Fear of a brick bell tower crushing worshippers if an earthquake should strike has ended services at a Wellington church.

The latest Christchurch earthquake was the “final straw” in deciding to close All Saints Church in Ngaio, Onslow Anglican parish vicar Archdeacon Monty Black said.

“People were looking at ways of how to get out of the building in the event of the earthquake, which was rather distracting them from worship.”

Engineers deemed the 1928 brick building, in particular the tower, a serious earthquake risk. The final Eucharist was celebrated on March 20.

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At 12.51 we were witnesses to the loss of lives: infants and pensioners; kiwis and internationals; residents and visitors; language students and teachers; parents, sisters, brothers, friends and colleagues.

We, the survivors, witnessed the life-changing moments of all those who were injured badly.

We who were ordered to walk home knew emergency crews were fighting to save lives and free the trapped.

We heard the sirens and we saw the smoke. And we know there are those who are still missing. Our hearts go out to those who wait.

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The Maori call it upoko runaka, the farewell for the dead. In Christchurch yesterday, they said, it was also much more: a ritual to heal a broken city, and to reconnect its people with the earth that has so hurt them.

It began with local tribal chief Maurice Gray, in a black suit and holding a tokotoko, a staff carved with his family’s history that is symbolic of his authority as an elder.

He strode into an intersection lined with dignitaries and emergency workers and brandished the tokotoko at a small pile of broken masonry collected from shattered buildings in the heart of the city.

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An annual conference of Anglican bishops in Newcastle has been told the church is even more relevant during times of natural disasters.

The past few months has been described as an ‘onslaught of disaster’ with the Queensland floods, West Australian fires and New Zealand’s double tragedies of the Pike River mine disaster and Christchurch earthquake.

Newcastle Bishop, Brian Farran says in Brisbane, unaffected parishes were critical in providing support to those in the flood zone.

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Worshippers gathered outdoors on Sunday (Feb. 27) after an earthquake ravaged New Zealand’s second-largest city, meeting in unfamiliar churches and next to damaged buildings to reflect, pray, mourn and give thanks.

The death toll from the Feb. 22 quake reached 147 on Sunday, and is expected to double as dozens were trapped in wreckage. The entire central city was cordoned off as hundreds of rescuers continue to find bodies in the rubble.

“It’s going to be a very poignant day for a lot of our people today, as they reflect … on our values,” Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker wrote in the New Zealand Herald. “It’s a day of everybody reaching out. We need to keep our spirits up.”

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Christchurch is broken and will never be the same, and people would need to offer strength and support to each other for ”many, many months”, a minister told his flock.

”We need to be kind to one another, and patient with one another,” he said.

Reverend Mark Chamberlain, the vicar of St Barnabas Anglican Church in Fendalton Road, told about 250 people gathered in chilly morning shade outside the cracked and unsafe 1925 stone church yesterday that when he was appointed, ”I never dreamed of being called upon to lead you in your grief”.

”I’m just beginning to realise the depth of that grief.”

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From the BBC Programme introduction:

It was Christchurch’s second major tremor in five months, and New Zealand’s deadliest natural disaster for 80 years. As the death toll from last week’s earthquake continues to rise, Victoria Matthews, the Anglican Bishop of Christchurch talks to Edward about how the shattered community are trying to rebuild their lives.

The interview starts one minute in–listen to it all (a little over 4 3/4 minutes).

Church leaders in Christchurch, New Zealand, are ministering to the population of the city after the fatal earthquake on Tuesday, which left hundreds of people trapped under rubble, and caused the spire of the Anglican Cathedral to collapse.

This morning, the number of deaths stood at 113, with more than 200 people reported missing. It was the second earthquake to hit Christchurch in six months (News, 10 September). It measured 6.3 on the Richter scale, less than the 7.1-magnitude tremor in September last year, which happened at night, without loss of life. This week’s earthquake was more devastating, as it occurred at 1 p.m., when many people were out and about.
The Bishop of Christchurch, the Rt Revd Victoria Matthews, has called on Christchurch residents to “be calm, be sensible, be compassionate, be a good neighbour” in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.

