The playground of Christchurch turned into a vale of sorrows today as 40,000 Cantabrians mourned the death of their city and much more besides.

The green swathe of North Hagley Park is normally a merry-go-round of circuses, pop concerts and Christmas extravaganzas. But today was different. For some of us at least, today felt like winter, despite the bright autumn sun.

It was, of course, the day of the National Memorial Service for those who perished in the February 22 earthquake. One hundred and sixty-six confirmed, and still counting.

We had been warned to come early – long before a lone piper was due to start his lament, around 12 noon. Even before the grey, early-morning mist burned to blue.

And so we did: thousands upon thousands, slowly converging on the open-air stage like pilgrims to a shrine. Which indeed we were.

Don’t be misled by the sunfrocks, the flip-flops and the T-shirts. Grief travelled on many shoulders today, and there was a lump at the back of many cheery greetings.

A scene-setter by Charisma Rangipunga said it all:

Ka karuerue te papa

He pie aue

Ka huki te whenua

Ka hopo, ka taki kau

Ahhio ana I ka Pakaihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha…

Ka tu tahi, ka tu tou e

Kia Kaha Otautahi

The land heaves

A desperate call is heard

The land thrusts

A cry of sorrow resounds

Across the Canterbury Plains…

We stand here together

Kia Kaha Christchurch

The challenge in staging an event of this magnitude is that it has to speak to so many stakeholders, so many sensibilities.

The people who died in the quake came from a diversity of faiths, and none at all. So any order of service had to respect this diversity, and yet hold to a unifying thread.

As it turned out, traditional Christian readings and hymns provided such a thread, but only because Bishop Victoria Matthews and Dean Peter Beck wouldn’t be turned by the secular powers-that-be.

It also helped to have a sensible vicar at the heart of the event organisation. Jayson Rhodes, the vicar of Takapuna, used to be a television journalist before heeding the call to ordination, so Internal Affairs enlisted him as media man for what was essentially a spiritual event.

We were comforted, then, by Psalm 23, the Lord’s Prayer, and excerpts from Romans (8:37-39) and John’s Gospel (14:1-3, 27).

God knows, we needed to hear those comfortable words… “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

God knows, we needed to sing “Whakaria mai… how great thou art!”

It was a long service – nearly two and a half hours. And some of the addresses rehearsed what we already knew about the quake and our human frailty.

Prince William was refreshingly brief, however, and offered us this piece of gold from his grandmother, the Queen: Grief is the price we pay for love. “Here today,” he added, “we love and we grieve.”

Referring to Cantabrians’ resilience, he said: “You are an inspiration to all people.”

“You’re quite an inspiration yourself,” might have been the message underlying our royal round of applause.

Prime Minister John Key heartened those who fear for the future of the central business district: “We are resolute,” he declared, “this city will be rebuilt.”

Cue Dave Dobbyn, smart as a button in dark tie and jacket, and “Loyal” as always. 

The same has to be said of the Salvation Army volunteers, who flitted like yellow canaries through the crowd, dispensing water bottles and ever willing to chat.

One spotted my clerical collar and gave me a bear hug, before saying he was a volunteer from Queenstown. “I’ve been with teams door-knocking in the eastern suburbs,” he said, “and the people who live there are inspirational.” Same goes for the Sallies, Brother.

Dame Malvina Major (“You’ll Never Walk Alone”) and Hayley Westenra (“Amazing Grace”) shone with all the poise and professionalism of stars.

And how appropriate that representatives of many faiths should share the same stage, praying succinctly from their various traditions. Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Baha’i – each so different, and each drawing a round of applause. (Why do the various religious leaders wait for a disaster to pray together?)

The memorial was warming by now, both from the sun and from a mounting infusion of hope. A red kite shaped like a heart dipped  and soared. And then Bishop Victoria nailed the Spirit with a splendid reflection on Paul’s epistle to the Romans:

“For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come… nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus our Lord.”

February 22, she said, would be one of those anniversaries that evoked stories of exactly what we were doing when the quake struck.

But what of the story after the tragedy? she asked. “What story will you tell? I hope it will be a story of people and community.

“Yes, we walked through the valley of the shadow of death; but something else also happened. It was about love… Out of ashes and rubble came a new spirit… love triumphed.”

So what is the next chapter of your story? she asked again. “Will you dare to care, and dare to allow others to care for you? If so, the next chapter will proclaim that we are more than conquerors through the love of God.”

Had the good bishop made an altar call at that point, we might have been there all afternoon.

But the big finale was waiting in the wings, as the coda to a beautiful rendition of John Rutter’s “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” by the ChristChurch Cathedral Choir…

The crowd recognised the fanfare immediately. “Conquest of Paradise” by Vangelis, more commonly known as the Canterbury Crusaders’ anthem.

Earlier we had watched a 10min video of the quake aftermath. Street after street of ruins that we once knew as the City of Christchurch. But no longer.

Now, pulsing to the Crusaders’ anthem, came another video – of ordinary people mucking in after the quake. Volunteers with wheelbarrows and shovels. Mayor Bob Parker exiting a portaloo. More than conquerors, all, writing new stories to tell.

And not just on screen. For into the park came so many heroes of the past three weeks – the search and recue teams, the firefighters, the police, the civil defence.

And 40,000 rose as one, and cheered. The prelude to Christchurch’s finest chapter?