Church to he finished?

Press, 21 December 1978, Page 20

Church to he finished?

i NZPA New York Eighty-six years after J construction began on the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York, Episcopal Church officials i have announced that they will try again to finish it. The cathedral, the biggest in the world, has not i been worked on since 1941, when construction was stopped for World War 11. The project will take an estimated five_years and

cost some $9 million, according to the Right Rev. Paul Moore, jun„ bishop of the Episcopal diocese of New York. Some S2M have already been raised by the church's building fund, according to Bishop Moore, who said the work would be done piecemeal as the money was raised. He said that resumption of construction, which began on December 27, 1892, and was halted 49 years later, was a drama-

tic affirmation that neighbourhoods were not to be abandoned, but to be rebuilt. During the 1960 s the church decided to emphasise social issues and leave the cathedral in its unfinished condition. It is finished enough to be used, and has been a liturgical centre for years. Officials said that although St Peter’s in Rome is a bigger church, it is built in the style of a basilica and technically not a cathedral.