Weird thing happened today.... as we were driving along..... Dawn was driving.... and I asked her.....
"What IS the difference between a church and a chapel?"
And we started to discuss it briefly..... we figured the words "methodist" and "presbyterian" might be involved somewhere along the line, but we both agreed that neither of us actually knew the difference.....
As we were thinking about it..... i was doing th thousand yard stare out the windscreen and i catch, out of the corner of my eye, Dawn is waving to someone driving in the opposite direction..... All i see is a flash of blue and the moment is gone.
"I've no idea who that was" exclaimed a puzzled Dawn.
For a brief moment my mind returns to the church question, and suddenly my subconscious wakes me up and i blurt out the word "Simon".
The car in question, travelling the other way to us was a young lad who i used to work with and it was his mum who was waving at Dawn.......
How would Simon's mum know Dawn was coming in the opposite direction so readily as to be able to spot and wave to us in that split second?
Dawn's car used to belong to her.... that's how!!
Mystery solved......
When Dawn texted Simon's mum to explain why we'd both looked so gormless as she frantically waved to us..... The church/chapel question.... well, it turns out we're not the only ones who don't know the difference.....
If you're anything like me, you'll have already headed across to your favourite search engine like Bing, or Ask Jeeves, and you'll have posed that same question......
Best answer I can give......
Church seems to be about the people (the congregation)
Chapel seems to be about the building which may be more multi-purpose than a church
And that, as they say, is a wrap.......
Here's a picture i took from one of my local "haunts" you can see.... left to right........ Masts at Pole Moor..... Worts Hill (or Cornish Pasty Hill as we know it)...... M62 and Scammonden Bridge.... you may spot Stoodley Pike in the distance..... and then back to looking over Outlane.....
"Church" has a u, r, c & h after the initial "ch" but "chapel" has these letters - a, p,e, and l. That's the difference.
ReplyDeletedad joke #666?
DeleteDamn, you already found the answer! Chapels are smaller and are most often incorporated into a bigger building, such as a hospital, army barracks, in past eras within castles and so on. They are almost always non-denominational, so all faiths can pray within.
ReplyDeletevery well explained - thank you - your words is better than mine is!
DeleteAlso a lot of chapels were founded by dissenters, or non-conformists. People always arguing over the nitty-gritty.
ReplyDeletethat's a very good point - i love it..... those pesky missionary-eating outlanders!!
Delete