NEW CATHEDRAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 245, 15 October 1940, Page 8

NEW CATHEDRAL.

LACK OF INTEREST.

PLANS SENT TO ENGLAND.

Step* being taken to build a new Anglican cathedral in Auckland were referred to by the Right Rev. Bishop W. J. Simkin, in his addrc«s at the Anglican Synod to-day.

He said that lack of interest in chc proposal had perplexed many of ?utai. Various causes for lack of interest lud been advanced, but no cause or reason he had heard appeared to account satisfactorily for the manifest indifference. It was possible that the real reason, and perhaps the only reason, had not been stated or discovered. "Do we, as a church peopl« of this diocese, desire to erect a cathedral," asked the Bishop, "or do we feel the need of a cathedral!" The Bishop said that the question opened up tiie way for much serious thinking and self-examination. It had been saul, and possibly with some justification, that the present cathedral churah of St. Mary was sufficient for many years to come. The justification for that statement lay in the fact that they did not make the fullest use of the present cathedral church, and tiie present cathedral church Jld net Tultil the position and exercise th; influence in the diocese that it should. He did not attach blame to any person, ha; ho blamed a system which assumed that a parish church with no diocesan support or interest could fulfil the function of a cathedral. It wag his conviction that until the fullest use was made of the cathedral church, the need of a new cathedral would not be realised. They had not vet readied the stage when it could be said that they had outgrown the present cathedral church. The Bishop added that the plans for the new cathedral had beeu sent to England for adjudication. When a design was selected* the question of proceeding would ha\-« to be faced honestly and openly, and a decision made. Without unity of purpose, based on a sense of need, it would not be possible, in his opinion, to arrive at any decision in which they could have con (i Jen e, aud to the carrying out of which they could ask church people to devote thcinselvce and the gifts which God had civen them.