Church set to reopen for Christmas

Stacy Squires/FAIRFAX NZ

BEALEY AVE BEACON: The reflective copper cladding is expected to weather over the next few months.

The rebuilt Knox Church will be open in time for Christmas services this year.

The 110-year-old church on the corner of Bealey Ave and Victoria St was badly damaged in the September 2010 quake.

What little remained standing was hit hard again in February 2011, and the Gothic revival-style building was subsequently demolished.

Parish rebuild project manager Ron Keating said the structure would be complete by the end of October.

The internal fitout was expected to take about a month, so ''if everything goes well it will be occupied by the end of November''.

Keating said the rebuild had been ''quite a long process''.

Construction started in August last year.

''We've just marked the fourth anniversary of the September earthquake . . . so it's wonderful that we're now so well into the rebuild.

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Church set to reopen for Christmas