There's no such thing as gnomes?

Recently, the Diocese of Bath and Wells enacted a ban on plastic flowers, teddy bears, and garden gnomes in the cemeteries at Wrington and Congresbury. The church called these decorations tacky and "inappropriate" for a dignified cemetery.

Perhaps this is fair enough after all it is supposed to be a solemn locale not the place for 'cheerful' gnomes, flowers, and teddy bears. The land itself also belongs to the church and the rules are clearly displayed. A spokesman added "Things such as gnomes and plastic flowers are not permitted because they are aesthetically unattractive and they make it harder to maintain the grounds." Fair enough.

However, the spokesman also had this to say, "There is no such thing as a real gnome so why should we have such unnatural creatures in churchyards?" Whoops, now they're in for it. Here are some images from the nearby churches, St. Andrews at Congresbury and All Saints' at Wrington.
This picture of a stone corbel at St. Andrews suggests that maybe the church isn't so against comical little men dressed up in bright colours. Although it is supposed to represent a man with a headache in medieval times.

Even worse is All Saints' church which has angels

and gargoyles!

Hopefully the Diocese will immediately remove these "unnatural" creatures from the churches and increase the "aesthetic" of the buildings for all who visit them.

~Cogito, ergo deus non est~

(Notes: images retrieved from http://www.standrewscongresbury.org/history.php, http://www.wringtonsomerset.org.uk/allsaints/description3.html, http://www.wringtonsomerset.org.uk/allsaints/description2.html)