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Edmonton’s Anglicans are being asked for prayers, not dollars, in the aftermath of an earthquake in New Zealand that damaged the Christchurch cathedral and left hundreds of people trapped under rubble.

The disaster area is the home of Victoria Matthews, former bishop of Edmonton’s diocese who is currently the archbishop of Christchurch. Matthews and her staff are safe and working in a “surreal” situation, supporting people affected by the tragedy, said Jane Alexander, who succeeded Matthews as Edmonton’s bishop.

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Listen to it all (a little under 3 1/2 minutes).

With a parish base of about 45 families, St Paul’s holds a Holy Communion service at 10am on Sundays, a midweek Holy Communion service at 10am on Wednesdays, and small “intimate” services at 8am and 7pm on Sundays.

“One of the things we did not anticipate is the number of people who come to St Paul’s in times of transition,” Mr Nicolson says.

“Sometimes they are new migrants, or people in times of emotional or personal crisis.

“The ministry of this place is significant to people in transition, and we have a range of cultures that worship.”

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The Auckland service will be led by Anglican Church and Catholic Church leaders and will feature representatives from other faiths and the wider Auckland community.

“At times like this, it is important for the community to come together to remember those who have been lost and support those left behind,” says Anglican Bishop of Auckland, the Right Reverend Ross Bay.

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A historic Anglican chapel damaged in Canterbury’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake was hastily deconsecrated before being torn down.

The chapel, at Christchurch’s Churchill Court aged care facility, suffered irreparable damage in Saturday’s devastating quake.

Bishop Victoria Matthews said she had almost no warning that the chapel had to be demolished.

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Almost 100 parishes across the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne will take part in Back to Church Sunday (BTCS) on 12 September.

“The idea is that through a personal invitation to a friend or acquaintance those who have stopped attending church will return,” explained Paul White, Bishop of the Southern Region, who is co-ordinating Back to Church Sunday for the Diocese.

The theme of the day is ‘Come as you are’, designed to reassure guests that they are welcome in church without expectations and without feeling they have to measure up to a particular standard.

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It took less than a minute for years of restoration work on St Mary’s Church in Timaru to be damaged, with the region’s places of worship taking a big hit in Saturday’s earthquake.

Four churches around South Canterbury were damaged in the 7.1 shake and remain closed, with services held at alternative venues yesterday.

St Mary’s Church tower took the brunt of the quake with one of the four pinnacles on the top of the tower crashing to the ground.

St Mary’s Church restoration trust chairman Ray Bennett said he was alerted to the damage after the fire service called and said the three other pinnacles would have to come down because they were not stable.

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This includes an example of some of what has occurred to church structures–watch it all.

Jo Kelly-Moore, 42, was welcomed as the new Anglican Dean of Auckland at a service at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell.

Family and friends watched as she was brought in by parishioners of St Aidan’s Anglican Church in Remuera, where she has been a vicar since 2004.

She is the first woman to be made an Anglican dean in Auckland, and the second woman to be made an Anglican dean in New Zealand’s history.

The first female and current dean of the Waiapu Anglican Cathedral in Napier is The Very Reverend Helen Jacobi.

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The Anglican churches in Australia and New Zealand are hosting Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori for an informal two-week visit to the two provinces.

“I’m to speak with people there about their conversations around human sexuality and also about their missionary development work — not in the sense of finances but in the sense of leadership development and theological education,” Jefferts Schori told members of Executive Council during their June 16-18 meeting in Maryland. “We’re also going to have a conversation about the work that they’re doing around the Millennium Development Goals, and, obviously, our relationships within the Anglican Communion.”

Neva Rae Fox, the Episcopal Church’s program officer for public affairs, said the trip, which has been in the planning stages for more than a year, is all about building relationships.

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Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia media officer Lloyd Ashton said she was a controversial visitor. “Nobody makes any bones about the fact that she does represent tension. From the outset, her visit has always been intended as low key, informal and unofficial.

“There is not going to be an endorsement of where the…[Episcopal] Church is going. We have got our own process, we are working through that and it will be at least two years before that is complete.

