Thin Places

In Celtic spirituality certain locations were called ‘thin places’ – the division between heaven and earth was said to be at its narrowest. Here is your opportunity to contribute to embody by sharing a description or story of your own experience of a thin place – location or event – in the comments section below. But do take some time to read the other comments first. The original collection of thin places was started on embody in 1999. The comments, which span the last 10 years have been transferred here. Please add your own below.

My most vivid experience of a ‘thin place’ was when I saw a solar eclipse. It was a very beautiful experience which placed me in awe of the creator who inspired it.

By: Jenny

sometimes when I get home after work there is a need to sit in quiet and listen out for that ’still small voice’. that place gets so thin! for sure, the gap’s gone.

By: Lizzie

music often leads me to that thin place. sometimes after i drop my kids off at school i make a coffee and sit down and listen to a track. there are lots of specific tracks that seem to open up a window on heaven for me. one example is ‘easter song’ by a man called adam. it’s on one of the cafe del mar albums. the lyric runs somthing like ‘i walk on the line that you wrote in the sand.. put myself in your hands completely.. you’re bringing me back to life’. it takes me to that thin place nearly every time i hear it!

By: Jonny Baker

my recent experiences of thin places would have to be watching almighty thunder storms from the beach many times in parts of south east asia . within the power of each storm it was like God was physically touching the earth and reminding everyone of his ability to change a sun soaked paradise into a place of flood, darkness and sometimes fear. it was not so much a reminder of his anger as some might think, but more to me an image of his grace and beauty…..

By: Jean

my first child is about to be born…
this is now a thin place

By: Cuba

my thin place is lying on the shore of Lake Mckenzie at midnight and looking up to see the sky so full with stars that you thought
it was about to fall in as it looked so heavy. With a shooting star passing over about every 2 minutes – just for added effect!

By: gayle

i like to write poetry – sometimes it doesn’t have a structure or tangible meaning but the words come from deep within. they float in my mind and take me to a thin place where i can hear God whispering his love to me.

By: bea

every time it rains…a tangible wordless message in moisture.

By: stu

I remember visting The Tokyo Government Tower, it was this big human monstrostiy, that towers over the city. I sat looking out across this metropolis and could see all the way to Mount Fuji. The city was bathed in light and at that point the moment was reedemed and I felt God strongly in this tower of humanity.

By: Mark

The music of Jonathan Elias’ The Prayer Cycle creates a thin place. On a walkman it changes my view of people and the world, it changes me, the thin place.

By: Caryl

sitting in a park in old delhi. a former addict with his arm around a young injecting drug user. says “these are my friends”, and smiles. everyday bringing kids into a drop-in centre to free them of addiction. grace passes on perfect grace. in the thickest place on earth.

By: steve

There’s a place on the Great Orme, Llandudno, Wales where I like to go to wander,sit,think…It’s wild and beautiful in any weather..you can see for miles across the sea…It’s a good place to be with friends. I particularly remember a summer evening, with the sun setting like a golden roadway across the sea.

By: David Ward

Iona is a very ‘thin place’ (said George MacLeod once – founder of the Iona Community) Found that to be true there many times. Something about the clear sea, the sunsets from a boat on the Sound or sitting over on the Machair and the night sky in the autumn. Much more too.

By: kath

God tends to create thin places in times and places where I don’t expect it, like now, sitting in a dark room and quietly thinking.

But I do have to want heaven, and not earth, or I miss the thin places, or ignore them.

By: Jez

I enjoy silence, open spaces or music… but it’s through being with other people, whether just hanging out, eating, drinking or doing whatever that I feel myself and therefore somehow closer to God. Possibly it’s seeing the ‘image of God’ in them, I don’t know.

By: Dave Walker

I think maybe it’s possible to bring these thin places about – not by trying, but just by doing. Whatever it is you choose to do, if you have a spiritual thought or purpose in mind, you suddenly realise something is happening – or has just happened.
And it feels special.

By: Adrian

Watching the sea, listening to the waves as they reach the shore, feeling the wind on my face and smelling the salt in the air. That’s when I feel that God is present in creation.

By: Gabriella

Trees, especially very large old ones like oak and beech trees with the sky just visible through the branches create very thin places. I feel safe among trees. I feel small and cosy like a small child watched over by God of the trees.

