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A bridge to where?

The Cathedral AGM will be held next Sunday (26 February 2012).

The AGM is the very dull but necessary meeting when we receive reports and elect people to positions of responsibility within the Cathedral Parish.

One of the metaphors for the church the Dean invites us to consider in his Annual Report is that of the Choluteca Bridge in Honduras one of few bridges to survive the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The Choluteca Bridge survived intact but suffered perhaps the greatest indignity, the river moved right out from under it leaving its builders wondering what to do next. This bridge was the only bridge left standing after the storm swept through. The Japanese company that built the bridge was so proud of it that this picture was put on their brochures to show the strength of their construction. There is only one problem. The storm had such force that it moved the river. A report in USA TODAY comments;

“The graceful arches of the New Choluteca Bridge stand abandoned, a white concrete sculpture far from shore, linking nothing to nowhere. The Choluteca Bridge itself is perfect… except that it now straddles dry land. Mitch changed the course of the Choluteca River, and there is water where the access roads used to be … Now, there is no solution… it is very difficult to change the current. [The river] is in a totally different place.”

 You can also download the Dean’s Report by clicking here.

On 19 February 1942 mainland Australia came under attack for the first time when Japanese forces mounted two air raids on Darwin. The two attacks, which were planned and led by the commander responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbour ten weeks earlier, involved 54 land-based bombers and approximately 188 attack aircraft which were launched from four Japanese aircraft-carriers in the Timor Sea. In the first attack, which began just before 10.00 am, heavy bombers pattern-bombed the harbour and town; dive bombers escorted by Zero fighters then attacked shipping in the harbour, the military and civil aerodromes, and the hospital at Berrimah. The attack ceased after about 40 minutes. The second attack, which began an hour later, involved high altitude bombing of the Royal Australian Air Force base at Parap which lasted for 20–25 minutes. The two raids killed at least 243 people and between 300 and 400 were wounded. Twenty military aircraft were destroyed, eight ships at anchor in the harbour were sunk, and most civil and military facilities in Darwin were destroyed.

During the attack the small stone Christ Church was hit by a bomb that landed at the back of the vestry, blasting out the windows and riddling the roof and walls with shrapnel. Neither did the church escape the looting that followed the devastation of the town. Pews were upended, the kneelers were split open and the brass missal-stand was used as a lever to break open the vestry cupboards. The Navy, which later used the rectory as a sick bay, repaired the damage to both buildings with help from the other services.

You can find more about the commemoration of the anniversary here.