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A 'sod turning' ceremony took place on the site proposed for the transitional 'cardboard' cathedral during a visit in late April of emergency architect Shigeru Ban. In the midst of considerable media interest a gathering of around 100 witnesses energetic digging by Shigeru, local architect Peter Marshall (Warren and Mahoney), contractor Scott Watson (Naylor Love) and Chair of Cathedral Chapter Anthony Wright. Bishop Victoria Matthews led those present in a short service before blessing the site. Shown in the picture above is project manager Johnny McFarlane (BECA) being interviewed by TV3 news.

The transitional cathedral will be situated on the site of the old St John's Anglican Church, cnr of Hereford and Madras street, in the inner city, about five minutes walk from Cathedral Square.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are supplied weekly to over 450 families through the cathedral's 'Healthy Eating Programme'. Volunteers assist from the community, cathedral and interested businesses. We've enjoyed having staff from TELECOM help with product processing since the beginning of April. Huge thanks to all who help to make this programme a success. Featured in the pic are Telecom staff (first team) Sonia, Karla, Karen, Vicki and Phoenix

Our new office building (actually "borrowed" office building - thanks to the generosity of Christ's College) has been made more visible by the addition of bright signage. This represents a departure from our past colour scheme. The abiding image of the Rose Window however remains. How long we stick with the bold and the bright is not known. Perhaps only for our period of stay here which will probably be brief. Why pink and blue? If you lived in Christchurch you wouldn't need to ask. Our lives are surrounded by so much grey as buildings are leveled following the earthquakes and aftershocks, we'll do anything to try and brighten our lives and the lives of those who may visit or drive by.

The Transitional 'Cardboard' Cathedral is about to become a reality. A ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ signed by Cathedral Chapter, St John’s Anglican Parish and Church property Trustees opens the way for
a 700 seat Cathedral with linked ‘container annex’ to be built on the corner of Madras and Hereford Streets, next to Latimer Square.

The following Media Release made available on Monday April 16 details the project:

Site Confirmed for Transitional Cathedral

An inspirational Transitional Cathedral, using the innovative design by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, will be built on St John’s Latimer Square site, Richard Gray from the Transitional Cathedral Group and Bishop Victoria Matthews jointly announced today.

The temporary structure will serve as a place for community worship and gathering until a new permanent cathedral is built. After this time, the Transitional Cathedral will become the worship centre for the St John’s parish, whose Church, vicarage and hall had to be demolished following the Feb 22^nd quake.

St John’s parish is one of the larger parishes, within the seventy-one parishes that make up the Diocese of Christchurch. Currently over four hundred parishioners meet on a Sunday, at Mairehau High School in the morning and at St. Saviour’s in Sydenham in the evening.

Richard Gray says “This is a very exciting next step for the project. The Transitional Cathedral is a symbol of hope for the future of this city as well as being sustainable and affordable. The Cathedral is confident it will attract interest nationally and internationally drawing additional visitors to the city.”

Bishop Victoria says “I am delighted we have reached this step and I acknowledge the wonderful collaboration between the congregations of the Cathedral and St John’s that has made a Transitional Cathedral possible in the inner city.”

With seating for seven hundred, the building will also provide a venue for concerts, exhibitions, civic and community events, something currently lacking post February 22nd. An ancillary building (linked containers) will sit alongside the Cathedral and include a café and shop along with meeting rooms, amenities and offices.

“The bulk of the money is in hand but there will be further fundraising to meet the costs of building the temporary structure, “ says Mr Gray.  He acknowledged the support of a number of companies including Warren and Mahoney, Holmes Consulting, Beca, The George Hotel, Sonoco (cardboard tube manufacturer) and Air New Zealand, who had generously sponsored the project to date. A feasibility study was conducted with a $50,000 donation from the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust.

The building, which incorporates the use of cardboard tubes as well as timber beams, structural steel and a concrete pad, will be durable and is intended to last well over twenty years. It is the largest ‘emergency structure’ to be designed by Shigeru Ban who, with the support of associate architect Yoshie Narimatsu, has contributed his time free of charge and gifted the building’s design to the Cathedral, Diocese and city.

Warren and Mahoney will shortly commence the detailed design for the Transitional Cathedral and it is anticipated the building will be completed by December 2012. Architect, Shigeru Ban hopes to be in Christchurch on April 22^nd and 23rd for the first turning of the soil on the site at the corner of Hereford and Madras Streets.

