St Peter’s College is having a final fundraising push in a bid to finish its estimated $3 million chapel before the next school year.
Associate headmaster Hayden Kingdon said the school is “getting pretty close” to finishing the construction, with the floor installed in the first week of November.
“It’s been pretty smooth sailing,” he said of the on going construction. “We foresee being able to celebrate the first Mass early next year in the school term.”
Mr Kingdon said they are seeking to raise an additional $250,000 for the fit-out.
“We are selling personalised congregational chairs. Families who buy one can put their name on it. We’re calling out to our past and present St Peter’s community to have a share in the history of our chapel,” he said.
The chapel is in the centre of the school grounds and overlooks Khyber Pass Road.
“It’s a wonderful advertisement of our Catholic character to the city. It is certainly going to be a wonderful sacred space for our students to celebrate the sacraments,” Mr Kingdon said.
The congregational chairs cost $1000 each. The school is also seeking sponsors for — sanctuary cross and corpus ($40,000), altar ($10,000), three icons of St Peter ($8000 each), a statue of St Peter ($17,000) and a statue of Mary ($20,000).
The chapel was designed by Stevens Lawson Architects,which also designed the 11.5 metre, 7.5 tonne cross at the entrance of the school. It is being built by Aspec construction.
The main chapel will be able to accommodate 220 people. It will house two smaller chapels within the building that will serve as spaces for reflection.
The chapel had been funded solely through the efforts of the college community, which started raising funds for the project more than a decade ago.
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