It’s a sad day when a church building reaches the end of its working life. It’s a lot like a death; the stones and structure are remitted to secular use or redevelopment, and at least in New Zealand, the bishop formally returns it “to the common.”

Hope remains that the community of ChristChurch Cathedral will be strengthened and energized by the work that remains to be done; they’ll be looking for a place to use or adapt as a transitional cathedral, and the Bishop of Christchurch urged her flock to keep their eyes on “the mission that matters.” They will literally become “people of the Resurrection.”

Keep the people of Christchurch, New Zealand in your thoughts and prayers. They’ve got a lot of hard but ultimately rewarding work to do.

[Anglican Taonga] The 130-year-old spiritual centerpiece of Christchurch on Nov. 9 was reduced to an ordinary ruin. And all in the space of half an hour.

Up to 350 people gathered in Cathedral Square for the service of deconsecration, the culmination of several months of safety assessments after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in February reduced the cathedral’s spire to rubble and a June 13 jolt caused further damage.

The deconsecration service, led by Diocese of ChristChurch Bishop Victoria Matthews, was attended primarily by members of the cathedral congregation, but a scattering of civic representatives included earthquake minister Gerry Brownlee.

via Episcopal News Service – WORLD REPORT