Christchurch Bishop fears her clergy face "exhaustion of spirit" following tremors
A series of aftershocks that hit Christchurch, New Zealand, on June 13 has left about 50,000 people without water and electricity and caused the total collapse of some buildings.
Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, already damaged from the devastating Feb. 22 earthquake, lost its rose window and more of its masonry. Bishop of Christchurch, Victoria Matthews says she fears her clergy are facing “exhaustion of spirit”.
“People are tired. They have been more than magnificent. Let me say that clearly.
“But I am hearing of a deep weariness of the soul, and I'm having to ask people to reach deep into their resources to meet yet another crisis.
“The churches that have stepped up to the plate, and been magnificent so many times before, will have to do it all over again. Because we have got to keep looking after the people of God.
“I'm watching people's eyes, and hearing their words very carefully, and I've been saying to some: 'You know, you've got to get out and away for a month.'
“And they say: ‘Yes. You're right. I do.’ But after yesterday, getting them to do that is going to be more difficult. Because they are going to want to be with their people.
“That's the story that is front page for me.
“I was talking to an elderly man the other day who’d lived through war, and been evacuated six times in his life. He knows the drills, so to speak.
“But the people who are actually at the front line now... we don't.
“We are a generation who have never been through a war, never lived through a sustained, critical period like this. That makes it really difficult.”
As a young woman, Bishop Victoria twice served three-month stints in Haiti - and while she was there, she lived through a military coup.
While the politics couldn’t be more different, she says the turmoil in Haiti she experienced then was the best preparation she’s had for leading the Diocese of Christchurch through the crises it faces now.
She also says that the destruction of the cathedral’s rose window has significant implications.
“It raises the question yet again about whether we need to deconsecrate (the cathedral), and take it right down – but that question has not been answered yet.
“The rose window was, in a sense, the icon of the icon.
“It was the trademark. The logo. Call it whatever you will, it was the one piece, the people of the cathedral said, that they would move to whatever a new Cathedral looked like. That would go with them.
“But it won't now.”
For some other churches, the recent quakes were the coup de grace.
“Holy Trinity Lyttelton is right down,” she says. “The roof is now on the ground. We knew that we were probably looking at demolition there, but that's now been done.
“St Luke's, which has been deconsecrated, is now very precarious. I think we will have to move to demolition there as soon as possible.”
While the historic stone church at St John's Latimer Square, which had already been deconsecrated, has suffered more damage.
“We need prayer," says Bishop Victoria. "We need prayer, because we are beyond running on our own strength."