page_title: First Church of Otago
section_title: The building
hierarchical_section_title: First Church of Otago / The building
caption_attribution_description: English: First Church, Dunedin. Photograph by James Dignan, June 2005
context_page_description: First Church is a prominent church in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located in the heart of the city on Moray Place, 100 metres to the south of the city centre. The church is the city's primary Presbyterian church. The building is regarded as the most impressive of New Zealand's nineteenth-century churches, and is listed by Heritage New Zealand as a Category I structure.
context_section_description: Externally, First Church successfully replicates the effect, if on a smaller scale, of the late Norman cathedrals of England. The cathedral-like design and size can best be appreciated from the rear. There is an apse flanked by turrets, which are dwarfed by the massive gable containing the great rose window. It is this large circular window which after the spire becomes the focal point of the rear elevations. The whole architectural essay appears here almost European. Inside, instead of the stone vaulted ceiling of a Norman cathedral, there are hammer beams supporting a ceiling of pitched wood and a stone pointed arch acts as a simple proscenium to the central pulpit. Above this diffused light enters through a rose window of stained glass. This is flanked by further lights on the lower level, while twin organ pipes emphasise the symmetry of the pulpit.
  At 56.4 metres (185 ft), the spire makes the building one of the tallest in the South Island, and it was the island's tallest building until the construction of ChristChurch Cathedral, Christchurch was completed in 1881. It again held that rank briefly from 1888, after the latter building was damaged by an earthquake. The church is currently the city's tallest building, and the fourth tallest building in the South Island (after Pacific Tower, the Forsyth Barr Building, and Rydge's Hotel, all in Christchurch).
  The building is constructed of Oamaru stone, set on foundations of basalt breccia from Port Chalmers, with details carved by Louis Godfrey, who also did much of the woodcarving in the interior. The use of "cathedral glass", coloured but unfigured glass pending the donation of a pictorial window for the rose window is characteristic of Otago's 19th-century churches, where donors were relatively few reflecting the generally "low church" sentiments of the place. Similar examples can be found in several of Lawson's other churches throughout Otago.
  Other notable features of the building include stained glass windows dedicated to those fallen in war and to the Otago Mounted Rifles. For many years, the church housed a 1908 Norman & Baird organ, though this was replaced in 1983 by a digital organ by Allen. A full set of eight change-ringing bells, cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, was installed in 1975 and are rung by members of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers. At that time the only such set in a Presbyterian church outside the United Kingdom and claimed to be the southernmost ring of bells in the world. A large bell on a pedestal stands outside the church, sent from Scotland in 1851. Also located in the grounds in front of the church is a memorial plaque to Dr. Burns. The entrance gates to the church feature two lamps which started life as Edinburgh street lamps, another connection to the homeland of many of the city's first settlers.
  A miniature of the church was created by Lawson in the city's Northern Cemetery as a family tomb for noted early Dunedinite William Larnach.
  Regular Sunday services are held in the church in English (10.00am), Cook Island Maori (12.00 Noon), and Samoan (2.00pm). The church is also used for a variety of both religious and secular civic and cultural events within the city.
caption: The rear of the building, as seen from Queens Gardens, shows the true architecture and extravagant European basilica-like quality of the church, which shocked its early congregation.
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