Welcome to St Endellion!
“St. Endellion! St. Endellion! The name is like a ring of bells. I travelled late one summer evening to Cornwall in a motor car. The road was growing familiar, Delabole, with its slate quarry past, then Pendoggett. Gateways in the high fern-stuffed hedges showed sudden glimpses of the sea. Port Isaac Bay with its sweep of shadowy cliffs stretched all along to Tintagel. The wrinkled Atlantic Ocean had the evening light upon it. The stone and granite manor house of Tresungers with its tower and battlements was tucked away out of the wind on the slope of a valley and there, on the top of the hill was the old church of Saint Endellion.”
So wrote Sir John Betjeman (see here for the full text of his article). about his approach to this magical church. St Endellion is one of England’s holy places, an ancient collegiate church with four prebends, a mile from the sea and surrounded by fields. Betjeman observed that the church goes on praying even when there is no one in it, and it has a sense of spiritual community which affects so many who come here. For many of the members of the two annual St Endellion Music Festivals, who provide music at an international level, St Endellion is their spiritual home.
Today St Endellion and St Minver are home to the two largest among our six churches. In St Endellion the Sung Eucharist on Sundays is in the High Church tradition, with incense. We love to welcome people into this sense of holy community, in a place where heaven and earth seem very close.
A very exciting project has begun at St Endellion, to make a small centre for the Arts & Spirituality with residential capability. A tripartite agreement has been forged between our church, the Diocese and the Music Festivals which has led to the formation of a new Company, called `Endelienta’, which has its own website: http://www.endelienta.org.uk/calendar.html
Endelienta has agreed to share buildings and has a mission to explore life and creativity through the Arts and Spirituality. Already the Rectory has been saved, the old ruined dairy purchased and this year a ruined barn has been fully restored to accommodate up to 19 young people. Please bring a group! While the barn is described as `an upmarket youth hostel’ the Glebe Farm is also available for booking, next door.
For us in church, this is like a `Fresh Expression of Church’ and is our primary mission, as we seek to serve people in North Cornwall and beyond, speaking of God’s love, his Incarnation, his beauty and our own response to his transcendence and immanence.
