CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, March 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Worshippers at
Christchurch’s “Cardboard Cathedral”, built after the city’s main Anglican
church was heavily damaged in a 2011 earthquake, marked another tragedy
Sunday, praying for victims of Friday’s mosque massacres.
“We learned during the earthquakes that in times of trial it is good to
reach out to each other. It is time to do this again,” Lawrence Kimberley,
dean of the church, told his congregation.
Kimberley called upon the worshippers to help build a “counter-narrative
that leads from fear to trust, from war to peace and despair to hope” in the
wake of the mass shooting by an avowed white nationalist that left 50 Muslims
dead.
“We’re standing in solidarity with the Muslim community. What Jesus is
asking us to do is build a country where everyone knows they are at home,” he
told the gathering of around 100, some wearing green heart stickers as a show
of unity with the city’s Muslims.
Kimberley had hoped to hold an open-air, multi-denominational service
behind the cathedral on Sunday as an act of interfaith solidarity, but put
the plan on hold at the request of police.
“We sought advice about that from the police and the police asked us to
refrain and do that later because it just wouldn’t be helpful for them at
this time,” he explained.
He said the service would now go ahead “when it is safe to do so, to make a
strong show of solidarity for our Muslim brothers and sisters”.
The soaring, modernist wood and glass structure, dubbed the “Cardboard
Cathedral”, was built as a transitional place of worship after the
Christchurch Cathedral was severely damaged in the 2011 quake which killed
185 people.
It has since become one of the most recognisable buildings in the city.