Barry Brinson, organist at Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, in Christchurch, writes -
This photo of the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church was taken the day after the quake. The frontage was further damaged by the big 5.1 aftershock last Tuesday, and is now in a precarious position, being dislodged from the main building, and pillars further weakened.
We are awaiting the engineer's and insurance final assessments, but it seems that the building will have to come down.
At 9 am on Monday, 13 September, we begin the work of removing all the pipework for transport to Timaru, to be stored until such time as the organ can be rebuilt - wherever and whenever that may be.
It is essential to save the pipework, as it is of heritage value. The console and mechanics can be rebuilt, but the pipes are the 'voice' of the organ and are irreplacable.
I gave a performance on August 28th - a repeat of my Masterton silent movies show. So the last piece of serious organ music played on the Oxford Terrace organ was the Toccata from Suite Gothique by Boellmann, as the Phantom was chased through the streets of Paris - what a way to go out!!
Other organs in Christchurch are generally in good order and still intact, but St John's, Latimer Square, is probably doomed, although organ music does not now form a major part of their worship.
Both Cathedrals are undamaged, but closed temporarily as a safety measure.
I have been involved with the Christchurch Praise Be programme. We made the decision to postpone rehearsals this weekend - and recording next week. This has been rescheduled to early November. Hopefully things will have settled a bit by then.
The rebuilding and repairing of homes and city buildings is going to take a long long time, and I fear the face of Christchurch will be changed for ever.
Further photos of the damage to Oxford Terrace Baptist Church are available here.
