Iqaluit church takes on the form of an igloo

From the "You Can't Make This Stuf Up" Department - Canada division-

An Anglican church being built in Canada’s north is taking on an unlikely shape: a traditional igloo crowned by a spire and cross.

The igloo, made of wooden blocks and steel instead of ice and snow, is a replica of an Anglican church that was built in 1970 but destroyed by arson in 2005.

St. Jude’s Cathedral in Iqaluit, N.W.T., on Baffin Island, was established in 1970 when Queen Elizabeth helped break ground with a silver spade, alongside the Inuit carpenters who built the original church. But 35 years later, the church was destroyed by arson and Iqaluit’s 4,000 registered Anglicans feared they would lose their most iconic structure — the Inuit snow house topped with an Anglican spire. Inside, the igloo church were an altar and communion rail made of qamutik sleds, decorative narwhal tusks, sealskin and soapstones, many of which were salvaged from the fire. The Christian services are given in English and Inuktituk.

Read more:

http://life.nationalpost.com/2010/08/18/iqaluit-church-takes-on-the-form-of-an-igloo/#ixzz0wxPC9BZs