Dialogue!
New Zealand’s Christ Church Cathedral was irreparably damaged by an earthquake and a diocesan synod motion proposes to knock it down and build “an inspirational cathedral on the current site to the glory of God”. The trouble is, the new structure will be made of inspirational cardboard.
Not everyone is happy about having a cardboard cathedral in the neighbourhood, so various clergy are proposing to have a conversation with the cardboardophobics. This invites a question: which will disintegrate first, the cardboard, institutional Anglicanism or the dialogue?
From here:
The Anglican Church will have a “comprehensive dialogue” with South Islanders on the future of Christ Church Cathedral.
About 300 clergy and lay representatives from the 71 parishes in the Anglican diocese met at a Christchurch synod on Saturday.
A motion was passed unanimously at the meeting to consult with people about the cathedral. The motion stated that the synod “undertakes a comprehensive dialogue process with the citizens of Christchurch, Canterbury, the West Coast and the city council towards determining the future of the city’s Anglican cathedral”.
The motion affirmed the decision that “Christ Church Cathedral will be deconstructed to a safe level”.
The Rev Mike Coleman proposed the section of the motion calling for dialogue.
And yet this “Christian” organization continues to seize buildings from viable Christian congregations who paid for and maintained them, in order to have them sit empty or sell to non-Christians (check St John the Divine – now a Taoist temple).
As I understand it, the “cardboard”building is to be a temporary meaqns of providing a safe place of worship, until a new cathedral is built, hopefully of an earthquake-resistant nature. So why the fuss?
The fuss is that it will be an eyesore for everyone, and will in the end not be “temporay” but will within the 20+ years that it will take to get enough money to construct a proper building become permament.