imported from Birmingham and the Hart family paid for an altar of Carrara marble with an alabaster bas-relief of the last supper as a predella.
It arrived in 19 numbered crates from Italy and was assembled on the site.
The chapel also has a statue of St Michael, an alabaster angel and a candelabrum and polished rimu choir stalls.
The school closed in 1977 but the Dominican Order continued using the buildings as a retreat until 1996.
It was bought in 2000 by a Japanese businessman, Hirotomo Ochi, who intended to redevelop it as a teaching academy.
The original homestead and convent were destroyed by fire in 2003, but were rebuilt.
Mr Ochi died before that was completed and his estate is now offering the property for sale.
It seems the contents of the chapel are owned by the Dominican Order and it has given the altar to the Holy Name parish in Dunedin.
This caused concern in North Otago but when the Holy Name parish was about to remove the altar an application was made to the Environment Court which issued an interim order that the altar must stay until a resource consent has been granted to remove it.
Many in North Otago are highly unhappy at the prospect of the altar's removal.
Some members of the Holy Name parish - including descendants of the altar's donors - don't like the idea of it remaining in situ through changing ownership and would rather see it used for its intended purpose in an active church.
The chapel was a grade B historic place under the old registration system which means it is now a category 1 historic place.
There is anguish here on both sides but the matter needs careful consideration.
The point about use is a fair one but this is not just another altar in yet another disused chapel.
There is more at stake here than that.
On the matter of use it is not impossible that in its present location the altar can serve its purpose.
It would be a challenge but a way might be found to continue that.
But then there are questions of historic and aesthetic value which the whole community has an interest in, beyond that of the legal owners.
This is the significance of the registration.
The altar was intended for the chapel and has been there a long time.
Its removal destroys that historical association and diminishes the significance of both elements.
On that count the proposal is wholly negative.
On the aesthetics, the place where the altar is intended to be relocated, Holy Name in Great King St, Dunedin, is a stark, modernist structure where the altar would present a great contrast; indeed would probably look lost and forlorn, out of place, an orphan.
The setting it now occupies is the creation of one of New Zealand's outstanding designers, an architect of undoubtedly international accomplishment.
George Bernard Shaw praised Petre's cathedral in Christchurch as one of the best renaissance churches outside of Italy.
His chapel at Teschemakers is Gothic, although late Gothic, and continental, with the apsidal sanctuary rising in ribs supporting a half dome.
This is the setting for the altar which stylistically complements it.
There is a platform, consisting of two stairs, surmounted by a table, behind which rises the reredos.
Below the table's top and above the platform, on either side of the predella are arched niches with statuettes.
The reredos takes the form of a spired and pinnacled ciborium - a significantly open and empty space, a chamber without an occupant - flanked by pinnacled shrines with statuettes of supportive saints.
This is very high, and very elaborate church art for New Zealand.
The whole ensemble would be significant anywhere. That it is on our patch is amazing.
The altar should stay.
Peter Entwisle is a Dunedin curator, historian and writer.
