Scenes along the trail of the Green Chapel

April 14, 2018 3:48 PM

It started with a mysterious marking on a map & led to a 'thin place', where slender divisions separate heaven and earth, past and present. A remarkable journey that took place over the course of an afternoon & ended up hundreds of years in the past.
posted by scalefree (14 comments total)

To Whom It May Concern:

Please let this place not be fucked up by crowds of people who only go there because it's hot on Twitter.

Amen.
posted by Halloween Jack at 3:55 PM on April 14, 2018 [16 favorites]

The church he found is part of the Small Pilgrim Places Network. You can find all the affiliated spaces on their webpage. It's a cool resource for the UK. I wish I could find a similar list for the US.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 4:11 PM on April 14, 2018 [9 favorites]

I read that first sentence and immediately thought of the thinny's in Stephen King's books... "A thinny is a weak spot in reality where the fabric of the worlds has been worn thin."
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 4:19 PM on April 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

The chapel itself looks to me like a real world instantiation of the Green Chapel from the late Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood series of novels.
posted by scalefree at 4:28 PM on April 14, 2018 [6 favorites]

Yeah, but you never hear from the people who happen on the place by the light of the full moon, now do you.
posted by Etrigan at 5:11 PM on April 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

I hope people are too unwilling to walk to stuff like this so it doesn’t become spoiled by internet buffoonery.
posted by Annika Cicada at 5:52 PM on April 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

I wish I could find a similar list for the US.

Seconding that. Retirement project?

Thanks for posting. Lovely in many ways.
posted by Miko at 5:58 PM on April 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

I had not heard of the Green Christian Movement so here is a link.
posted by Miko at 5:59 PM on April 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Would love to walk and explore and find something like this.

Thanks for the link, Miko.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:52 PM on April 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

Pater Aletheias: “I wish I could find a similar list for the US.”

Thirding. It's not really hidden since you can see it from the main road, but we have a little, contemplative chapel with a lovely view that some people find inspirational. I'd like more people to make a part of their spiritual lives.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:07 PM on April 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

Two pairs of beeches waltzed with each other alongside the track, as two birches stood by, waiting for their chance to cut in. is a perfect caption. Great find, thanks, scalefree.
posted by theora55 at 11:51 PM on April 14, 2018 [3 favorites]

One of the top 5 most delightful threads I've ever read on Twitter. Great post, scalefree.
posted by mediareport at 4:14 AM on April 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

You can almost see this church from the road, at least as identified in Google streetview.

Also, if you missed it, the story of finding the church is continued in a second Twitter thread by gawanmac, who wrote "You can always rely on me to stuff up the threading, even though Twitter tried to make it numptyproof."

Additionally, St Margaret’s Wychling Church has their own website, even if the church doesn't have electricity.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:17 PM on April 15, 2018

I hope people are too unwilling to walk to stuff like this so it doesn’t become spoiled by internet buffoonery.

It's actually accessible via country lane, it's not really that crazy isolated. Just unusual in being a church with active services despite not being associated with a village or town, though there seem to be a few houses and farms that make up the hamlet of Wichling near by. The author just thought it would be more fun and appropriate to take a nice walk in the woods to get there.
posted by tavella at 9:40 PM on April 15, 2018 [1 favorite]