Writing in First Things, Stephen Schmalhofer opines: "Let us hope that Macauley's unknown traveler will arrive with plenty of practice sketching the restored cathedral domes in Christchurch.

"To honor the blood and sweat of the missionary New Zealand Church and the genius of Francis Petre, the Church must rebuild Christchurch Basilica.

"As New York City considers the reconstruction of McKim, Mead, and White's masterpiece Penn Station, the Diocese of Christchurch has an opportunity to rebuild and celebrate a great Kiwi Catholic architect praised by George Bernard Shaw as the New Zealand Brunelleschi," he said.

Schmalhofer warns that the row over the future of the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral should concern Catholics fighting for the restoration of the basilica.

He describes Bishop Victoria Matthews as "a utilitarian posing as an almoner."

He says her position as being "part of a long and ignoble tradition. 'It would be better to use the money for the poor' (Jn 13:29) is the voice of betrayal, not benefaction."

"Pope Francis has urged Christians to go to the periphery of the world," write Schamalhofer.

"If we go to the periphery, we must prove by our sacred architecture that those we find there now occupy the same pride of place in the Church as Borgo Pio."

Schmalhofer lives in Connecticut. He has a B.A. in history from Yale University where he was an Ivy League champion football player.

He is a partner in Teamworthy Ventures, an organisation that seeks "to develop long-term relationships with talented and trustworthy entrepreneurs and teams, and we invest in their ventures at the seed, early or growth stage."

His parish church is Saint John the Evangelist.

According to Wikipedia, Pope Benedict XVI raised Saint John's Parish to the dignity and title of Minor Basilica on July 16, 2009.

The designation is based on its sanctuary size, historical importance, art and recognition within the Diocese.

Source

• firstthings.com
• yale.academia.edu
• elminstitute.org
• linkedin.com
• Image: David Wethey NZPA

She was speaking at a special Choral Eucharist in Christchurch's Transitional Cathedral last Sunday.

She said the Christchurch Cathedral restoration is being driven by "the wealthy and the powerful."

"Business as usual folks, with the wealthy and powerful telling you, the people of Canterbury, that they know best - good luck with that," Matthews said.

"To reinstate a very damaged building, so people can say 'we like the outside of it', seems to me somewhat misdirected.

"I wonder what an empty cathedral would be an icon of."

The retiring Anglican bishop of Christchurch New Zealand, Victoria Matthews put these question last year in an interview on National Radio's Checkpoint programme.

Matthews asked tough moral and theological questions that few in the secular world ever had to confront until earthquakes changed everything in Christchurch, according to an editorial in the Christchurch Press.

She asked how a church should serve its public, what its buildings are for and what its priorities should be.

In announcing her resignation Matthews said, "I'm not retiring and I'm not in ill health, I am merely following where my Saviour is leading me, wherever that may be."

The cathedral debate has been so dominant that Matthews' emphasis on community work and social justice has often been overlooked.

She said in 2008 that "it's all too easy in the First World to live in isolated splendour and I would like every Anglican to be deeply aware that they are brothers and sisters to people living in extraordinarily bad circumstances in other parts of the world".

A multimillion-dollar youth hub to address a rise in Christchurch youth homelessness and mental health issues is on the cards after years of battling to get the project off the ground.

Anglican Care, the Anglican Church's social service agency, stepped in to help last year and bought the old bowling club site on Salisbury St in central Christchurch for $4 million.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• anglicannews.org
• stuff.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: josephjohnson/stuff.co.nz

As we sheltered under the sturdy tables, I learnt that in the advice "duck, cover and hold", the hold part is really important. It stops you being thrown across the room with everything else mobile - glasses, plates, chairs.

For the rest of the day I accompanied the bishop as we went back to the diocesan offices to gather up her staff; attempted to get to the Christ Church Cathedral but were turned back by terrified-looking police; made sure staff could get home and then with those who couldn't (and a German tourist we had welcomed into our little group), walked to the bishop's house and huddled in her garden flat, the house obviously too damaged to enter.