ENDS

More information along with artists renderings of the project may be viewed in the following document:

The design of the Transitional Cathedral is deceptively simple. It is an A-frame structure based on a concrete foundation, stabilised with shipping containers. Shigeru Ban reports that the A-Frame is the most stable shape for buildings in earthquake zones. The roofline rises and the building narrows towards the sanctuary, creating a beautiful interior view of the waves of cardboard columns as they bow towards the altar. This is intended to welcome and draw people in. The liturgical space is extremely flexible – there is no fixed seating (the pews in the model are intended for scale only). The body of the Cathedral seats 500, and there is further space for 200 in a ‘landing area’/ atrium at the entrance end of the Cathedral. This is the space where it is anticipated that hospitality will be provided. Shigeru Ban has designed smaller container-spaces
lined with cardboard tubes accessed by ‘wave-like’ cardboard doors, and with ceiling funnels to allow natural light.

The building is based on the proportions of the nave of the original Cathedral. It is contextual, resembling in shape wharenui on a marae. It also nods to our heritage: the first church in the city was a simple A-frame, erected near the Avon on Lichfield Street in January 1851. The Transitional Cathedral will seat 700 people, and has a projected lifespan of well over20 years. Urbis magazine has said, “The design is...
stunning. Built, I imagine this project would have the quiet spirituality and beauty of many other towering stone cathedrals, albeit in a completely different, contemporary, way.”
http://urbismagazine.com

Back to Church Sunday this year has been cancelled. I’m not complaining. Laudable though its aims may be, its title is a turn-off, as well as a serious challenge which many parishes are not equipped to deal with.

Turn-off? Because going “back” to church isn’t an option for those who were never there to begin with.

Serious challenge? Because even if people did come back to a church which they left years ago, would they be able to relate to what they encountered during the worship? Would they even recognize the institution “church” which encouraged them to come back and try again?

To achieve its aims, the Back to Church campaign would need to connect the lapsed to worship that many of them would find either too contemporary (“I left when they got rid of the BCP”) or too old-fashioned and sombre (“why can’t we sing modern songs and enjoy our worship?”)

A Back to Church campaign will not work, unless coming back to church is a positive experience for those who’ve been persuaded to take the risk. And there’s our church’s challenge.

A more kingdom-building focus would be a Back to the Community campaign - the church returning to the High Street, where it always should be.

“Back to Church” sounds like the slogan of a maintenance culture. “Back to the Community” locates the church in the context of its mission.

The five elements of the 1986 and 1990 ACC Mission Statement (proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God, teaching, baptizing and nurturing new believers, responding to human need by loving service, transforming unjust structures, safeguarding the integrity of creation) all have an outward thrust – from the community of faith, out into God’s multi-cultural, multi-faith, angst-ridden, but still hopeful world.

A church that is not visible in these transformative works of faith, is not going to be the place where people want to come back to. Unless the church is visible, tangible and real out in the community, it shrinks into a worship club.

In a curious but powerful way, the Canterbury earthquakes have challenged the churches to re-assess how they see their mission to their local communities.

In times of natural disaster, do people react by streaming “back” to the churches? In my experience, no they don’t – but they are more likely to consider doing so, or engaging with at least some aspects of church life, if the church in their locality has taken a step or two in their direction.

Some Christchurch parishes have been busily taking such steps: providing meals, supplies of water, donating funds, food, heaters, clothing and furniture. In these practical ways, Christ’s love is being made known in hurting and anxious neighbourhoods.

Once the sense of immediate crisis is over – as it seems to be now – what will happen to all this generous energy? In Kaiapoi, the most destructive quake happened a year ago (4 September).

Crisis has given way in the town to weariness, prolonged anxiety, and day-to-day struggle. Householders battle with cold, leaky and damaged homes, and have to continue waiting for final certainty about the future of their land and houses.

Over 700 homes are due to be demolished, and many will almost certainly have to be rebuilt on a different site, in another part of town. The temporary housing village in the Kaiapoi Domain has received few tenants. At the time of writing, only 5 houses out of 22 have been occupied, though this may change when the red zones are finally announced.

The council is charging market rates for the rental, not wishing to undercut the local rental economy. But this may stop these houses being an option for some families, especially those still struggling to pay a mortgage of their damaged homes.

Identity and mission

How can churches continue to reach out to the community in the longer-term? For if they do not, their lack of action may reinforce a popular perception that the church is anachronistic, ineffective and irrelevant.

