Cathedral seeks support for new Baptistery

A group of Aucklanders whose lives were touched by a former Dean of the city aims to raise $250,000 for a new Baptistery at the Anglican Cathedral in Parnell.

The centrepiece of the new Baptistery is a magnificent glass font designed and made by renowned New Zealand artist Ann Robinson. It will be to the memory of former Dean John Oliver Rymer, QSO, OSM, MA, Th Schol, Ch.St.J.

John Rymer was Dean of Auckland for 21 years and director of the Cathedral completion project between 1991 and 1995. He died in April 2003.

Ann Robinson is a celebrated and awarded New Zealand glass artist and a pioneer in this country of the cast glass medium. Standing nearly a metre high, the five-piece font is a work in progress.

Already $100,000 has been pledged to the appeal including a substantial amount raised by the Trinity Gardens Festival in 1991 by the church's Trinity Garden Festival.

An appeal for the balance of the funds has been launched at a function last night (June 8) in the cathedral at which the organisers received a cheque for a further $18,000 from the JCF Paine Charitable Trust. The Trust started the latest appeal with a donation of $30,000.

John Paine, a trustee of the trust set up years ago by his late father, says his family knew John Rymer well and respected both the man and his work.

"John was a genuine man of the people, the sort of guy who got things done in a no-nonsense way.  For many of us, he was a lifetime friend and mentor. He married us, baptised our children and attended their confirmations and 21st birthdays," Mr Paine says.

"He was equally at home in the mansions of Remuera as he was in the back streets of Auckland."

Mr Paine says John Rymer was a great fund raiser for the church, with the new nave for the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell his pet project.

"He worked tirelessly on this and many of the donations received were I'm sure a result of his effort. I can say that it was due to him that the JCF Paine Trust ended up donating one of the Cathedral's new stained glass windows.

"So when it came to deciding on a memorial for John, a font in the new Baptistery, which marks the completion of the interior of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, seemed a very appropriate choice."

The current Dean and Assistant Bishop of Auckland Richard Randerson says the installation of the font and baptistery will complete the interior plans of the Cathedral nave, which was opened in 1995.

"Dean Rymer's passion for sharing the Christian Faith with others and drawing them into Christian commitment makes the font a fitting symbol of his ministry."

Anyone wishing to make a donation can do so at the Holy Trinity Cathedral information centre in Parnell or by posting a cheque to Baptistery Appeal, PO Box 37148, Parnell. 

ENDS

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