By: jennihirst

i have found thin places in friendships… where the trust, faithfulness and understanding are a slight reflection of God’s relationship with us.

By: becky

Here now, waitng and watching for a miracle to unfold- I’m on a delivery suite in a hospital on night duty. I’m an onlooker, I’m a midwife….but I’ve done the hard work of birth three times and its worth every tear and pain. Thanks God

By: sarah ifill

A recent thin place for me, has been an arts cafe in battersea, its bazzare but every time I go in, I have an overwelming sense of God being there and celebrating as people come together eating and drinking – I sense God more in cafes than I do in cold church buildings – it really feels like heaven and earth meet when people stop and be with each other.

By: Ian Mobsby

For me, the thin places are places of spirituality, such as Iona, St David’s and Caldy Island (both Pembrokeshire, Wales), where there is a tangible sense of the prayer and worship of so many people over the centuries. Wilderness places, too — the Peak District moors. And those twilight moments when the natural world is settling down for it’s night’s rest — try walking down Shoulder of Mutton Hill, Steep, Hampshire, from the poet Edward Thomas’ memorial, or walk along the Arun valley north of Arundel at dusk and look out for barn owls. Enjoy God’s creation with him!

By: Roger Green

The place I have found the thinnest was talking to some friends on the way back from a church meeting. I was trying to argue out how ideas of a Christian God, who is endless, are relevant for a little wee human.

I was asking all these questions, then suddenly it was like all my arguments dried up, and my perspective and thoughts were gone. It all came back to Jesus.

Not just what he said or did but who he was – that he is the Truth.

That was when I first saw how “thin” human arguments can be.Good thing our God is a solid Rock.

By: keir

Thin places happen when the right people are present. Praying with friends who know one another well, who know each other’s struggles and triumphs; or glimpses of heaven in church watching someone lose themselves to God in singing, smile and just for a moment forget about the problems waiting at home.

By: Kate

When Craig won Big Brother and gave the 70 grand to a girl with downs syndrome. To see that in a place of such Media hype and competition for material gain, that an ordinary bloke laid down 10 weeks of his life for his friend.

By: Helen

I keep coming back here time and again, and as I sat here eating my breakfast this morning I realised that I was in thin-virtual-space. Unexpectedly wonderful.
Another place is the Peace Garden in Sheffield city centre. People sit there at any time of the day watching the great fountain in the centre and listening to the water. It is a place of sanctuary.

By: Ben Askew

Sometimes you can be put in a place where you have to trust God completely, only he can do it. We often say we trust God, but to trust Him 100% is so hard. Mine came laying on a hospital bed having been told my back was broken. You have to trust God, you can’t do anything, it’s all in His hands. Truly one of life’s thin places.

By: Dave

to me a thin place is in nature–getting away from people, cars, noise, etc. being near and watching animals like deer is part of that experience. to look into a deer’s eyes and to watch is to see the hand of its Creator.

By: a

I find the thin places within the poverty of my life and in the richness of others. I find the values of the world and those of the church contradict the words of Chirst to be a servant and not vainly rush after things but to be still and wait upon God, we often do not give the time to speak in our lives of rushing around. I like to walk through Sheffield city centre and reflect on the wonder and beauty of God in both people and creation. Yesterday I had to gaze at the beautiful autunmal beauty of a tree outside the Co-op store whilst waiting for a bus, the beauty was breath taking but at no cost to me. But I would call it priceless beauty given to us by our Creator.

By: les smart

THIN PLACE

i have crossed this border at risk
at great cost i came empty handed so i could love you
freely giving up my PLACE, my home

i found you in fields filled with stones
did you ask for bread?
THIN children run

tired mothers bury bruised fathers as I am lifted up from the earth
coming, walking through the THIN PLACE into the outer darkness

By: sarah fordham

Have you ever sat on a surfboard, 200 metres out to sea, looking back at a cliff-face that holds up the clouds? The bobbing sensation of the rise and fall of the swells mesmorises. The reality of a God who calls to his creation is beyond breath. Listen…

By: Mark Wilkes

walking on the beach in eastbourne and heraing the gulls singing out praise while the sun rose

By: jon

in an aeroplane above the clouds.

