A special Anglican Diocesan Synod has decided to scale back the Christ Church Cathedral reinstatement project to make it more affordable.
The church was badly damaged in the earthquakes more than a decade ago.
But the project to restore it has been plagued by budget blowouts and delays ever since.
Greeted by a wizard, welcomed by a bishop, opened with a song and blessed by a prayer.
They gathered because of a vision -and a decision about the future of the Christ Church Cathedral which was damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes.
"It's still broken and effectively the city's heart is still broken and I want to see my city have its heart beating again," Archdeacon Mark Barlow, Vicar of Lincoln said.
The project has been plagued by delays and budget blowouts.
"The whole journey for this cathedral from 2011 for the diocese has been challenging," Bishop Peter Carrell said.
The initial total to reinstate the cathedral - $103 million - ballooned to $248 million, leaving a $114 million shortfall.
Two months ago Christ Church Reinstatement Limited warned the project could be mothballed if $30 million wasn't found by August.
But now there's been a decision on its future.
Dean of the Cathedral Ben Truman said: "We as the church recommitted ourselves to this pathway of reinstatement."
"We would commit to finding $16.2 million to inject into the funding of the cathedral," Carrell said.
And there's been an agreement to scale back the project. So far, the central Government has paid $25 million, $24 million has come from donations, $33 million from the church's insurance and $10 million from ratepayers.
During the synod, the cost of the cathedral was compared with the current economic climate. One person raised the cost of school lunches and said regeneration wasn't about spending lots of money, while another said the cathedral should only be built out of loving donations.
"The decisions we made today should see us be able to refocus that $114 million to $85 million and possibly a bit lower," Carrell said.
Scaling back the project means no visitor centre or staff offices and 67 percent seismic strength instead of 100 percent.
"By descoping the project there's less work to do and hopefully it means we can achieve our goal earlier," Truman said.
That's before 2031, it's current scheduled completion date.
