The Christchurch Diocese has been providing insurance cover for property to the value of $260 million, and this year’s policy to November 30 cost $379,000. The policy is with Ansvar and expires on November 30. Christchurch diocesan financial administrator Paddy Beban says the diocese was shopping around to see what insurance company and what policy Read more
A legal battle to save Christ Church Cathedral is set to rage on after high-profile Auckland lawyer Mai Chen claimed the demolition order may be unlawful. Campaign group Restore Christchurch Cathedral sought advice from Chen’s firm ChenPalmer to back up action taken by the Great Christchurch Buildings Trust (GCBT), which this month sought a binding Read more
About half of Christchurch Cathedral’s $40 million insurance payout will be spent before the rebuild begins, court documents show. Papers obtained by The Press from a High Court challenge brought by the Great Christchurch Buildings Trust (GCBT) against the building owner, the Church Property Trust (CPT), shows the Anglican diocese expects to retain just $20m Read more
The owners of Christ Church Cathedral were within their powers to order the earthquake-damaged building’s deconstruction, a court has heard. The Great Christchurch Buildings Trust (GCBT) is contesting in the High Court the right of the cathedral’s owner, the Church Property Trust (CPT), to deconstruct the building, claiming the move breaches a 2003 act of Parliament Read more
St Bede’s Old Boy and Bishop of Christchurch, Rev Barry Jones, on Friday 21st of this month led a ceremony to deconsecrate the St Bede’s College Chapel. Its deconsecration and eventual removal is a huge disappointment to the College community and is a result of the Christchurch earthquakes. The chapel has been closed since May 6, Read more
A merger of two Christchurch Catholic primary schools is under discussion. Under the proposal, Dallington’s St Paul’s School, which suffered severe earthquake damage, would form a new school with Our Lady of Fatima at its Mairehau site from 2015. St Paul’s is housed on an Education Ministry site in Champion St until the end of 2013, with Read more
A spokeswoman from St James School, a Catholic integrated school in Christchurch, said she did not envisage the proposed Christchurch shake-up of schools will have an effect because the school’s buildings were owned by the Catholic diocese. ”But we’re feeling very sorry for our colleagues down the road. We’re all in close proximity and it’s Read more
The possibility of Catholic and Anglicans sharing a common super cathedral in Christchurch is being described as nothing but a pipe dream, by Mike Grimshaw, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Canterbury University. “It would be the first ecumenical cathedral in the world, but ‘there is no way it would work”. “High Anglicans might be happy Read more
Jim Anderton, co-chairman of The Great Christchurch Buildings Trust, says that on Tuesday the trust will launch a court action seeking a declaratory judgment, or binding court ruling, to determine whether the church’s decision no to restore the Christchurch Cathedral breached an act of Parliament protecting church buildings. He says legal advice backed by two Read more
Over thirty projects have already received help from the Christchurch Diocese’s Earthquake Recovery Fund. Most recently assistance has been provided to the Parish of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral for a project to identify and support parishioners who have been disadvantaged by the earthquakes and to continue to facilitate a sense of community post parish amalgamation and Read more