Senior Station Officer Ross Bay has been down from Auckland for a few days to help out with the massive Fire Rescue operation in Christchurch.

And our Senior Station Officer – who also answers to the name: ‘The Rt Rev Ross Bay, Bishop of Auckland’ – has a message for the rest of the country, and for Anglicans in the Diocese of Auckland in particular:

Long after the Christchurch earthquake has dropped from the TV news cycles, we will need to be there for Christchurch people.

“I have been one of those people privileged to go within the cordon,” he says.

“And you have to have seen what I’ve seen here to credit the scale of the destruction.

“I have a concern that after the first few weeks of excitement have died down, the rest of the country will forget about this.

“There will be a continuing need of support, way beyond whatever government agencies provide, and beyond whatever rebuilding programmes are put in place.

“There are a great many hurting people here.”

Bishop Ross was in Christchurch from Tuesday till Friday. He’s part of the Operational Support Unit of the Fire Department, and he’s a member of one of five volunteer Auckland teams who came down to lend a hand here.

In the first few hours after the 22/2 quake, the Fire Rescue teams were at the forefront of rescue efforts.

But once the specialist Urban Search and Rescue teams began to arrive – at one stage, there were 575 of those rescue specialists combing through the rubble of collapsed Christchurch buildings – the fire teams dropped back to a support role.

In the days he was in Christchurch, Bishop Ross helped the Fire Service deal with the logistic and supply challenges that such a crisis inevitably brings.

He was also helping get hot meals to emergency service workers. The Army prepares those meals at its Burnham camp, and those Fire Service teams have been distributing them.

It’s been a massive job. His team have been clocking on at 5:30am each day, and knocking off at 9:30pm.

But the rescue and recovery work is winding down now. Some overseas teams have returned home, and many more are preparing to do so.

But for Ross Bay – and, metaphorically speaking, he’s wearing his Bishop’s mitre now – the long haul of healing Christchurch has barely begun.

He saw a sign outside a busted Christchurch church that captures how he sees things.

Our building is broken, it read, but the church is fine.

“We, the church, are OK,” says Bishop Ross.

“And we’ve got work to do.”