Return Of The Lindisfarne Gospels To The North

EDM number 576 in 1996-97, proposed by Joyce Quin on 24/02/1997.

That this House seeks the return of the Lindisfarne Gospels to a permanent home in the North of England; notes that the Gospels date from 698 AD and represent the first great religious and cultural achievement which combines the Roman, Celtic and Saxon traditions; notes that they were prepared for the shrine of St. Cuthbert on the island of Lindisfarne, now known as Holy Island, off the North East coast of the then Kingdom of Northumbria; notes that the permanent home of the shrine of St. Cuthbert and the Gospels was, from 995 AD to the Reformation, the great Cathedral of Durham; notes that the brief 1987 and 1996 return of the Gospels to Durham and to Newcastle resulted in large attendances of local people; and therefore calls upon the Secretary of State for National Heritage and the trustees of the British Museum to arrange for the permanent return of the Gospels to the North.

This motion has been signed by a total of 59 MPs.