By: JOEL

I feel nearest to god when i’m lying down on a sofa with some music on and i can just think.

By: Harry

it’s got to be stars. it’s the sea for some but for me the enormity of the night sky away from the london lights is a very thin place

By: mike

I once visited the place, high in the mountains very deserted where Elijah was said to have created fire with the help of God. Quiet, majestic, and very very silent, but imbued with power and presence

By: jackie

strangers in the street who smile, cracka joke, or help u out when ur in a sticky situation: those people make me think of angels, or God, and heaven.

By: just me

Hungry and up an Algerian mountain, sheltering by a ruined wall. It was dusk. He came out of the mist carrying food for us. How did he know we were there? He didn’t give us a normal Arab welcome, or want anything in return. He walked back quickly out of sight. The next morning we looked for his nearby dwelling place. There was none.

By: kev

1994/5 New year’s Eve, midnight, Bagleys nightclub in London.

God hugged me inside out.

By: Tom Beardshaw

I have experienced a number of thin place sin night clubs. One time in particular, the friend that I had gone with left me. I just danced. I could almost see and feel the figure of Jesus dancing with me – awsome, never had anything quite like it!

By: Mary

Greenbelt (every year!) – a thin place and a safe place to hear, explore and think…

By: Di

Reading the verse in Zephaniah – ‘He will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing’. When Jesus sings over me as I drift off to sleep – that is a thin place.

By: Ruthie

Island of Iona, Scotland
Skellig Michael, Ireland
Arbor Low, Derbyshire, UK

By: Mary Ward

this morning…looking at the back of my 18 month old son, Louis sitting on my lap, looking at the curve of his tiny shoulders, smelling his hair and watching his body move as he breathed. what a mystery he is, even to me, his mother who carried him and bore him. And he loves me without question. and I can only wonder at the God who entrusted him to me, and that he has Louis and Ali written on his palm. This is a thin place.

By: ali

I pray for my children at bedtime. My wife falls asleep at my side. The house is quiet and I hear the wind just outside the window. I am overwhelmed with gratitude. A very thin place.

By: ray

when I am drained from intense communication and sometimes aggression from young people in great need…..a regular experience….I have 7 or more books around which I know can help kick the darkness until it bleeds daylight….this is a very special place of living on the edge and siping refreshing water of life…I become inspired and touched like the U2 song ‘one’, I then want to “we get to carry one another because we are one”

By: pip

Last year I was on holiday in the North West Highlands and onthe outskirts of Lochinver I stopped the car in a lay-by on the shores of Loch Assynt. Across the still shining water of the Loch from the opposite shore came the plaintive call of a cuckoo. Nearby were the ruins of an ancient castle, and the entire scene was drenched in sunlight. Suddenly I was aware of a harmony between the physical and the spiritual, of God’s Spirit interpenetrating creation with his love. It was a thin place where heaven and earth were almost one reality.

By: Malcolm Uren

Alone with the wild & untamed: ocean, sky, biting wind, the roar of His creation fused with a myriad of birdlife, animal life, human life and the recollection of past holy saints. My thin place is a place of meeting with my saviour. My spirit is constantly trying to reach that place in work, home, holiday. This all relaxes together on the place he has eased me into: Lindisfarne. And the inspired music of IONA.

By: Paul

It seems from my personal point of view, that these “thin places” people on here are being very emotional about (bar the musical one, Trance really lives up to its parent word “Trancendential”) images rather than experiances. Awe is the word. Not experiance. An experiance is when you stand on the shore infront of the sea, turn, and the word turns red and the people around you disappear. That my people is a “thin place”.

By: cogito

It was dark so dark, and a calm beyond stillness. I had simply come to the point of giving up; the giving up of my life. The gentle touch of a hand and a softly whispered tongue. Still the calm, even deeper, and still the dark. Until, within the darkness a golden light of many shades. Exaggerated by the surrounding darkness. Outside of me and yet with me. The light moved and had life, for it had personality, a radiance. It started to grow, but not in size or brightness, but in its personality, joy pure joy. Not joy because of, just joy because. More was revealed, until a rush of adrenalin testified to my fear. Not threatened by, but simply consumed should I see any more. Then it was gone, but not to deny me but to protect me. But in the suddenness of its going no doubt that it was there, rather an emphasis of its absence. Just as certainly as the sun rises, so the son has risen. Heaven reside beyond the thin, and Jesus waits to let us in.

