Kate Emma Wright Died 1931

Saint Mary - Heacham (Link)

© Godric Godricson

Inappropriate gifts

Saint Mary - Heacham (Link)

© Godric Godricson

This is a picture that I took some weeks ago and I didn’t upload it at the time because it looked a little odd with a model of the Church in there looking like something that we leave on the mantle piece at home.

We have a long history in the UK of leaving precious items on the mantle piece (over the fire) with those precious items being left there as a sign and symbol. The Church at Heacham seem to have gone one step further and rather than a mantle piece they've turned the tomb into a mantle place and placed a piece of ‘tat’ there.

This is the equivalent of a child’s gift to their parent being placed in public view. The parent has no idea of what to do with this piece of ‘tat’. They know they are supposed to honour and revere the gift but what is the gift about?

In the same way that the child's gift is placed on the mantle piece the model of the Church is hidden on the monument. The model is  something that the Anglican Authorities didn’t know what to do with. This is a piece of ‘tat’ that was doubtless given with all sincerity and affection to the Church although without any thought of what the Church Authority would do with the gift. The result is that 'someone' placed it on this tomb like it was something to hide in plain sight. The tomb is diminished because the model is placed there and the gift is diminished because it is placed out of the way as if it were an embarrassment and. more than that, something to be embarrassed about. Oh dear, the Anglican Authorities have something to work on here. There are doubtless difficult conversations to have between the Authorities and the congregation. How do we restore the  balance?

I have played with this image because it something that I like to do although the model is still on the monument and the Authorities have still not made a decision. Perhaps its time to remember that monuments are ancient burial sites and Churches are indoor cemeteries rather than play groups or a community centre.

1 Kings 13:22

“You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers."

This is one of those lines from the Old Testament that leads me to think one or two things. On the one hand we have the clear negative aspect of being buried away from the patriarchal line of the family. This was clearly a society that liked to be buried with their fathers as opposed to their mothers and in the West we have followed this male line tradition. We find a repeated pattern of being ‘the son of’ and on and on into often remote history although I understand that the Icelanders may be more egalitarian in naming patterns.

On the other hand........ we have that repeated glimpse into the nature of a sometimes capricious God who takes his revenge in the small and the petty things whilst being sneakily away from the glare of public admonishment. What would the public really think of a God who takes revenge for eating and drinking in an inappropriate place? Oh dear, God has let himself down again and we have the evidence in writing.

The refusal of burial in a special place has been seen repeatedly as a concern for the living as they are moved away from ancestral cultic sites. We only have to think about the Stracey family who turned the parish Church of Rackheath into a funerary chapel to see the power of a special place for a family.

John Bugden - Died 16th October 1838

john Bugden [Link]
Died : 16th October 1838

All Saints - Skeyton

© Godric Godricson

Sarah Margetson



Sarah Margetson [Link]

All Saints - Skeyton

© Godric Godricson