Cathedral to remove reference to former Prince Andrew
Nelson’s Christ Church Cathedral is to remove a reference to former Prince Andrew from a commemorative plaque.
In 2005, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor paid a four-day visit to New Zealand, opening Nelson’s bicentennial commemorations of the Battle of Trafalgar, and unveiling the plaque of a sculpture by local artist Grant Palliser at Millers Acre.
He also attended a short dedication service for new $70,000 windows at Nelson’s Christ Church Cathedral.
Plaques from both of these events remained in Nelson until May this year, when the Nelson City Council agreed to replace the plaque on the Reef Knot sculpture on Trafalgar St after it was brought to the attention of councillors by the Nelson Mail.
Cathedral Dean Graham O’Brien said that over the past few months there had been interest from the public and the media about the plaque.
Nelson City Council’s motion to replace the plaque on the sculpture outside Millers Acre, removing reference to Mountbatten-Windsor, included a reference to the Nelson Cathedral plaque.
Undoubtedly, there would be community expectations that the cathedral would follow suit, he said.
“There may well be strong feelings in the congregation for the removal or the keeping of the plaque, especially along the lines of not changing history. While I have sympathy with that position, my greatest concern is for the survivors of abuse and what retaining the reference would project in their eyes and those of the wider public.
“The high-profile nature of the Epstein files which implicate the former Duke of York and the Royal Commission here in New Zealand, which included the Anglican Church, in my view makes a ‘survivor focus’ rather than a ‘history’ focus more appropriate.”
The Cathedral Council agreed to change the commemoration plaque to remove the reference to “in the presence of His Royal Highness the Duke of York”, O’Brien said.
In February, Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office after previously losing his royal titles over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection to his friendship with Epstein.
O’Brien said he hoped the job of relettering the plaque would be completed in the next month.
The work cost around $1000, and a week after a notice was sent around parishioners, there’d been no pushback so far.
“I think the approach we’ve taken around a survivor focus rather than ‘oh we need to preserve history’ is the right approach and is one that’s kind of hard to argue against to be fair,” he said.
“People are understanding, and we’d rather not have anything that would be a barrier for people to feel that this cathedral is their cathedral.”
By Catherine Hubbard, Nelson Mail
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