We do not live in an age of great cathedral building. The skill, training and dedication of the great architects, matched to the confidence and taste of prudent bishops, are a combination which, we have to admit, evades us today. Nonetheless, the natural life of the Church and its continual evolution – sometimes setting out in new directions, at other times reacting to events – mean that new cathedral churches must be designed and built.
A case in point comes from Christchurch, New Zealand, where the previous cathedral was damaged in two devastating earthquakes in the space of less than half a year, between September 2010 and February 2011. The damage to the previous church was significant enough, and the cost and scale of a prospective like-for-like restoration so prohibitive, that by 2019 it had been decided to demolish the surviving ruin, flatten the site and commission a replacement. After years of careful planning, deliberation and no lack of argument, the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch has finally released the design for its new cathedral.