This perception challenges the churches to reappraise both their identity and their mission. The Kaiapoi churches have, in some aspects, worked to co-ordinate their response.

After the June earthquakes, for some weeks there was a roster of drop-in centres hosted by the local churches, where refreshments were provided and people called in to seek company and talk about the latest problems. Most churches are also providing volunteers, so that when the Waimakarariri District Council needs to send out door-knockers to assess local needs and pass on the latest earthquake-related information, the churches come to the party.

This visiting programme is being organised by Rev. Ken Light, whose retirement has now taken a new direction! Anglicans provide the greatest number of door-knockers, just as they came to the fore, from all over North Canterbury, during the weeks of crisis after September 4.

Local people have seen an on-going Christian presence in their midst. A huge amount of visiting is being done.

Transport is provided for those without; food still flows into the local foodbank, community meetings have a visible church representation, and churches work to connect struggling people to the district council, social welfare services, counselling, the foodbank, childcare centres, and other places where the community meets for mutual energizing and support. And of course a good deal of prayer is being offered, around the needs and hopes of local people.

It has taken a series of earthquakes to achieve this community-facing focus. But the connections we are making between church and community may fade, as people become more tired, and increasingly concerned with their own particular anxieties.

We will have to look not only at our community-facing ministry, but at the suitability of our church buildings for the needs of the 21^st and 22^nd centuries. A debate is already brewing up on the future use and shape of the cathedral, in whatever permanent form it may take, once the “cardboard cathedral” has fulfilled its purpose.

Should parts of the cathedral be available for ecumenical worship or other use? For parishes that will have to rebuild their churches and halls and offices, this discussion is of huge relevance.

Many halls were designed for a vanished age of parish dances and concerts. Many churches were designed for formal worship, without too much concern for adequate comfort, light, warmth, or flexible space.

What sort of churches will people want to come “back” to?

The opportunity has been thrust upon us, to re-design our worship and hospitality space, to support the main hopes behind the “Back to Church” initiative. But it’s clear that the initiative, if it is to grow our shrinking church, needs also to step purposefully towards the community.

Written Sep 3, 2011 (Anglican Taonga) by Rev Dr Geoff Haworth, Vicar of Kaiapoi and a Canon of ChristChurch Cathedral.

When I was 20 I took a year off university, and I spent most of it working on a dairy farm in the Outer Hebrides. The work was hard, and the village was small and Gaelic-speaking and didn’t encourage strangers, so when I had time off I would try to escape. I would take the ferry across the Minch and then hitch a ride on a van, wedged in the back between sacks of mail or boxes of herring. I’d wanted to get as far away as
possible from twitching net curtains, and copies of the Sunday papers and wall to wall carpets and tea at five o’clock. My favourite places were Letterewe and the moors of Caithness and Sutherland – vast, desolate areas with nothing in them – no roads, no bridges, no farms; empty of everything but rough mountain slopes and rivers that needed a rope and a strong stomach to ford them. I would stand at the edge of an area like this with the prospect of meeting no one for days, of having no contact with the outside world, and carrying everything I needed with me on my back, and my heart would rise with sheer exhilaration.
I found something unexpected when I got back. My impressions of a wild place as somewhere remote, unmarked, history-less seemed to me now to be only part of the story. There was another type of wildness that I had been blind to: the wildness of natural life, the force of nature, vigorous and chaotic. The weed in the crack of the pavement was a wild sign. It was as if I had learned to see again. These days, we often have a romantic attraction to wilderness, but in the Bible wilderness isn’t for tourists; it’s a place of isolation and death. You enter it at your own risk, because it’s infested with demons and apparently without God.
To be in the “wild” is where you can get lost and die alone. This is the root of our word “bewildered.” It goes back to the terror of being lost. In the lethal hall of mirrors described in the Gospel of Luke, the devil tempts Jesus to claim what is rightfully his as beloved of God: He is tempted by food, he’s tempted to claim his authority, there’s the temptation to prove that he’s really safe after all. When Jesus quotes scripture in reply, perhaps he is not the clever rabbi, but rather the lost child who clings to the only presence of God in this dreadful place.