“We are not hiding it, but neither are we exacerbating any tensions by making a statement … It is an acknowledgement that there are sensitivities both ways.”

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In the past the Archbishop of Canterbury has acknowledged indirectly that he has this authority. When he wrote the Primates in December 2006 concerning the upcoming meeting in Dar es Salaam, Archbishop Williams advised them that: “I have decided not to withhold an invitation to Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the elected Primate of the Episcopal Church to attend the forthcoming meeting. I believe it is important that she be given a chance both to hear and to speak and to discuss face to face the problems we are confronting together.” He indicated in this letter that this was his decision based on open questions about TEC’s response to the Windsor Report. Those questions have now been conclusively answered by TEC, and a different decision is now required if the Communion is to survive.

Separately, when Ian Douglas was consecrated bishop he was disqualified from membership in the ACC (and its standing committee) since that would give TEC two bishops among its three members, which is not permitted under the ACC constitution. As The Church of England Newspaper reports, both TEC and Douglas take the position that he can be elected in June to the episcopal seat of the retiring Catharine Roskam (who continues to serve under ACC rules until just before the next meeting) and thereby remain on the ACC standing committee. But this result would violate ACC rules, and this position entails in any event the recognition that his current clerical seat has been relinquished by his consecration to the episcopacy. In other words, his seat on the ACC standing committee is already vacant, and he cannot resume that seat if he is elected to Roskam’s seat, which would not take effect until the next ACC meeting in any event under ACC rules (Resolution 4:28). Under the ACC bylaws (Article 7) the standing committee is now required to appoint a clerical member to fill the seat on the standing committee formerly held by Douglas.

Indeed, there is a precisely analogous situation in Canada to that of Douglas and TEC. Stephen Andrews, like Douglas, went to ACC-14 in Jamaica as a clergy member for his first meeting. After ACC-14, Andrews was consecrated bishop by the Anglican Church of Canada. Canada understands that Andrews ceased to be a member of the ACC upon his consecration and therefore that he has now been replaced by his clerical alternate. Indeed, Andrews was elected bishop before ACC-14, but his consecration delayed until after the meeting in Jamaica (we are told) precisely because Canada understood the ACC implications of his consecration. If TEC is permitted to circumvent the ACC rules to keep Douglas on the ACC and its standing committee, especially after the decision to disqualify Uganda’s chosen ACC representative at Jamaica, any remaining trust in the ACC will be lost forever.

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The Anglican Church in these islands has a new Archbishop: Dr Winston Halapua, the new Bishop of Polynesia.

Dr Halapua, who is 64 and a Tongan-born, Fijian citizen living in New Zealand, was announced this morning as the new Bishop of Polynesia. As such, he automatically becomes one of the three Archbishops of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

Dr Halapua’s election was declared at the Anglican General Synod, which is meeting this week in Gisborne, and was greeted with a standing ovation and the presentation of gifts and garlands from Polynesia and gifts from Maori and Pakeha tikanga partners.

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So we are now in a situation where (1) the proposed Covenant establishes a process for suspending Churches from full communion, and (2) Archbishop Rowan has stated that adherence to the traditional position on same-sex unions will be the basis for avoiding such suspension. The Archbishop foreshadows the potential for a “twofold ecclesial reality” (#22). Each Anglican province faces four options:

1. Not to sign the Covenant because it opposes a procedure that will judge and divide, and/or opposes having to affirm only one of two conscientiously held positions. Failure to sign will see a Church suspended from full communion.

2. To sign the Covenant but to face suspension from the Communion if it permits any steps on same-sex unions contrary to the traditional position.

3. To sign the Covenant and adhere exclusively to the traditional position on same-sex unions. This will disenfranchise all who conscientiously hold the other viewpoint, and separate a Church from full communion with any Church that does not sign the Covenant, or transgresses it.

4. To engage with other provinces to collectively abstain from a process which could split the Communion, and to reinvigorate the Anglican way of dialogue in diversity.

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…our own Church’s Constitution in its Preamble (18) already speaks of our being “part of and belong[ing] to the Anglican Communion, which is a fellowship … in communion with the See of Canterbury, sharing with one another … life and mission in a spirit of mutual responsibility and interdependence.”