People eventually figured out a way to get home or to friends for shelter. I was the last of the group to leave as dusk closed in, collected and driven to the Antarctic Centre for evacuation with the members of a conference my husband was running.

As I left, Bishop Victoria trudged back to the city to see where she could be useful. I have never forgotten her care for each person on her staff and her care for people as we walked the streets, dodging falling masonry and liquefaction.

I still jump at the kind of noise the earthquake made - like a train, really. Just recently I was in a building with a large water feature and the pump made a surging noise.

After 30 minutes I couldn't stand being near the noise any more - it sounded like an earthquake coming.

I feel like that and I only had to survive one day of the quake and its aftershocks. The people of Christchurch have had six years. Continue reading

• The Rev Helen Jacobi is Anglican vicar of St Matthew-in-the-City in Auckland.

"The role of the wider community (including other Christian denominations) is to respect their decision (whatever it might be) as being one that is true to their understanding of their call from God, in this place, at this time," the letter states.

"The costs - spiritually, emotionally and financially - of all our buildings are borne by those for whom these places of worship are their spiritual home,"

"First and foremost the Cathedral in the Square, like all Christian church buildings, is a place of worship to the God we know in Jesus Christ and a reminder to the wider community of God's presence."

"The reason why all churches exist is to make Jesus Christ known and to enable people to gather in community and worship. The church is not primarily a landlord tasked with caring for stone or wooden edifices."

Presbyterian moderator David Coster wrote the letter as he felt the media and politicians unfairly criticised Matthews.

It was signed by Coster, Methodist district superintendent Kathryn Walters, Catholic diocese administrator Rick Loughnan, Grace Vineyard Church senior pastor David MacGregor, Elim Church lead pastor Nu Telea, Salvation Army divisional commander Ivan Bezzant, King's Church senior pastor Ken Shelley and Baptist regional mission leader Maurice Atkinson.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: static.2.stuff.co.nz

A government-appointed working party has been trying to decided the fate of the building and its report, which is due out shortly, is expected to support restoring the cathedral.

Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Nicky Wagner say she is "deeply disappointed" that the decision had been postponed again.

She said that the city urgently needed "some kind of hope of a solution" to what she called a horribly divisive issue. "and we were hoping for a breakthrough."

To try to break the deadlock, 11 months ago a government-appointed working group met for the first time.

Wagner said the group has reached a conclusion, but would not say what it was, or when the report would be released.

In the letter, read out in all the churches in the Christchurch Anglican diocese, Matthews said a survey undertaken by the church found the public was "still divided" over rebuilding the cathedral or building an "inspirational and fit for purpose" contemporary cathedral, Matthews said, but the church and "a majority" of the Church Property Trust wanted the latter.

The synod is a 225-member governing body that includes elected parishioners, priests and youth representatives from the diocese. It is not known if the decision would require a unanimous vote or majority one.

Church property trustees includes National Party Canterbury-Westland chairman Roger Bridge, Deloitte New Zealand partner Steve Wakefield, former Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority boss Roger Sutton, law lecturer Moka Ritchie, civil engineer Bruce Deam, retired equine vet Corin Murfitt and Colliers director Gary Sellars.

The working party comprises of Christchurch developer Alasdair Cassels, former Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority general manager Steve Wakefield, National Party regional chair Roger Bridge, former NZ Transport Agency head Geoff Dangerfield and academic Sue McKenzie.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: anglicantaonga/resources.stuff.co.nz

After all the public land records show Diocese has $320 million "empire" of cash and properties.

Why not, for example sell the Church of the Good Shepherd in Tekapo to help fund the rebuild?

But a diocese, Anglican or Catholic, is not the monolith it may appear to be from the outside. Parishes are not just local branches of a diocese.

Each parish owns its own property. The Bishop does not exercise CEO-like authority in these matters.