By: Steve

Reading all of these has brought me to a thin place. Anywhere or anywhen I think and foucus on God, Jesus and the cross.

By: Sarah-louise

Every year in the first week of August I go to Pen-y-groes in Wales where a Christian event takes place. Attending the youth events always brings me closer to God.You can see everyone worshipping God and you can really feel his prescence. That is a very thin place.

By: Aimee

I encountered a “thin place” shortly before my father died in June ‘99. I was sitting with him in his room, and he looked below my chin, made a funny face and then started laughing. “Look,” he said, “I made a face at your daughter.” My child, his granddaughter, was 3,000 miles away at the time, but he saw her as clearly as if she really were on my lap. At that point, he was between here and there, and I was with him for a brief moment.

By: ej

Sat on a rock at Zennor Head, as I looked out to see where did the sky begin.

By: Andrew

The Embody Guestbook creates a thin place for me

By: Gill, Oxford

Standing laterally/The waves are/Pulsars of light/They ripple/Across the globe/And She waits/In the shallows/And the waves/Are passing through her/And passing through her/ And passing through her.

Cornwall. Has to be.

By: Helen

The thinnest place on earth is the gap between my heart and hers. Though she is 2000 miles away, she is never nearer than when we pray together and arrest the Almighty with our simple offerings of love and devotion to Him

By: Paul

Lying on my back looking at the stars on a crystal clear night–seeing them as 3D rather than a flat 2D picture–and getting a sense of the depth and enormity of the universe. What is mankind that you are interested in us?

By: Phil

For me being at The Eden Project in Cornwall, as I walked through the building, onto the platform, to see before me the amazing beauty of Gods creation. To see plants, colours, beautiful buildings, to see his creativity and imagination being worked through people in such an amazing way,was inspiring, powerful, and mind blowing, it brought tears to my eyes and left me in complete awe of God and his creation.

By: sonia mainstone-cotton

After a pint or two of beer in the pub sometimes the colours of things, especially the greens, yellows and reds of the pool table jump out at me, make me feel the world is real, and that I am real. This is my thin place

By: Neil

I’ve been blessed with several ~ At the far end of Chartres, France, farthest from the magnificant Cathedral is a falling-down 11thC (I think) Church ruin. Its bare, neglected simplicity and beige-rose stone gently embraces the light and returns it to the visitor. It asks us humbly for forgiveness and a moment of quiet comfort, offering us to the same. At the corner of a busy city intersection a blind lady touched my wrist
and my soul.

By: Dennis

I had the benefit of visiting such a thin place in Nov 2000 and stayed on Holy Island. Its an undescribly beautiful and haunting place..

By: Steve Roberts

the thinnest place i’ve been to is sitting in a tiny darkened room in an art gallery where this incredible sculpture was gradually melting into a pool of bammboo sticks and wire. as it melted the ice-incased pebbles it consisted of dropped into the pool beneath setting of the most intense sounds and a play of light and shadow on the walls. there such peace and intimacy there it was like god was in the room

By: kiri

Inside Maeshowe, Orkney, as the setting winter sun shone through the length of the entrance tunnel to illuminate the back wall of the tomb. That place crafted out of dry stone more than 5000 years ago (older than the pyramids) specifically to receive those rays at that time each year. The millennia ceased to exist. There was just humanity doing its utmost to forge a conscious contact with its creator. In these thin places everything is simple, pared down to essentials, regardless of age, deeds, problems or who we think we are.

By: Alan Mynall

Sometimes the Lord is just near to me when I am at work, and I am just filled with joy. At those times everything is transformed.

By: gratus

Being part of an orchestra, quartet, or really good choir, knowing that you are part of something much bigger and more complex than you could ever be alone. Contributing to a joyful or passionate sound which exhilarates the musicians and inspires the audience.

Not every concert does it, but the feeling of eternity when everything is ‘right’ is unbeatable!

