Golden Valley's Parallel Vision: Forest Lawn

Golden Valley was conceptualized in mid 1989, analyzing Filipino practices related to burials and memorialization in the context of solemn respect for traditions, love of family, bond with the dead, and the very pragmatic custom of “bury, pray, eat, and play” that summarizes the gathering and fellowship of family members accompanying the traverse to the next life. This concept saw expression in the “Golden Valley Vision.”

            A few months later, the family came upon the history of the memorial park and happily discovered that Dr. Hubert L. Eaton in 1917, the originator of the memorial park, shared a similar concept of meaningful and beautiful burial grounds. He built Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, USA. We are therefore happy to share with you the vision expressed by Dr. Eaton in “The Builder’s Creed.” Thus,

THE BUILDER’S CREED 

I Believe In A Happy Eternal Life.
       I Believe Those Of Us Who Are Left Behind Should Be Glad In The Certain Belief That Those Gone Before, Who Believed In Him, Have Entered Into That Happier Life.
       I Believe, Most Of All, In A Christ That Smiles And Loves You And Me.
       I Therefore Know The Cemeteries Of Today Are Wrong, Because They Depict An End, Not A Beginning. They Have Consequently Become Unsightly Stone yards Full Of Inartistic Symbols And Depressing Customs; Places That Do Nothing For Humanity Save A Practical Act, And Not That Well.
       I Therefore Prayerfully Resolve On This New Year’s Day, 1917, That I Shall Endeavor To Build Forest Lawn As Different, As Unlike Other Cemeteries As Sunshine Is To Darkness, As Eternal Life Is Unlike Death. I Shall Try To Build At Forest Lawn A Great Park, Devoid Of Misshapen Monuments And Other Customary Signs Of Earthly Death, But Filled With Towering Trees, Sweeping Lawns, Splashing Fountains, Singing Birds, Beautiful Statuary, Cheerful Flowers, Noble Memorial Architecture With Interiors Full Of Light And Color, And Redolent Of The World’s Best History And Romances.
       I Believe These Things Educate And Uplift A Community.
       Forest Lawn Shall Become A Place Where Lovers New And Old Shall Love To Stroll And Watch The Sunset’s Glow, Planning For The Future Or Reminiscing Of The Past; A Place Where Artists Study And Sketch; Where School Teachers Bring Happy Children To See Things They Read Of In Books, Where Little Churches, Triumphant In The Knowledge That From Their Pulpits Only Words Of Love Can Be Spoken; Where Memorialization Of Loved Ones In Sculptured Marble And Pictorial Glass Shall Be Encouraged But Controlled By Acknowledged Artists; A Place Where The Sorrowing Will Be Soothed And Strengthened Because It Will Be God’s Garden. A Place That Shall Be Protected By An Immense Endowment Care Fund, The Principal Of Which Can Never Be Expended—Only The Income Therefrom Used To Care For And Perpetuate This Garden of Memory.
         This Is The Builder’s Dream; This Is The Builder’s Creed.