It is with utter disbelief and disgust I heard on the news that 4 million dollars has been spent on a cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch, weatherproof or not, while there are still people there who cannot get their homes repaired because the insurance companies are finding loopholes in which they can refuse to pay out and there are people who have lost their homes and everything they owned, where are the priorities ? I am sure they are delighted that the religious lot can now make prayers to their God in a 4 million dollar makeshift building.
Surely their God doesn't demand they have a fancy building to pray in and make worship to their deity, while the people of Christchurch are still suffering? Surely a loving God would want to see people housed fed and secure before being worshipped? There is absolutely no justification in spending 4 million dollars on something as unnecessary and temporary as a meeting place for people who can surely pray and worship anywhere. Don't people come first anymore? Is the vanity of the religious given priority now?
As I understand it, prayer will be heard by God from any location. What a lot could have been achieved in Christchurch with 4 million dollars. That would truly be God's work. This, on top of billions in ongoing handouts to the Maori over the years on perceived 'grievances” makes me wonder where the decision maker's heads are at. It's time changes were made and some sanity brought back.

A. Taylor, Avenues.