Landmark Jesus statue on its way to new home

Fragile Christ the Teacher survives to rise again

- WCR photo by Glen Argan The landmark Christ the Teacher statue at Newman theological College and St. Joseph Seminary was dissembled Oct. 29 to be restored and re-erected at it’s new Southside home.

By LASHA MORNINGSTAR
WCR News Editor
Edmonton

Saws cut into Jesus – “We’re slicing him into three pieces just like a layer cake,“ says Rick Mooney – and harnesses slide a part of the statue onto the trailer.

Jesus is the familiar 14-plus-foot statue beckoning to passersby from St. Joseph Seminary on Mark Messier Trail. Sale of the college because of road construction meant the statue — and seminary and college — had to find a new home.

So Jesus’ statue is following the seminary and college to their new site on the Catholic Pastoral Centre grounds at 98th Avenue and 84 Street.

The Oct. 29 move involved cement cutters, movers and Allan Waidman the sculptor who will restore it once it is assembled in the warm months of 2009.

It took a little more than an hour for workers to cut through the statue and move the top piece onto a flatbed truck.

Rick Mooney, external consultant to the archdiocese, is overseeing the project.

“It’s fragile,” says Mooney of the statue. The composite material is “based on a wood frame with inside wiring and support braces.”

Mooney is reluctant to give the cost of the move because the hours of the various specialists and man-hours involved are still being calculated.

Destination unknown

Just where Jesus’ statue will stand permanently on the new college grounds is yet to be decided but “I’m sure it will be in a permanent place at a centre point of the college and seminary,” says Mooney.

The move evokes many memories for Father Joe Murphy. The retired Redemptorist remembers when the statue first stood on the grounds of Holy Redeemer College in 1960.

“It (the sculpture) had been a dream of (Father) Gabriel Ehman for years,” says Murphy. Architect Peter Thornton suggested sculptor Elek Imredy — an Hungarian refugee — be commissioned for the work.

“Imredy told us it (the statue) was made out of a special composition including glue used in airplanes in Hungary,” remembers Murphy. Imredy crafted the statue in his Vancouver studio, cut it into five pieces and shipped it to Edmonton.

Early repairs

As bursar of the college, Murphy oversaw Imredy’s reassembling of the statue the college called Christ the Teacher. The only problem that arose happened when hairline cracks appeared throughout the statue a few months later and Imredy was summoned back to repair his work.

It turned out the statue was so airtight, the moisture had no place to expand. A louvre installed in the statue’s back and barely discernable holes in the underarms solved the problem.

Now that the statue is into storage, Waidman will be in charge of restoration and repair of the 48-year-old work of art.

“It will be reassembled, resurfaced and ready to last for centuries,” proclaims Mooney.

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