Indeed, we in Aotearoa New Zealand have already “covenanted with each other … to implement and enrich the principles of partnership” (Preamble 13) among us, given the unique history of our Islands.

The Anglican Communion Covenant has become the necessary tool for establishing an authoritative identity among Anglicans. It grants us the means to continue as a global Church, as a catholic community of churches. Without it, we shall simply fragment into groups of associated bodies, held together by allegiances derived from things less than and even other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ himself.

The question is ours: to sign, or not to sign … May we say clearly, “Sign!” – and that “right soon”.

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Meeting in Gisborne today, the Anglican General Synod invited Professor Doug Sellman from the National Addiction Centre to speak about binge drinking culture.

He put forward a number of solutions to deal with the issue: raising alcohol prices, raising the purchase age, reducing the accessibility to alcohol, reducing marketing and advertising, increasing drink-driving countermeasures and increasing treatment opportunities for heavy drinkers.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change the way we regulate alcohol in society. It is a national crisis and way of life, and you have a role to address what science tells us what needs to be treated as a Class B drug,” he said.

The Synod today backed Prof Sellman’s proposals, and members also voted to increase their own vigilance of alcohol consumption and to hold each other to account.

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“Punitive, controlling and completely un-Anglican” ”“ that’s how Dr Tony Fitchett sees Section 4 of the proposed Covenant.

But even if General Synod were of a mind to toss that section out, holus bolus, now is not the time to do that, he suggested.

While there’s a feeling that the Covenant has been “done to death” and General Synod had the power, making that decision was important enough to warrant using the same mechanisms used for changing the constitution, for example.

He said there’d long been pressure for an instant decision.

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Anglicans meeting in Gisborne have been told to be ambassadors of hope on issues including proposed mining and to help bring solutions to concerns including alcohol abuse. Archbishop David Moxon told delegates to the Anglican General Synod that there is a need for the Church to take a stand on issues and act on beliefs. To be people with a mission, which is a mission of hope.

“There is a need to look in our country for that which is the common good, said Archbishop David Moxon. “Otherwise there is the chance that hope can be lost, and this can result in a kind of coma where huge opportunities and challenges in our society and environment go either unnoticed, or ignored,” said Archbishop Moxon.

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The General Synod will also debate issues including urging the government to place a ban on alcohol advertising. The proposed Anglican Covenant addressing the issue of the ordination of bishops in same sex relationships will also be a discussion for the General Synod but no final decision is expected until the next Synod in 2012.

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The Anglican Bishop of Auckland, The Right Reverend Ross Bay, has welcomed the Law Commission’s Report “Alcohol in our Lives, Curbing the Harm” presented to Parliament this week.

Bishop Bay has long carried a concern about the negative trends in drinking behaviour among some New Zealanders. He considers that the shift to a lower legal age in 1999 has been a big factor in the growing youth alcohol problem. He is supportive of the legal drinking age returning to 20 years.

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We need leaders who know God’s word, not guessing what God might be doing, offering opinions on this or that gospel truth, but going deep into God’s word as a means of grace to shape how we enter the mind of Christ. The crisis we face as a Communion is theological at heart, and needs to be addressed with theological depth.

This is the painful lesson in New Zealand: how damaging it is when the theological education of men and women in ministry brings doubt and confusion, especially in matters where the word of Scripture is clear. And the impact on our churches after more than a generation of such theological education has been devastating.

I read the report to the House Of Bishops in TEC regarding questions of same sex relationships and sexual expression. To be perfectly honest, and speaking personally from an academic perspective, the case put forward to justify same sex blessings and marriage is extraordinary in its treatment of various scriptures. Passages that are actually quite clear are made to say the opposite of their plain meaning. The logic and reasoning is strained and at key points quite incoherent.

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The Anglican church welcomes a new Bishop of Auckland tomorrow when the Very Reverend Ross Bay is ordained at the Cathedral of Holy Trinity in Parnell.

The ordination was expected to attract Anglican church representatives from throughout the country.

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