A Prayer for the People of Christchurch Lent 2012 Reader: O God, Your Son Jesus Christ is our sure and certain hope. In him we place our trust. Assembly: In him we place our trust. Reader: In this time of Lent We pray for the people of Christchurch: For those whose lives were lost; may they know Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Christchurch earthquake’
Number of Parishes reduced from 50 to 24 in Christchurch Diocese
Saturday, February 4th, 2012
Earthquake damage, ageing clergy and smaller congregations have led to a decision which will see the number of parishes reduced from 50 to 24 in the Christchurch diocese The new parishes are larger and often involve a single priest holding services at more than one church. Christchurch Catholic Bishop Barry Jones said the reduction would “cause some Read more
Blessed Sacrament Cathedral – Tabernacle doors missing
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Missing: Two bronze doors. Possibly stolen, or possibly not.
Christchurch’s Catholic Cathedral has misplaced the tabernacle doors valued at $185,000, after they were removed from the 106-year-old earthquake-damaged building for safekeeping.
The only problem is the board of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament doesn’t know who has them.
Read the article...Cera’s cathedral order shocking, says bishop
Friday, December 16th, 2011Anglican Bishop Victoria Matthews says she was shocked by a government order giving 10 days to come up with plans to make Christ Church Cathedral safe.
Matthews said the notice from the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) on October 28 came “out of the blue”.
The order, known as a section 38 notice, gives building owners 10 days to advise Cera of plans to make earthquake-damaged buildings safe.
“Two property people came to my door and said they needed to see me right now and we have been told this has been issued and we have 10 days. From that point, a bit more time was negotiated,” Matthews said this week.
Read the article...Tensions rise over Christchurch Cathedral rebuild
Friday, December 16th, 2011Tensions are mounting over the future of the Anglican Christchurch Cathedral.
There are two very different schools of thought – those who want the original stone building faithfully reconstructed, and the others, led by Bishop Victoria Matthews, who are pushing for a much more modern design.
Bishop Matthews says the Cathedral is just one of dozens of Anglican churches in need of repair work, but her insistence that it will never look the same is angering some within the church establishment who argue that a failure to return the church to the way it was would be throwing away history.
Haydn Rawstron is a member of the cathedral’s Canons Almoner group, which includes high-profile supporters of the church. He says the Cathedral is too iconic to be rebuilt in a different design.
Read the article...Restore or rebuild – crunch time for Christchurch Cathedrals
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
The Catholic and the Anglican Churches are facing some tough decisions about the future of their Christchurch Cathedrals – restore the old ones or build new ones. The Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament leaders are considering whether to restore the building for more than $100m or build a new cathedral for about $40m. “I am still 50-50. Read more
Dean quit after bishop ‘made position untenable’
Friday, December 9th, 2011Dean Peter Beck’s position was made “untenable” by Bishop Victoria Matthews as they clashed over the future of Christ Church Cathedral, senior Anglican figures say.
Beck announced his resignation from the cathedral on Wednesday to contest a Christchurch City Council seat in a by-election.
A senior member of the cathedral broke ranks yesterday, criticising Matthews and questioning if she should remain as bishop.
Read the article...Increased insurance premiums about to hit like a tsunami
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
Expected increased insurance premiums for historic Dunedin churches have been likened to a “tsunami about to hit”. Dunedin diocese’s general manager Stuart Young said parishioners were ultimately the ones who would bear the costs of increased insurance premiums, brought about by the Christchurch earthquakes. “It is a tsunami about to hit us. We face a Read more
Church insurer cancels all policies
Friday, November 25th, 2011
Church insurer Ansvar Insurance, which has insured 75 percent of New Zealand churches, is planning to manage a phased exit from the New Zealand market as a result of the prohibitive cost of reinsurance following the series of earthquakes in Canterbury in 2010 and 2011. In September 2011, Ansvar Insurance has revealed that it would cease writing Read more
Christ Church Cathedral — one step at a time
Friday, November 11th, 2011
Quick! Think Christchurch. What image comes to mind? It will be different for us all, but they’ll be some common ones. The Avon, the Chalice in the Square, tree-lined streets, trams, the Port Hills. Perhaps, understandably, it might be a picture of quake damage. But most common of all is likely to be the Cathedral, Read more