The Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, Barry Jones, was on his way to Hokitika when the February 22 quake hit. He was out of mobile range until Arthur’s Pass, where he turned round and came back. An unreal event: he didn’t feel the shake but returned to a blitzed city.
When we spoke, Jones was still waiting to hear if a crane would be able to lift the dome at a distance, allowing engineers to assess the cathedral. “It’s so dangerous that no-one can actually get near it,” he says. “If there was another earthquake like the one on February 22, the engineers think the dome would actually come down. It’s a death trap.”
It’s tragic and maybe defeatist to use the past tense, but it was a stunning building.
In an ideal world, would Jones want it restored to its previous condition?
“If it was feasible. It’s an absolute treasure. But I’m not even beginning to think like that. It’s just too soon.”
Jones seems to be more open than his Anglican counterparts to the idea that the earthquake and subsequent demolitions and closures might give his church a chance to redraw its map of Christchurch.
“Our churches have all been built in communities that wanted churches where they were,” he says, but “the point you raise is very interesting.”
And the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch is considering these kinds of issues? “We are, absolutely.” While the churches have good-sized congregations, “the real issue is whether they are the right places to have churches”.
Asked if he thought the earthquake was an act of God, a punishment on the city, Jones says he hasn’t heard people asking whether the city’s sinfulness brought disaster upon it.
“It’s the mystery of evil – it’s as old as the world,” he says. “We’re just reading the book of Job. He’s the innocent man and all sorts of disasters happen to him. He says, ‘Why is this happening to me when I’m an innocent person?’ That’s as old as the Bible.
Read more as Bishops Jones and Victoria Matthews, the Rev Lynda Petterson, and Dean Peter Beck reflect on the Christchurch earthquake.
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