NATIONAL INTERFAITH YOUTH MOVEMENT
For immediate release

Sole church left functioning in central Christchurch site of youth vigil

Vigils led by young people from local faith communities are to be held around the country on 16 July to honour Christchurch and stand in solidarity with the people of Christchurch. The Christchurch service will be held at St Michael’s and All Angels, which suffered the least damage of all the places of worship in the 22 February earthquake and subsequent earthquakes.

“It’s significant to hold the service there because it is the only remaining church in the heart of the city which is fully operational, and is only 10mins away from Cathedral Square” says Lachlan Mackay of the National Interfaith Youth Movement, which is behind the vigils.

Services in other centres are at St Matthew’s in the City in Auckland, St Andrew’s on the Terrace in Wellington and at Dunedin’s St Paul’s Cathedral.

“We carefully chose the venues and to have each vigil in a Christian church reflects that the Christian communities suffered the most of all the faith communities in the 4 major earthquakes to strike so far”.

“The purpose of the vigils is to raise the morale of Christchurch people by letting them know we are still with them. We also want to do something practical so we are asking people who attend for donations which will be passed on to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal”.

“Any individual from any faith or spiritual community is welcome to attend the vigils between 5pm and 7:30pm to join in the singing and chanting and to personally reflect and meditate on what has happened in Christchurch over the past nine months. We will also be praying for the city’s recovery and for her people to remain strong,” says Mr Mackay.

The evening will also feature the replaying of the TVNZ and Ministry of Civil Defence memorial videos and will give the chance for all attendees to light candles and let off lanterns into the sky for Christchurch. At the end of each vigil, several locations throughout the cities will toll their bells for two minutes.

ENDS

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