When a child does his best work and brings it to his mother as a gift, she will most likely shed a tear. The gift will have its perfections and imperfections but what is important is the care and love that have gone into it. For those we love we do our best. Our instinct leads us in the direction of beauty.
When Hardy was writing about Wessex villages, the impulse to make a place of worship a place of beauty -- indeed, the most beautiful building in the parish – was strong. Spires reminded passers-by that buildings are not just shelters from the storm; they are expressions of homage, tokens of loyalty, pointers to the beyond as good as those of Hardy’s generation could make them in the days before architects (of whom Hardy was one) had come into their own.
Our parish churches speak for us. They witness to our desire for what is best. Mute we may be when it comes to speaking of our faith but the stones will cry out for us. We are taken back to our long-forgotten first century ancestors. See Luke 19.40.
In a Christian community it is appropriate for the place of worship to set the standard. It does not always happen. Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect, said: ‘The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines.’ When we build, it’s like planting trees. We have to take the long view. We are providing for subsequent generations.
Over the centuries men have laboured to honour their Maker by giving of their best in terms of stone and timber, slate, bricks and mortar. It comes down to design and hard graft. If Le Corbusier was right when he said that a house is a machine for living in, it is just as true to say that a church is a machine for worshipping in. We build for God’s glory. We can expect our faith to be judged by our buildings.
THE BEST CHURCHES
Simon Jenkins has done as much as anybody to open our eyes to the treasures of our parish churches. (He has also done the same for our railway stations.) John Betjeman is another in the same mould. Both have produced books that are indispensable for those who wish to know more about the works of Wren, Gibbs, Butterfield, Gilbert Scott as well as their forerunners in medieval days whose names are unknown to us.
We should never forget our Scandinavian cousins. For an unusual, some would say startling, modern parish church see the Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik, Iceland.
THE EARLIEST CHURCH
The earliest known surviving Christian church is to be found in Dura-Europos, Syria. It was a dwelling-house in a Roman garrison town by the Euphrates converted for use in worship in the early third century CE. Ancient paintings of events in the life of Jesus have been discovered in it.
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