Helmsley Parish
Our mission statement is:
God is so priceless
he comes free
This statement was inspired by David Martin's
words below:
'We in England live in the chill religious
vapours of Northern Europe, where moribund religious establishments
loom over populations that mostly do not enter churches for active
worship, even if they entertain inchoate beliefs.
Yet these establishments
guard and maintain thousands of houses of God, which are markers of
space and time.
Not only are they markers and anchors, but also the only repositories
of all-embracing meanings pointing beyond the immediate to the ultimate.
They are the only institutions
that deal in tears and concern themselves with the breaking points
of human existence.
They provide frames and
narratives and signs to live by, and offer persistent points of reference.
They are repositories of
signs about miraculous birth and redemptive sacrifice, shared tables
and gift-giving.
They offer moral codes and
exemplars for the creation of communal solidarity and the nourishment
of virtue.
They are places from which
to launch initiatives that help to sustain the kind of networks which
enable flourishing.
They welcome schools and
regiments and rotary clubs; they celebrate and commemorate.
They are islands of quietness; they are places in which unique gestures
occur - of blessing, distribution and obeisance.
They offer spaces in which
solemnly to gather, to sing, to lay flowers, and light candles.
They
are - in Philip Larkin's phrase - "serious places on serious earth."'
From an unpublished paper by David Martin,
delivered in 1991.
Quoted by Grace Davey in 'Religion in Britain
since 1945'
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