Churches organisers of Devonport's Easter ritual of carrying a cross up Takarunga/Mt Victoria say about 200 people attended this year. Photo / Facebook
Churches organisers of Devonport's Easter ritual of carrying a cross up Takarunga/Mt Victoria say about 200 people attended this year. Photo / Facebook
The church communities of Devonport are upset that the cross they haul up a local hill every Easter has been smashed up, apparently by vandals, and dumped.
The combined churches of the suburb on Auckland's North Shore have been performing the Easter ritual on Takarunga/Mt Victoria since 1992.
They take the cross - two large timber poles bolted together - up the hill at 10am on Good Friday, tie it into place, say prayers and sing hymns, and leave it there until 3pm, when some members return to remove it.
But after this year's event, the cross was gone when the Christian folk went to retrieve it in the afternoon.
In charge of the hill is Tūpuna Maunga Authority, a local body with Auckland Council and iwi representatives.
Paul Majurey, chairman of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority.
Chairman Paul Majurey said it appeared the cross was destroyed by "members of the public" in the early afternoon.
The cross-carrying procession had the authority's consent and support but the church leaders had not stated they would leave the cross unattended for several hours, nor that it would be attached to a structure.
"The contractor therefore had no way of knowing that the cross was supposed to be there. However, our contractor did not take it down.
"The contractor did notice that three young men were sitting on the bench beneath the intact cross when he first pulled up, though cannot confirm if they were responsible for the subsequent destruction of the cross.
"Indeed when the contractor returned someone had smashed the cross and it was laying in pieces. As a health and safety precaution he removed and disposed of the pieces - there were nails, rope and broken pieces of wood strewn across the ground."
Anglican vicar Charmaine Braatvedt, of Holy Trinity Church in Devonport.
Anglican vicar Charmaine Braatvedt, of Holy Trinity Church in Devonport, said the authority had told her the cross had been damaged and was taken to the tip.
"That was quite distressing for us."
The authority also offered to replace the cross, but that would not be necessary, Braatvedt said.
Despite the church communities being upset by the incident, she said that in the Easter spirit of reconciliation she looked forward to better communications with the authority next year.
She acknowledged that the churches had not been clear enough in the past, assuming that the authority, created under a 2014 Treaty settlement, knew the details of the procession and removal of the cross.
The cross incident follows controversy over vehicle restrictions on Takarunga/Mt Victoria, and the ending of the nearly-60-year tradition of having a lit-up cross at Easter and star at Christmas on Pukewiwi/Puketapapa/Mt Roskill, which is at the heart of what was once known as Auckland's "Bible belt".
Devonport journalist Geoff Chapple is campaigning against the vehicle restrictions on Takarunga/Mt Victoria and is promoting a petition that opposes them and challenges the authority's "authoritarian manner".
The authority said the cross incident is unrelated to either the vehicle restrictions or the changes at Pukewiwi/Puketapapa/Mt Roskill.
Of the latter, the authority said the plinth and pole which provided the central structure for the cross and the star has been removed in the works to reinstate the summit area and return it to being solely grass, and pedestrian-only. This work, nearly finished, includes the removal of the upper ring road.
A former deputy mayor of Auckland City and former mayor of Mt Roskill, David Hay, expressed disappointment at the loss of the cross and star, which he suggested was in breach of a local body amalgamation commitment in 1989 to the borough's people that "the heritage would continue".
Majurey said the authority would welcome an application from Devonport church leaders for a procession next Easter.
"The application will be considered and decisions made at the time."
