Glen of Cross Roads

DateLine (3/08/06 – Naas, County Kildare, Ireland)

I’ve discovered that Irish television has the equivalent of the History Channel. Actually it’s BBC, British TV, where I happened to catch a segment on Irish glens; specifically the Glens of Antrim (see www.antrimhistory.net). Seems as if glen comes from the old Irish word connotating a narrow secluded valley (in the mountains) and the TV special was giving visibility to a lost way of life that at one time was quite common in the Irish countryside.

People were bound together from necessity because of the hardships of a pre-modern lifestyle. By pre-modern I mean no electricity, no running water, and no grocery stores. These were small self-sufficient communities who found it easier to work together for survival. If one family fell on hard times the other families would share from their overflow until the family got back on its feet. Although it was not explicitly stated in the documentary I imagine that the interconnection was as much social as it was physical.

The TV special communicated a slight sadness over these lost communities, many of the homes having lapsed into decay and their memory’s maintained by fading oral tradition and a few yellow photographs. What once were vibrant idyllic gatherings of mankind are now historical relics. As I contemplated the past and present status of the glens my thoughts turned to similarities between them and churches.

The church is a community bound together by the common bond of faith in Christ. Church members are compelled to shoulder each other’s burdens, many times acting as a physical, spiritual or emotional safety net for each other. The environment outside of the church can be quiet hostile; members must exert effort to survive. A healthy church is an island of heavenly bliss in the midst of the hostility.

I’m sure that an inhabitant of an Irish glen of 150 years ago could never imagine the utter disappearance of their communities and lifestyles just as we could never imagine the demise of our church. No doubt over time the lure of an easier life in the modern cities took their toll on these communities. I can’t imagine that anyone consciously decided to end the glen lifestyle; it just faded away.

Where’s the challenge for us? Abandonment of the faith for the “easy” life has the potential of impacting more than the single individual. The fabric of community consists of interwoven threads. The character of the fabric is enhanced by the collective contributions of each thread. One loose filament starts the unraveling of the whole. Unimaginable as it might seem to us, a church can become a historic relic. May historians never have the opportunity to explore the artifacts of the “Glen of Cross Roads.”