Monument to past

Please, please can we move on from the cathedral rebuild farce. The present Transitional Cathedral is beautiful, unique, and more than adequate for current worship purposes.

I have no idea of its long-term lifespan, but I would much rather see money invested into this than building an entirely new, hugely costly, and currently too-expensive-to-be-built replacement building.

Can we please let the Anglican Church invest its money into much-needed social services for those who are hungry, homeless and desperately struggling.

Can we please stop building a monument to the past, and to the city’s civic ego, and get on with living and supporting life now.

Mark Crozier Murphy, Ōhinetahi

It comes as no surprise that the cost of the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral has blown out to the extent that it has.

As of today the parishes of the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch collectively hold $43.4 million in cash and investments, reserves of $170m and net assets of $255.4m. Finding a significant contribution of the funds needed to complete the reinstatement of the cathedral from the diocese’s own resources should not be a problem, in spite of their own needs.

Some lateral thinking should be applied to grant the $16m that the bishop said he needs to contribute from the church.

As I predicted some years ago, it seems that the ratepayers of Christchurch are going to be expected to contribute further, which will not be well received at this time, given the wealth of the church and the cost of living issues faced by many. Mothballing may in fact be the only answer, but that will see the end of the reinstatement programme altogether. Michael Gousmett, Rangiora