By: Kate

There’s all these places in Swansea:

-A street, upon which used to be written a love-letter, in French, on the tarmac, which, over the years, has gradually faded away as the object of its affection has, presumably, moved farther away.

-A grocer’s shop, attended by a sad-looking old man, a memorial to his wife in its window.

-A quiet place, in the park, right next to the university. There’s a rock, a kind of artificial mountain. And you can climb it and watch the park, the people, the animals.

-A place right in the centre of town where, notwithstanding the bustle surrounding it, notwithstanding that it’s in full view, there is perfect solitude.

By: Wood

My thin places are Lee Abbey in North Devon and Lindisfarne; in both of those places a have had a sense of God presencing through the landscape and its analogical mindscape. Perhaps too the sea adds to the sense of the holy. It’s hard to describe except that the ’sensory organ’ seems to be located in the upper chest and could almost set off a feeling of tightening of the chest or breathlessness.

By: andii bowsher

I was recently in Ireland, driving along a lonely road and had an over whelming vision of people trudging along that road cold, starving and desparate. God allowed me, for a second, to feel their pain. I turned to my husband and told him what I was seeing, and he pointed out that there were no ruins or abandoned houses, or any reason to beleive that people lived or came thru that area. Just then we rounded a corner and saw a small plaque that was dedicated to all those who died in that same area of starvation. I beleive that in Thin Places, that God allows you to see the pain as well as the glory, so you may adapt your life to the good for all man. Never let an opportunity to do good for someone pass you by.

By: Elizabeth

When my adopted daughter (adopted at age 10) climbed into my lap the first morning we were together, I knew what God treasured in our (God’s and my) relationship–complete and total faith in the great loving Father. It was a thin place.

By: viv

Last August I married my husband Pete and we had a blessing on the Greenbelt mainstage. We thought maybe 200 people would watch but it was more like 2000. As we walked down the middle of all these people they started clapping and cheering. I have never felt anything like it, a connection with God, Pete and all these Greenbelt souls. A very thin place.

By: Debs

You can get there when your sweat is dropping on the mat like fat springtime raindrops after the first five hundred kicks – when no more thoughts are interfering.

By: Amy

From Melbourne, Australia… sitting in a cafe in Rathdowne Street just a couple of weeks ago, thinking about Jacob’s Ladder. I was touching God.

You were in this place and I never knew.
In the leaves that turn crimson and gold and then fall to the ground life’s cycle circling.
In the child’s delight at a baby cino and a big dog and a puddle and a leaf and an adult’s smile joy in the ordinary.
In the shops with eccentric shopkeepers, strange cheese, beautiful tapestries and musty books stories made real.
In the laughter, the quiet whispering, the greeting of a stranger, the unseen caress, the chatter of friends, the silence of solidarity
community that embraces.
You were in this place, and I never knew.

By: Cheryl

Falling deep into the Mark Rothko paintings in Tate Modern.

By: Dean

The comunion service at the Greenbelt Festival is often a thin place for me. I have so many friends there each year and I fell safe and surrounded by people who have been on a similar journey to me and I feel close to God and the company of heaven. This year’s communion at GB was especially thin.

By: Callum

A few nights ago I awoke in the early hours of the morning to a clap of thunder and the sound of extremely heavy rain. Even in the darkness I could see the rain falling so heavily like a sheet of water falling from the sky. The sound of it even was overwhelming. It was over within minutes but in that time I felt very small and humbled before God’s power. It was definitely a moment where I felt God’s presence – my ‘thin place’ that night!

By: Jacqui

I have been to a few Paul Winter concerts in the last 30 years. Each time there was a sense at some point during the concert that we were on holy ground.

By: Mary Beth

Near the graced monks. For instance Fathers Porfirie and Paisie from Athos mountain. The grace dwell inside them and transfigurate the peoples who stay around.

By: Bob

Watched the Sun set over the Serengetti while thousands of wildebeasts, zebras and other animals roamed the plains.

By: brendan

Sunrise over rustington beach as i drive to work

By: David Martin

Two thin places in particular:
(1) listening to Mozart’s French Horn concerto’s (especially with headphones);
(2) pictures from the Hubble space telescope.
Then there was the time I was flying across the Atlantic, on my way to deal with my uncle’s death. His sister, my mother, had died only a year or so earlier…and as we streaked across the water, a fabulous aurora borealis appeared to the north. I knew I was witnessing their reunion.

