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In A Country Churchyard
In a country churchyard there's a preacher with
his people,
Gathered all around to join a man and woman,
Spring is here and turtledoves are singing from the steeple,
Bees
are in the flowers, growing in the graveyard,
And over the hill, where the river meets the mill,
A lovely girl is coming
down,
To give her hand upon her wedding day...
Dressed in simple white and wearing flowers
in her hair,
Music as she walks slowly to the altar,
And picking up his bible then the preacher turns towards her,
"Will
you take this man to be your wedded husband,
to honour and love in the eyes of God above,
Now let the people sing with
me,
The words to live forever in your heart...
Let your love shine on,
For we are the stars
in the sky,
Let your love shine strong,
Until the day you fly away"
Many years have fallen on that golden country
morning,
The graveyard's overgrown, the church lies in ruins,
Ivy on the walls and ravens wheeling round above me,
As
I made my way towards the last remaining headstone,
I fell to my knees, read the lines beneath the leaves,
And suddenly
it seemed to me,
I heard the words like singing in the trees...
Let your love shine on,
For we are the stars
in the sky,
Let your love shine strong,
Until the day you fly...
Let your love shine on,
For we are the stars
in the sky,
Let your love shine strong,
Until the day you fly, fly away...
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| singing in the trees |
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(Midland Network)
The church and conservation
project was set up in 1987
to develop work relating
contemporary thought and
practice in conservation
to the life of the churches,
their land holdings
and the
wider concerns
of the
with the church in
the rural community.
At first glance the churchyard
is merely a piece of land
surrounding the church building,
given a different status from
any garden simply because
of its role as the burial ground.
Yet a closer look shows
that the relationship is much
more complicated and
unique than at first it seems
and one which only now
conservationists are beginning
to recognise. Not only does
the churchyard have a
significant role in terms
of local biodiversity and
social history but the
building/curtilage relationship is,
in fact, vital for those
species that dwell in these
special places
this project was established in 1987
as a joint venture between
English Nature,
then called the
Nature Conservancy Council,
and the Arthur Rank Centre -
the national rural ecumenical centre
in Warwickshire. The aims of
the project were two-fold;
firstly to challenge the
Christian churches on the
management of their landholdings
and secondly to act as a
bridge between the secular
nature conservation organisations
and the churches.
Several churchyards
in Warwickshire
(and across England)
are being managed to
encourage wildlife -
flowers, birds, butterflies
and animals, and to
conserve lichens.This
is referred to as the
Living Churchyards and
Cemetery Project.
. This page contains a
few pictures of some
of the churches in
Warwickshire taking part
in this scheme.
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