John MacDonald: Christchurch's cathedral will never be finished. Here's why

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

Remember Bishop Victoria Matthews? Who wanted to pull down the Christchurch cathedral after the earthquakes? Reckon she’s thinking “told you so” now that the reinstatement is officially on ice?

Bet she is. And if she isn’t, she should be.

Because let’s be realistic. On ice, whatever you want to call it, the cathedral will never be finished. Never. For the simple reason that, as time goes on, the cost of fixing it will go up and public support will go down. They are two certainties. In fact, they are the only certainties.

If you’re a supporter of the reinstatement, you will probably think ‘oh that will never happen’. That the people of Christchurch will always have the cathedral in their hearts. That it’s, you know, ‘the symbol of Christchurch’.

Well, not so, actually. Whatever support there is for spending tens of millions of dollars reinstating the cathedral will never be stronger than it is right now.

Because, as younger generations come through, they won’t have the same connection to it. They’ll probably have no connection to it. And what that will mean is the cathedral’s restoration or reinstatement will lose its social licence.

In its simplest form, social licence is public acceptance or support of an activity - especially when there’s big money involved.

And the cathedral has had enough social licence —or public or community support— up until now, because it’s relevant to people of a particular age. Or particular generations. And as time goes on, that will diminish. There is nothing more certain.

When I watched the news on TV last night, there was an image of what the church itself wanted to build in place of the cathedral after the earthquakes, and I actually felt quite angry.

I surprised myself, sitting in front of the TV watching it. Because, even though I’d washed my hands of the cathedral before yesterday —when the company running the reinstatement and the church announced that they were pulling the plug, for now— I was reminded of what could have been, if people hadn’t poked their noses into it.

There were images of the demolition work actually starting. And there was one of those architectural animations showing what a new, replacement cathedral would have looked like.

If only the church had been allowed to do what it wanted to do in the first place, we would probably have a cathedral by now and we would definitely know what was happening with the Square which, at the moment —let’s face it— is the dead centre of town in more ways than one.

If only all these heritage people realised that heritage isn’t just about buildings. It’s about history.

And a new, replacement cathedral would have been just as historically significant as the old one. Because, whether we like to think it or not, the earthquakes are just a blip in our city’s history. Or they will be as time goes on.

An awful blip, but just a blip. And a new cathedral wouldn’t have trampled all over the city’s heritage, it would have been part of our heritage. Part of our history.

If you want to get all fancy on it, it would have told Christchurch’s earthquake "story" just as much as a reinstated cathedral would have.

But now, we’ve got a broken-down cathedral that I don’t see ever being finished. Because we’ve got generations coming through that will have no connection at all to it, and who will think that the idea of spending tens of millions of dollars fixing it up is just nuts.

Some people have thought that all along. And a lot more will in the years to come, while the reinstatement people and the church blindly press-on, holding out their hand for money.

When will they learn?

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