A preliminary finding on whether a proposed cardboard cathedral should be funded from the insurance payout for the badly damaged ChristChurch Cathedral is being welcomed by a member of a city rebuilding group.
Justice Panckhurst says the Anglican Church would be acting outside the terms of the Cathedral Trust to use $4 million of the payout to build the $5 million temporary cathedral in Latimer Square.
However, the judge said on Monday the church was facing extraordinary circumstances following the Canterbury earthquake in February 2011, which wrecked the stone church in Cathedral Square, and has asked for more information before making a final decision.
Ernest Duval, a member of the committee for the City Owners Rebuild Entity (CORE), says he can't speak for all members, but thinks all the payout should go directly to the cathedral's rebuild - not on other projects.
The Anglican Bishop of Christchurch says the church will build the cardboard cathedral - regardless of using insurance money to pay for it or not.
Bishop Victoria Matthews said construction of the building from giant cardboard tubing will continue despite the church being unsure how it will pay for it.
The building will be ready in about two months.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Great Christchurch Buildings Trust, Jim Anderton, says both he and a colleague wrote to the trustees last year warning them they would not be able to use the insurance money to pay for anything other than the main cathedral.
