Thursday 11 March 2010

Waiapu Cathedral, Napier

Yesterday morning I visited the Anglican Cathedral in Napier.  I had not done so before.  In fact, apart from attending a funeral I cannot recall being in any church in the City before today.  Mind you most churches are locked against vandals these days.  Although I didn’t visit it for the purpose of blogging nor, indeed, to take photos I ended up being treated as a tourist and decided to become one.

The present building was started in 1955 to replace a temporary wooden building which was erected in 1932 after the 1886 Cathedral was destroyed by the earthquake whilst communion was being served on 3rd February 1931.  That had been the second church on the site.

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There is more of interest in the Cathedral but I will reserve these for occasional postings in the future.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the "tourist view"... It is a beautiful church. I find the architecture interesting because I don't think I've seen a "modern" cathedral/ church of quite that size before. I can imagine it being a good place for a choir or organ concert? Bach, perhaps... ♫ ♫

    (A pity though that it seems you'd have to sit the wrong way round to look at those stained glass windows? I really like those.)

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  2. Thank you for visiting my blog and your nice comment about my photo's. I have spent some time this morning reading your blog and found it interesting. You have some great photo's, I like the cathederal ones and reminded me of our time in the UK last year and all the beautiful churches we visited.
    Take care
    Nicky
    Hamilton, New Zealand

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  3. Beautiful. I find it very interesting that some of the decor looks to me what we would call "Southwest" (from the areas of New Mexico and Arizona.) The backdrop of the fabric (or whatever that is) on the walls especially looks like Aztec blankets and the Aztec design that I've seen on pottery in New Mexico. The Cross is also VERY similar to the emblem of New Mexico, which is The Land of the Rising Sun. It amazes me how culture mixes. I would be interested in a little more history on this.
    ;^)

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