Churchyard Cross

A pastime for people with more money than sense in 18th century England, was to commission a whimsical and sometimes extravagant structure. This was to serve as little more than a conversation piece, ideally for people to permanently recognize the benefactor’s generosity to the community. A very early example is Bristol High Cross in Stourhead, Southwest England, first erected in 1373.

Contrary to what we might think, today's evangelical megachurch with thousands of worshippers, particularly in the U.S. and South Korea, is not a new phenomenon. Services to large congregations go back further even than the Billy Graham crusade meetings of the mid-20th century. The Sermon on the Mount is an early example, when Jesus preached to thousands on a hillside (Matthew 5, 6, & 7).

It is common that whenever a famous person visits an area, whether this is a president or David Beckham, the word is spread that something special is going down and a large crowd turns up. In 1770, Methodist minister John Wesley gave one of his sermons in Llanelli, Wales. The crowd was too large to fit into the parish church so John preached from the Churchyard Cross. But the practice of having open-air services in Europe pre-dates the Llanelli gathering by hundreds of years.

In the 8th century St. Willibald, who entered the Waltham Abbey, England, when he was just five years old, was consecrated to God in an outdoor ceremony at the foot of a cross in the Hampshire countryside. Such crosses were meeting points for local Christians, and where some of whom were buried when they died. Later, churches were erected on the site and consequently churchyard crosses often pre-date the church buildings (ref: G. Baldwin Brown, 'Arts in Early England', London, 1937).

Like the Consecration Cross the Churchyard Cross is a visible reminder to people visiting holy ground. Ancient cemeteries were blessed by stationing crosses at the four compass points, plus a larger cross in the centre. All over Europe, such prominent structures were in evidence throughout the Middle Ages.

An order by the Bishop of Lincoln, England, in 1229 reads: "There should be a good and well-built cross erected in the churchyard to which the procession is made on Palm Sunday." (Wilkins, Concilia, i, p.623). The Palm Sunday procession would end at the principal churchyard cross, which was often decorated with garlands of flowers.

Later in Mexico, when European missionaries settled in the Americas, territorial claims were made by erecting a tall cross in a place which would become the courtyard of a church. Until the church was built, services were held in the open air around the cross. Many of these crosses were ridiculously tall in an attempt, perhaps, to signify that the Christian God was more important than existing deities that the native residents had been worshipping. When a church was built, a more modest-sized stone cross was carved and erected in place of the tall cross. This type of Churchyard Cross is known (in Mexico) as an Atrio Cross (Atrium Cross).

(See also Plague Cross)

For some of the later churches, a churchyard is not necessarily a graveyard. But being consecrated ground, many churchyards do contain graves. Wealthy people could afford entombment in a crypt beneath the church building but commoners were buried in the churchyard. Most grave markers were simple stone slabs until the 18th century, often inscribed with little more than the deceased person's initials and date of death. A Churchyard Cross served as a communal cross over the graves.

(See also Grave Cross)

(See also Wayside Cross)

Immediately after the First World War, which claimed so many lives, memorials were erected in prominent and public places such as church grounds to commemorate those who died or were injured in the war. Curiously these are still called 'War Memorials' even though most local people want to remember their lost loved ones and forget the war.

We no longer live in Napoleonic times and war memorials are no longer intended to glorify war. Yet for a few noisy people that is precisely what war memorials do. It is centre-stage and can be used as a platform for promoting politics or ideology. The controversy over recent visits by political leaders to large war memorials in Japan (Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo) and Germany (Bitburg) opened up old wounds. Hijacking memorials is dishonourable and shows no respect for those who perished.

Despite what we see in movies, there is no glory in war. There is no triumphant music; only cries of pain and human suffering. War is neither glorious nor glamorous. War is absurd, ironic, tragic, and a brutal reminder of the violence that man is capable of. There is little doubt that war is undeniably evil.

Other names for these monuments include Cenotaph, which is a erected to comfort the bereaved of those bodies that could not be recovered, Memorial Cross, War Cross, Cross of Sacrifice (originating from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Latin Cross with a superimposed sword, blade down, like the Soldier's Cross), or Intending Cross (meaning the deceased are aspiring to go to heaven). See also Veteran's Cross.