Talkin Church

Talkin in Cumberland has a plain but attractive mid-Victorian church with few remarkable or peculiar features. Its pews were made of light, rather than dark wood, and its ceiling was painted a rich, deep garnet. The large windows, uncluttered with excessive stained glass, meant the internals were still bright and cheerful. Yet there was something about this place which struck me as odd. Whatever it was, I rather liked, but I could not put my finger on it. Upon leaving the premises, I knew what it was. There were no graves.

For never having been formally consecrated, the ground was deemed unsuitable to receive interred remains. Today, therefore, it looks uncluttered and ungloomy and is a suitable place for children to play and idlers to lounge, absorbing what sunshine is admitted through the tall trees’ boughs.

Most parish churchyards are 'places of rest', whereas most nonconformist chapels, unlike our Salem, buried their dead elsewhere. Although having a cemetery attached to a church can mean that its grounds have strong links with local families, it does rather give an unhelpful impression. Christianity is not primarily about death and dying, but their opposites: life and living. Jesus Christ is the source of life and new life; He came that we might have it more abundantly. So this is what I liked about Talkin Church: it was used more by the living than the dead.

 They live, and live to God,
 A life that's known by few;
 Their Father's staff and rod,
 Support and comfort too;
 Christ is their Life, nor can they die,
 or hell can ne'er their life destroy.

-Wm Gadsby, No. 598 in Gadsby's Hymns