Our forty days of Lent begin and end in a wilderness, from the dialogue with the devil to the final bewilderment of loneliness on the cross. Western institutional religion for good reason domesticated spirituality of the wilderness. The Rule of Benedict was especially written to prevent individual heroics and failures; lives of the desert saints were collected as a sort of spiritual safari to view the marvels of the resident big game hunters. When at the Reformation lay people finally got theirn hands on the Bible, holy wisdom became encased in preaching and morality. Yet, no system protects us from life. As I discovered when I returned from
the wilderness to the pavement, we live daily in the midst of the same vitality, unpredictability, and regeneration of natural life. We can be lost and found or live or die anywhere. We’re in a wilderness, but we are not alone. The best spiritual practices aren’t about separating us from our world, but parting us from the habits that cause us to limit or doubt the divine presence. Finding God in the wilderness is finding God everywhere we are afraid or lost. Bewilderment then can be an excellent preparation for Holy Week, our yearly collective meditation on why bad things happen to good people and how we can possibly embrace events we don’t choose or understand. All our liturgies from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday warn us to look within and without at brokenness and deliberate harm. Faith is about the courage to love when your heart is breaking, the determination to hope when all the news is bad. The true foundation of our maturing spiritual lives, the true ground of our heartfelt and honest prayers, are the wilderness times which still live within our souls — where we survived and found unexpected grace.

Ven Lynda Patterson

Media release – 2.00pm Friday 2 March 2012

Decision Reached on the Christchurch Cathedral

The Church Property Trust and Standing Committee of the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch has reached a final decision on the works to be undertaken on the Christchurch Cathedral, further to receipt of the Section 38 Notice from CERA and following the exacerbation of existing damage to the building on December 23rd. Bishop Victoria Matthews announced today that the Cathedral will be carefully deconstructed down to a level of approximately 2-3 metres in order to meet safety requirements and allow the safe retrieval of taonga and heritage items which can then be stored and protected until decisions about a new Cathedral are made.
" The Cathedral will be deconstructed with the utmost care and respect while at the same time protecting the treasures within its walls - there will be no bulldozers or wrecking balls, on the job," said Bishop Victoria.
"We acknowledge the high level of community interest and sense of ownership as the Cathedral was both an iconic building and a place of regular worship by many. However, this is now a very dangerous building that needs to be made safe. Our priority is also to ensure people working on-site are safe - in fact if anyone had been in the building on December 23rd they would have been put at a great risk of serious injury or worse."
"We are also mindful that since December 23, the context of our decision making has changed given the further deterioration of the building and the risk of further seismic events, according to the geotechnical experts.
"The Anglican Diocese is facing a hard reality - the Cathedral is the revered "MotherChurch" but is not the only church in the Diocese to have sustained damage, in some cases irreparable or too costly to repair." Cost considerations have been a factor in the collective decision-making by the Church Property Trust and Standing Committee due to the significant shortfall in expected insurance monies. Currently, the Trust has estimated a $20-$30million shortfall over the whole Anglican Diocese, which does not include the potential cost of any future damage. In regard to the Cathedral specifically, the sums are staggering. A replica Cathedral has been ruled out due to an estimated $100 million shortfall, while a new build incorporating some of the old would incur a shortfall of up to $50million. " We would not be responsible stewards if we ignored the financial realities - in this respect we are facing a similar challenge as the Roman Catholic Diocese," said Bishop Victoria.
"We are now looking to the future and creating a beautiful, inspiring, safe new Cathedral but we understand it will take some time for any of these decisions to be made. Meanwhile, we are committed to establishing a Transitional Cathedral in the central city to bring hope to Christchurch and provide a much-needed venue where the community can pray, reflect and gather for worship."
Questions and Answers

