Friday, September 10, 2010

After the Quake - Friday: adrenalin wearing off, tiredness kicking in

Harder to detect the aftershocks, I think. Statistically there are less of them, and we have not had a repeat of Wednesday morning's shake which shook nerves as much as more bricks out of buildings. Yesterday I saw one of our more badly damaged churches, St Matthew's St Albans. This hasn't featured on the news, partly because the damage is harder to get on camera: nothing has fallen off the exterior, but extensive cracks in structural pillars and beams show a building in trouble, partly because it is not one of our famously beautiful old stone churches. Engineers were busy surveying, assessing whether one corner of the hall is stable or continuing to sink. Liquefaction is the cause there, signified by pools of sand around the building.

Reports coming in tell of amazing work being done by parish clergy and lay people, visiting people, distributing food, and, in some cases, arranging alternative accommodation for those made homeless. But it also sounds like people are getting tired. Please continue your prayers for the people of Canterbury and for all those working to give care and assistance to those in need.

Continue to visit Anglican Taonga for reports and pics. A recent report there tells that our Cathedral is 'off limits' for the time being. It has come through well, but it would be unfortunate if a further shock dislodged anything weighty from a great height. Also important as a sit for information and news from an Anglican perspective is Bosco Peter's Liturgy blog's rolling report.

Revised service times for churches in the Diocese can be found here. Please keep checking it as I can spot at least two parishes where (informally) I understand that the revised times have been revised!

UPDATE: Blogger assertion (see first sentence above) exposed as untrue!!!! A few minutes after I published the post:

"Reference Number: 3369683

NZST: Fri, Sep 10 2010 7:10 am

Magnitude: 4.6

Depth: 15 km

Details: 20 km west of Christchurch

Reference Number: 3369682

NZST: Fri, Sep 10 2010 7:10 am

Magnitude: 4.5

Depth: 6 km

Details: 20 km south-east of Darfield"
 
Not one but two at the same time - they shook the house :)

2 comments:

liturgy said...

"Reports coming in tell of amazing work being done by parish clergy and lay people"

Please could you write a blog post on those reports, Peter. It would be good to get some concrete stories beyond the list of church buildings that are damaged.

Also - I am being asked if there has been a message from the pope or the ABC?

Thanks for all you provide here

Bosco

Peter Carrell said...

Hi Bosco and other readers,
Good questions!

(1) By 'reports' I mean that as Diocesan staff share conversations we are having with clergy and lay people responding to the quake in their parishes, we are sharing that parishes are responding well with open churches/halls (where possible), in some cases putting on community lunches; with visitation and phone calls to check on parishioners and how they are faring, and in some cases organising alternative accommodation etc; and with collection of food and other assistance to be distributed to parishes with particular need, the specific parish a number are supporting is Kaiapoi.

However, these conversations are not quite of 'reporting in public' detail, not least because none of us have specifically set out to be a media reporter of these actions. I would hope that stories will emerge that can be made public and communicated through appropriate media officers of diocese and nationl church. As you know, some material is on Anglican Taonga and the Diocese of Christchurch's website, and I expect more to emerge.

(2) I am not aware of a message from the Pope. I understand that ++Rowan has been in contact with +Victoria, but I think that was a personal message rather than a message to the Diocese.