Symbolic chalice returns to Antarctica

Antarctica’s summer season is about to begin and a special chalice will be blessed in Christchurch before making its pilgrimage back to the ice.

In a tradition spanning nearly three decades, the Erebus Chalice spends the winter at the Christchurch Transitional Cathedral and returns to the Chapel of the Snows at McMurdo Station in Antarctica for the summer months. 

Chapel of the Snows, Antarctica. Photo by Martin de Ruyter ©Antarctica New Zealand Pictorial Collection

The Chapel of the Snows is a non-denominational Christian church that can be used by New Zealanders while they are living at Scott Base.

The chalice will be blessed at the upcoming South to Antarctica Service, which marks the opening of the Antarctic season, at the Christchurch Transitional Cathedral on Sunday, October 2, at 10am. The service, organised by Antarctica New Zealand and the United States Antarctic Program with support from Christchurch City Council, is open to the public.

Made in 1910, the Erebus Chalice was gifted in 1987 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the South Pole in 1912. It is named after HMS Erebus whose 1841 expedition reached what is now known as the Ross Sea. It was gifted by Betty Bird, a descendant of Lieutenant Joseph Bird who was a member of the 1841 expedition.

The chalice will be handed over to a United States Air Force, Deputy Commander at the Transitional Cathedral ceremony. When it arrives in Antarctica it is kept in a display case inside the Chapel of the Snows.

Father Dan Doyle, who spent many years as Catholic Chaplain for the United States Antarctic Program, said the Erebus Chalice was a relic of special significance. “It’s like a talisman of good luck and care as it goes down to the ice and back again. It’s God’s blessing on all that happens down there.”

The Erebus Chalice

Fr Doyle will lead a wreath-laying and blessing ceremony at the plinth of the Robert Falcon Scott Statue on the corner of Oxford Terrace and Worcester Boulevard following the South to Antarctica Service. This 11.30am ceremony, which follows a tradition established in the 1930s, pays tribute to NZ Antarctic society members and people who have lost their lives working in the Antarctic. It is open to the public. 

Fr Doyle said he sometimes misses the Chapel of the Snows, which has stained glass windows and a view over the Ross Sea and the Transantarctic Mountains.