What was the decision making process?
The Cathedral Project Team (that includes representatives from the Cathedral Chapter, Church Property Trustees, Standing Committee and Cathedral staff, as well as consulting experts in specialist areas such as engineering and heritage) put together this recommendation for consideration by the Cathedral Chapter. It was then voted on by Standing Committee and Church Property Trustees.
Definitions:
Standing Committee: A committee of elected members of the Diocese – both clergy and non-clergy.
Church Property Trustees: Oversee the Trust that owns all Anglican Diocese of Christchurch properties.
Cathedral Chapter: The council who administers the Cathedral. All these groups are unpaid and voluntary.
Why is this decision happening now?
This decision is required to address the Section 38 notice under the Act administered by CERA.
How long will the process take?
We anticipate completing the works by the end of the year. The actual length of time will depend on progress of the deconstruction and controlled demolition works but the sequence is likely to be as follows: an initial two months retrieving stained glass windows and protecting heritage items, then developing and tendering detailed methodology to CERA followed by 6-8 months deconstruction and controlled demolition works.
What is the financial situation?
In regards to insurance, even with the best possible payout scenario there will still be a substantial and significant shortfall in financing a new Cathedral. Ansvar, the insurer for all the church properties in Christchurch, left New Zealand at the end of 2011. The Church Property Trust is still in discussion with Ansvar but their departure has made discussions more prolonged.
What is happening with donations for the Cathedral?
There is a specific Cathedral fund and the money is kept separate from other Diocesan business.
Why is the Diocese spending money doing this work on the Cathedral?
It is not responsible to leave a building in such an unsafe situation. We are responsible for the building so we are required to make the building safe and clearly we do not want anyone to be injured on the site. The building was insured and the insurance money is allocated to this work and cannot be used for other things.
What other buildings has the Diocese also been dealing with in this same time period?
The Diocese of Christchurch is a large diocese and many churches have sustained damage or become dangerous because of the seismic activity that has happened over the last eighteen months. We are very concerned that no one is injured by a church property. Over 25 worship centres have been closed. Five churches have had to be demolished or will be very shortly, along with a number of chapels. A number of these
decisions have had to be made since the December 23 quakes. Significantly St Maryʼs in Timaru, the largest stone parish church in the Diocese, has had to be closed and it is possible with ongoing seismic activity, more may have to be closed for safety. All of these buildings are dearly loved by their parishioners and local communities.
What has been saved from the Cathedral already?
Quite a number of items have already been retrieved including: the eagle from the lectern, the Tukutuku panels, a number of the flags that were hung in the cathedral including the blue ensign from one of the first four ships, the Charlotte Jane and Girls Brigade and Boys Brigade flags. Choral groups organ from the chancel, cathedral choir music, carved stone head from the Pacific chapel, war grave cross from Flanders, chalices (used during communion) and the pounamu door from the aumbry (in the sanctuary of the church used to keep the wafers and wine for communion once they have been blessed).
What are you hoping to save from the cathedral?
Some of the significant heritage items and taonga that we are still hoping to retrieve are: the stained glass windows, Bishop Harperʼs effigy, the organ, the remains of the pulpit and the memorial stones and panels along the walls.
What of the Miyamoto proposal?
The context in which Miyamoto gave an opinion on the Cathedral, has changed since the events of 23 December and the further damage sustained by the cathedral. The Cathedral is now closed due to the danger it poses to human safety.
Why has no international expertise been sought?
Our engineering consultancy, Holmes, are expert and know all there is to know about the Cathedral given their long association with us and the building over the last decade. Over this time, they have gained not only a deep knowledge but a great affection for the Cathedral and we have the utmost confidence in their work.
What does “controlled demolition” actually mean?
The demolition of a building in a manner that allows for the careful removal of some elements that can then be stored for either incorporation in a future building or stored for other possible conservation projects. Conventional demolition of a building does not allow for this.
When will the public be allowed access to the site?
At this stage we do not know when that will be. The future Cathedral works are only part of a number of building demolitions that are still to happen in the Square and these will also be a factor as to when the public can have access to the area.
Are there any plans to build a new Cathedral on the same site?
The preference would be to build on the current site. However, as with all sites in the central city, including the Christchurch Cathedral, safety is the first priority and further investigations would need to be undertaken as part of the future design process.

The Spirituality of Hymns. The hymns of the church are theology retold softly. They are the church’s lyrical, theological commentaries on Scripture, liturgy, faith, action, and hosts of other subjects which call us to live life faithfully. They shape our personal beliefs almost unconsciously. In this Lent series, we’ll think about the theology of hymns – good or bad, perceptive or trite, wellmeaning or wrong-headed – and how they inspire devotion and shape our Christian practice.
26th February: 11am: Lynda Patterson “When I survey the wondrous cross.”
11th March: 11am: Rosalie Hoddinott “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind”
18 March: 11am: Brian Thomas
25 March: 11am: Bosco Peters “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy”

At the most recent Synod, ministry units in the Diocese were asked to produce a Mission Action Plan, which is a statement about our future ministry aspirations and directions. On Sunday 5 February,  a special Regulars’ Forum was held after the 11.00am service, to discuss our hopes and plans for the future of the Cathedral. The following three questions were considered:
1. What is unique or distinctive about the mission and ministry of our Cathedral?

2. Of the current ministries we undertake, what is important to keep and what should we reconsider?

3. Are there new directions in ministry we could explore?

Have your say by clicking HERE.