As we are coming up to the feast of Saint Joseph (19 March – although the Sunday celebration obviously takes precedence, and many will move the celebration of St Joseph into next week), here is a reflection reblogged: You can imagine Jesus in his teenage years. He’s had his basic, solid education, and now it’s
Above are two of the new central-city buildings going up in post-quake Christchurch – the city whose plan was that we be a “city in a garden“. Even if “soul” is a metaphor for you, I posit that our physical environment affects us. Steel, glass, tilt-slab, reinforced concrete, and the occasional planter box, with hardly
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Today, at 4:30pm, many were expecting to hear the final decision about what would happen to the Christchurch Anglican cathedral in the Square, damaged in the earthquakes that destroyed so much of Christchurch. The Great Christchurch Building Trust have sought to see the building brought back essentially to as it was pre-quakes. The owners, the
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I am absolutely delighted with our Bishop’s announcement last night in her Charge to the diocesan synod that The Rev’d Canon Lawrence Kimberley is Dean-elect of Christchurch. I have known Lawrence and Elizabeth, his wife, for many years. They are amongst my closest friends, especially since my second year of seminary when they arrived at
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Last Saturday I was privileged to concelebrate for a Requiem Mass for Jonathan Mane-Wheoki at St Michael and All Angels. Appropriately, the waka huia with its strong connection to Jonathan was back up after being down since the quakes. Kua hinga te tōtara i Te Waonui a Tāne. This is a Māori saying, “A tōtara
In a city that appears to be being transformed from green and gothic to grey tilt-slab, rectangles and glass, last week’s unveiling of a “living cathedral” concept (image above) for Christchurch’s Cathedral Square I hope will raise the level of architectural discussion in this one-chance-to-get-it-right city’s rebuild. I was recently in Napier, destroyed by 1931
At the Christchurch diocesan synod meeting last weekend, Church Property Trustees (the official owners of the cathedral), announced the decision about the earthquake-damaged cathedral in the Square. Of the three options (1.Restore; 2. Traditional; 3. Contemporary) they have decided that they will build a contemporary replacement. There was a formal question at synod about progress
Christchurch contemporary cathedral Read More »
There is discussion about the lack of participation of liturgists in the design of recent church buildings. There is a call for architects to be more concerned about making buildings that are appropriate spaces for people to worship in – individually and together; and less concerned about winning architectural awards. “The lack of integration between
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