A spokesperson for Anglican Diocese of Christchurch has pointed that the land and investments are the property of individual parishes and are held "on trust" for those parishes.

A parish's assets cannot be spent outside each individual parish.

"The CPT (Church Property Trust) is the holding body for all the [parish] trusts," said the spokesperson.

"You can't take money from Papanui, for example, to pay central."

In a letter sent to all Anglicans in the diocese Bishop Victoria Matthews reminded them the CPT has no equity of its own.

"This week a senior reporter of The Press has made it his business to investigate CPT investments."

"There is the suggestion that on Saturday The Press newspaper will have a story about the Church Property Trustees and how we could use our funds to reinstate the Cathedral in the Square."

"I write to you at this time to simply remind you that we do hold land and Investments but that these are for parish and diocesan ministry and mission. CPT has no equity of its own."

The Christchurch Anglican diocese's finances have come under scrutiny as it negotiates with the Government over how to fund the $100m Christ Church Cathedral restoration.

The CPT has a $42m insurance payout on the cathedral to spend on the restoration, while campaign group Great Christchurch Buildings Trust (GCBT) has pledged to raise $15m from donors and about $10m has been offered by the Government.

Matthews is concerned it may prove difficult to raise money for the $30m funding shortfall on the project

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

Bishop Victoria Matthews said although it was a "highly innovative and creative design", the large area it encompassed meant it was difficult for the Anglican diocese to consider seriously. Here, Taylor comments on that response. Continue reading

The Christchurch Anglicans met in a special synod on April 13-14, and chose to proceed on a path which could see the 46 parishes in and around Christchurch being significantly reduced, even halved in number, as a result of parish mergers.

The synod received a Draft Proposal that had been prepared by a Structural Review Group. It will now be sent to the Diocesan Standing Committee for review.

In her address to the special synod, Bishop Victoria Matthews described the challenge facing the diocese :

"How will we as a diocese respond to the devastation of property, and the re-arrangement of the population of our region following the earthquakes in Canterbury?

"Will we be set free? Or will we become even more imprisoned by our possessions and structures?"

The diocese's Church Property Trustees have advised that there are around 200 earthquake-damaged buildings across the diocese - including 38 which have either been destroyed, demolished or require repairs that will cost more than $50,000 each.

Source

• Anglican Taonga
• Image: Anglican Taonga

The restoration of the existing building would cost between $104 million and $221m, A new gothic building constructed with modern materials would cost between $85 and $181m, while the modern style building would cost between $56m and $74m.

A scientific survey of 350 of their readers, commissioned by Christchurch's newspaper, The Press, has found the majority of Canterbury residents do not want to spend public money saving the building or running the temporary cardboard cathedral.

The survey was split with 54 per cent favouring demolition and 42 per cent calling for it to be saved.

A Press online poll has attracted nearly 12,000 votes, making it the most popular poll published on the website. The vote was evenly split between the three options on the first day of polling, but the contemporary option edged ahead on Friday. The contemporary option has won just under 40 per cent support, or about 4700 votes. Restoration has attracted about 29 per cent of votes and the traditional design has won about 27 per cent. Five per cent of the voters wanted something else, rather than the three schemes presented. At time of press, 11,984 people had voted in the poll.

A Campbell Live Poll on 4 April showed that 49% of those who voted favoured the "contemporary" option, with the remaining 50% being equally divided between the other two

A One News Poll on 6 April showed that 58% favoured the contemporary options, while 295 wanted the original build restored

Bishop Victoria Matthews says the future of Christ Church Cathedral will not be decided by a "public vote" but the people's opinion could be "very persuasive" if one of the designs gets overwhelming support.

"If it is overwhelming that would be very persuasive but not the deciding vote. We are not voting in a design but we are listening to what the public have to say." said Matthews

She would not reveal her preferred option.

