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Acting Dean ChristChurch

ChristChurch Transitional Cathedral – the Cardboard Cathedral

I have accepted as God’s call the request from The Bishop of Christchurch, Bishop Peter Carrell, to be the Acting Dean (Christchurch, New Zealand) from 1 May to 30 November 2023.

I retired at the end of 2021 after city and rural parish ministry and a quarter of a century as a secondary school chaplain. Since this retirement, I have had the privilege of being Priest in Charge of St Michael and All Angels, and I was delighted to be the keynote speaker in January at a clergy conference in Queensland, Australia, where I presented three addresses on Desert Spirituality.

On Sunday, 26 March, Dean Lawrence Kimberley announced his resignation.

After a post-Christchurch earthquakes period where Christ’s College hosted the cathedral community in the Christ’s College Chapel (during the time when I was Chaplain there), the cathedral continued its life from 2013 in The Cardboard Cathedral on Latimer Square.

The Cardboard Cathedral, formally called the Transitional Cathedral, is one of the first post-Christchurch-earthquakes buildings. This famous pro-cathedral is designed by Shigeru Ban (read more here). The quake-damaged cathedral in the Square is being reinstated and recently celebrated the completion of the Stabilisation Phase of the Reinstatement – that means people were able to go inside.

I ask for your prayers as I take up this ministry, and for the life and community of the cathedral, for the reinstatement project of the cathedral in the Square to which this cathedral life will return, for the calling of a new Dean, and for Lawrence and his wife Elizabeth.

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7 thoughts on “Acting Dean ChristChurch”

  1. My prayers are most assuredly with you and Helen. You will certainly be a blessing to the Cathedral community (as Dean Lawrence and Elizabeth have been). And I pray you will find the community to be a blessing to you.

    1. Thanks for your encouragement, Ben. I look forward to being with you also in your role on Chapter. Easter Season Blessings.

  2. Niall Sheridan

    Good to see Bosco! No bother to you at all! Is +Victoria living there or in Canada now?
    Praying for you and your congregation from Ireland!
    +Niall Sheridan.

  3. May Almighty God; the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit continue to order your holy ministry of Word and Sacraments for the benefit of His Church and to His glory! Amen!

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