Dear Parishioners,

I am writing, with great sadness, to inform you that after seeking advice I have made the decision, with the approval of the bishop, to close Christ the King Church at Burnside effective immediately.  The pastoral centre will remain open.

Following a recent audit of all the churches in the Diocese, the Catholic Parish of Christchurch North was informed that under an earthquake assessment report completed earlier, Christ the King Church is Earthquake Prone. 

The Parish then engaged with WSP (Engineering Consultants) in June to conduct a review.  In 2017 there was an amendment to the Building Act to address earthquake prone buildings and this introduced a new, more detailed structural assessment regime called the Detailed Seismic Assessment (DSA). 

The result of this detailed analysis showed that there were several areas within the Church building structure that don’t have the design or strength required to survive well in a significant earthquake.  The parts of the building deemed to have poor earthquake strength have come about from changes that were made to the Church in 1978 to add the transepts.  The report places the Church at 15% of NBS (National Building Standard), well below 34% NBS.

Discussion with WSP has shown that even if the Parish were to remove the concrete tiled roof and replace it with a lightweight roof it still would not lift the NBS up to an acceptable minimum level.  The cost to bringing the Church up to the required standard is prohibitive.

As a result of the report from WSP and resultant meeting about the report, we have decided that the level of risk in terms of how the Church would perform in a significant earthquake means that the appropriate decision is that Christ the King Church be closed immediately. 

 The adjacent Pastoral Centre, which was built in 1996, is not considered earthquake prone due to it being built to a more recent design standard, and it is structurally independent of the Church.  Hence it is our intention that the Pastoral Centre can continue to be used by the Parish for various parish activities. The St Vincent de Paul conference and St Augustine’s bookshop will continue to operate from the Pastoral Centre.

The situation has highlighted our desire to continue planning for the building of a new church and pastoral base at the Papanui site.

The new Mass times below will be effective from this Saturday, 30 September.  We will review the suitability of these times in the future.

St Gregory’s Church

Saturday Vigil – 4.30pm and 6pm

Sunday - 8am and 10am

St Bede’s Chapel

Sunday – 9am, 11am and 5pm

I know that this decision will come as a shock to many of you. I am feeling this myself. I would like to have had more time to let people know but it was important to act immediately once we received all the necessary information. You may wish to attend either of two information sessions. These will be held at Christ the King Pastoral Centre on this Sunday, 1 October from 3-4pm and Tuesday, 3 October from 6-7pm. WSP will attend the Tuesday meeting to offer further clarification if needed.

The life of faith in Christ the King Church has been one of great faith, hope and love and an abrupt end like this is very hard. Please keep each other in your prayers – especially those most affected by this decision. I am aware there will be parishioners that may not be able to receive communication via email, I ask you to share this letter with them.

God bless,

Monsignor Rick Loughnan
Parish Priest
Catholic Parish of Christchurch North
Christchurch