Since God has nothing to do with the advent of earthquakes – or fires, floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions or tsunamis for that matter – I rather prefer the legal term “force majeure”, which defines “an event that is a result of the elements of nature, as opposed to one caused by human behaviour”.
So after the latest Christchurch upheaval, I thank God that in a city of nearly 400,000 people, in which an earthquake struck at its busiest time of the day, the death toll is likely to be only about 200 and many square kilometres of the city are still standing and largely unaffected.
My wife and I found comfort at a special prayer service on the Sunday after the quake at St Mary Star of the Sea church in Gisborne, led by parish priest Pa Yvan Sergy and his assistant, Father Matt McAuslin.
Read all of Garth George’s column in the NZ Herald