New Zealand’s church congregations are reviewing the future for many of their buildings following the devastation of the Christchurch earthquake and the cost of higher insurance.

Ansvar NZ Manager David Leather says groups of smaller congregations may decide to pool their resources to pay for earthquake strengthening of one church and all worship together rather than struggle to fund upgrades of several churches.

He warns that premiums will rise following the February 22 quake, particularly for buildings that have not been strengthened.

Ansvar expects claims of around $NZ200 million ($147 million) from Christchurch churches as part of total claims of around several hundred million dollars resulting from the quake.

The company renewed its reinsurance treaties in December, after the September earthquake but before the more devastating February 22 event. Mr Leather says there were no problems with renewing then.

“We haven’t had any indication from our reinsurers that they are no longer prepared to support earthquake risk in New Zealand, or churches,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

Christchurch and Dunedin have favoured stone and brick buildings over the timber churches more common in North Island cities, which tend to stand up better in an earthquake.

Mr Leather believes future insurance will be a question of price rather than availability for many churches and if they cannot afford to strengthen, congregations will not want to take the risk of personal injury in another quake. He says it is possible that some churches will be abandoned.

Congregations that receive a payout for a destroyed building are unlikely to rebuild a replica historic stone church.

“A lot of churches no longer find the old wooden pews that useful and prefer to have chairs which can be moved around for meetings, or might like to add a community centre or kindergarten,” he says.

“This is a time for a lot of church groups to think and plan about which churches have been damaged and are not repairable and which churches they want to strengthen, and how effectively they want to reach their community within their dioceses.”