The Anglican Diocese of Christchurch has set up a website seeking feedback from the public about those three choices.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: Gismodo.com.au

The demolition of the cathedral's tower is set to begin today, and it is anticipated that it will take about a week. The highest part of the tower came down in the February 2011 earthquake. It was lowered further by demolition crews last year to make it more safe.

Bishop Matthews stated that those who are protesting against the cathedral's demolition did not understand how dangerous it is to leave the cathedral as it is.

"[Cathedral Square] is not vacant. Many people are working there. It's a very large, very tall building, and we need to have it safe so it doesn't come down on people.

"It was not until December that we understood this was an ongoing seismic process. We were told there was a 79 per cent chance of another 5 to 5.4-magnitude earthquake and we have to think about how dangerous that building will be to people in that vicinity in that event," Bishop Matthews said.

Public opposition to the cathedral's being lowered has been consistent since the announcement in March that it would be mostly demolished.

Mark Belton, Restore Christ Church Cathedral group chairman, said the cathedral was as significant as AMI Stadium and the Arts Centre, and deserved similar financial support.

"We shouldn't be baulking at the cost of the cathedral because it's got to be in that league in terms of importance.

"All that's been said so far in the conversation is it could be between $30 million and $100 million. That's minor relative to those other projects, yet for many people in the city it's much more important."

Mr Belton's group is supported by a petition signed by 100 members of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering.

Structural engineer Andrew King, who is one of the signatories, said that proper consideration had not been given to the cathedral's status as an icon: "Economically it's debatable but money is replaceable, whereas an icon of this sort isn't."

Sources

• The Press
• Image: anglicantaonga

The church's decision to reduce the building to 2 to 3 metres in height because of severe damage in a number of earthquakes has caused vehement debate.

Parker's view is that cathedral authorities must take a lead in developing plans for a rebuild of the cathedral. He said that some of the building seemed to have survived the earthquakes sufficiently so that they could be taken to pieces carefully and rebuilt as they were.

He suggested that the fallen western spire could be reconstructed taller, while parts of the old spire could be kept as a memorial.

Architect Sir Miles Warren is a member of the cathedral's Canons Almoner. He said he was in agreement with the decision to demolish the cathedral. He also said that it was "unfortunate" the church had not offered a vision for rebuilding.

Bishop of Christchurch Victoria Matthews said that said no decision had yet been made about how the new cathedral would look, but that safety would be of the highest priority.

Sources

• Stuff
• Christchurch Press
• Televised Cathedral Debate Confirmed
• Image: Anglican Life

Bishop of Christchurch Victoria Matthews said the proposal could help make the earthquake-damaged Square "welcoming and engaging" again.

She spoke about the idea during the visit of the Australian governor-general to Christchurch.

"One conversation that's just beginning is to do a Re:Start here [in the Square] and having a giant movie screen, [and] artificial beach and trying to bring people into a place that has actually caused fear to make it welcoming and engaging again," Matthews said.

The project would be similar to City Mall's Re:Start shopping area, she said.

The future of the Christchurch cathedrals is unclear and those making the decisions are still awaiting further information from the experts assessing the damage and calculating the cost of rebuilding.

It would take 60 stonemasons three years to rebuild the Catholic Cathedral in Christchurch and the wages bill could be up to $40 million.

Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament leaders are still considering whether to restore the quake-damaged building for about $100m or build a new cathedral for about $40m. The earthquakes have badly damaged the cathedral and much of the building has been taken down.

Anglican Bishop Victoria Matthews says engineering reports on the building would be received by the Anglican diocese early in March and peer-reviewed by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority and the Historic Places Trust.

"I don't know what I will be told when I get all these reports.

"I don't know if it will be black and white or shades of grey. If there is a difference of opinion, it will take longer," she said.

"Structurally, it is in bad shape, but I am not a structural engineer. We don't know what the report is going to say".

Source

• Stuff.co.nz - Catholic Cathedral
• Stuff.co.nz - Anglican Catherdral
• Image: AnglicanJournal.com