“Why does a derelict chapel evoke a sadness within?”

Photo by Terra Strickland on Unsplash

This week, I have been exchanging messages with a friend in Wales about derelict chapels.

It touched a memory from 30 years ago, when I first visited my sister, who the Salvation Army had posted to a former mining village in the Rhondda Valley. As I walked around the village and its neighbouring villages, I felt a sense of sadness about the number of chapels that were disused or had been converted into retail units.

I asked myself the question, “Why does a derelict chapel evoke a sadness within?”

I was reminded that just as the people of Israel used stones to mark a place where they had an encounter with God, these stones were telling me a story of a people who have since gone.

A biblical reference to this practice is recorded in 1 Samuel 7:12:

12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” New International Version (NIV)

It is not a surprise that so many of these chapels are called Ebenezer.

Throughout the week, in quiet moments, I pondered the stones of these derelict chapels.

Early Thursday evening, while sitting in Chaiawala’s, I wrote,

‘We wonder at Stonehenge, we wonder at the Wailing Wall, yet the Chapel that lies derelict in the town or valley, what do we care? It is as Stonehenge or the Wailing Wall. It tells a story; if you listen, those stones may speak!’

Later that night, I realised why these derelict buildings meant something. At the age of 12, a few of us were exploring a site near a friend’s house when we came across what turned out to be an old mission hall. There were still religious tracts on the floor from the last time it was used.

The floorboards were broken, and it hadn’t been used for a long time. A day or two later, one of the lads had a dream in which he felt we should be prayed for in the old Mission Hall. We were, and what an experience we had! I recall I cried so much that I could see the floorboard soaked with my tears. It was the day that I first spoke in tongues, as recorded in Acts 19 verse 6.

When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

It wasn’t long after that that the old Mission Hall was back in use.

My mind then took me back further, to when I was 6 or 7. Again, I was exploring a site designated for redevelopment and entered a disused Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church. It felt like entering someone’s house only to discover no one was there.

I know the SDA church has long gone, and the old Mission Hall, I am told, has also gone.

Having sat with this for over a week, I am wondering whether I should view these derelict chapels like I do grave stones of the dead. The derelict chapel is a grave stone marking the death of what once was a living community. Just as gravestones evoke my imagination, so do these chapels, as I somehow attempt to connect my present to their past.

Emma Roberts, in the video below, shares her connection to a derelict chapel in Llanelli.

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