Anti-demolition campaigners were celebrating the council's move yesterday, but Mr Brownlee said everyone involved needed to "draw a breath", put emotions to one side "and ask serious questions about what you do with such a damaged building".
He urged the council to "get its own house in order" first, and look at what it was doing to make quake-damaged social housing in the city fit to occupy again.
"The council are very good at telling everyone else what to do. They need to shape up a little bit and get serious about their representation [of the city]," Mr Brownlee said.
Restore Christchurch Cathedral Group spokesman Mark Belton said the council's move reflected the passion Christchurch residents had for seeing the cathedral restored.
It could spur the Government to use its powers to stop the demolition, Mr Belton said.
But Mr Brownlee said he felt the diocese had handled itself appropriately.
"No one is going in there with a wrecking ball or a bulldozer. It's being done in a sensitive fashion."
For all the opposition to the deconstruction, Mr Brownlee said he had not seen a single restoration plan that did not have a "substantial demo-lition" in it.
The diocese said deconstruction of the cathedral was already halted until around mid-June, but there was still a requirement upon it to make the building safe. Further quakes posed a risk to workers on the site.
"Even the ongoing demolition of buildings around the cathedral is causing the ground to shake and more damage to occur to the cathedral," a spokesperson said.
"The main priorities with the cathedral ... are safety and the safe retrieval of heritage items and taonga."
Christchurch mayor Bob Parker, who voted against the council resolution for a pause, said he felt it was time to "move on from the beautiful old cathedral".
A "cardboard cathedral" has been planned as a temporary replacement.