By: Eleanor

hiking raven run trail near lexington, ky — suddenly coming to an overlook of the ky river

a particular day when bright yellow autumn leaves were spilled along the sidewalk, creating a golden path

cat chasing her tail

St. Thomas Episcopal/Lutheran Church, KY

By: cynthia

i met Jesus by the water. Specifically the detroit river, canadian side. nobody around; just the spirit of God reminding me of what i had heard of Him. since then, being alone by the water, especially at night with a bit of a breeze, has always been a “thin place” for me. i’ve learned that in the bible, wind often refers to the spirit, and water to the word. Is it any wonder that when i’m alone, and i can hear the wind meet the water, i get to enjoy a thin place with my saviour?!

By: doug

I recently walked a labyrinth under the full moon with friends, using a candle and moon light to guide the way. This was a very moving experience.

By: Fran

Thin Place: Anywhere in nature, really. However, Buckskin Gulch in southern Utah, USA enlivens one’s awareness to an awesome, mysterious God; the stillness and quietness is intensely loud and beckoning. Hiking in the Himalaya Mts. is also a very thin place–mountains high, valleys low!

By: Jon

Thin Place: While in Katmandu, Nepal one evening during a shower of light rain, in the distance, in the Himalaya the most awesome sound of thunder with distant flashes of lightning transported me to Thin Place. I have never heard thunder like Himalaya thunder; it rumbles on and on and on, deep and low. There is an unknown, mysterious, sacred quality to these thunder-rumbles!

By: Jon, again

Holding someones hand, – all at once delightful and fearful and still just right.

By: clare

Looking out across the grasslands of the now dry Wavy Lake to the north of Strome, Alberta gives the very real sense that this is a significant “thin place”

By: Brian McGaffigan

During a time of real struggle at university, I spent an evening in the beautiful park on the side of our mountain-top university campus. Burnaby Mountain Park overlooks all of Vancouver and the North Shore and the sunset is fantastic.

I remember sitting there with a blanket and an instrument and my journal and pouring myself out to Him – forver this spot will be a thin place for me.

By: jocelyn

The thinest place I can think of is when you are battling temptation and chosing between right and wrong—good and evil. This is the time God comes closest to you to help you bare your Cross and even carry it for you if he must.

By: Richard

Silence and space often lead me to that thin place, to have a day where no one talks to me and I talk to know one where I walk for miles. That can be in the city or the country but then I hear God.

By: Beef

The beach is a thin place. Walking the length of it, alone, watching the waves and tides and watching the changes in the clouds, sun, shaddows etc. You feel it’s simply you and God in all his majesty and peace.

By: Esther

My most memorable “thin place” On 24th Jan 2003, as I was riding the bus to work, I had a lovely experience of Jesus, holding me, hugging me and consoling me. I was over the moon. At 5.00 pm, I heard that my eldest sister was in a plane accident. She has been in a coma ever since (a year plus). Nowadays, when those feelings of love from God come to me, I panic wondering if it is in preparation for another big blow.

By: Njeri

I am going to college at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California. Every night when I walk back to my dorm from work, I stop by the cliffs and stare out across the sky. I hear the roaring thunder of waves crashing below, I smell the salt in the air and I see the evening star as it sets. And sometimes if you stay up late enough you can see the moon set on the ocean. Sunsets on the ocean are incredible, but moonsets are truly a thin place. I am thankful for every day that I am alive to see God reveal himself through his creation.

By: Jen Smith

Just listen to “Lamb – Gorecki” and you’ll understand my thin place!

God bless you if your reading this,

By: Alex

Somewhere on the west coast of Cornwall on a windy winter day I remember being in awe of the sights and sounds happening around me. The natural world was so spectacular it seemed strange but special to be the only person witnessing the scene.

By: MK

my thinest place was the night my daughter was born and we both were very close to heaven. I saw my life slipping and hers starting. I thank God every day that we get to spend some life together.

By: ellen loudon

I went to a gig at the Trinity Centre in Old Market, Bristol, a little over a year ago. The acts were Fourtet, i.e. a bloke with a laptop, and Explosions in the Sky – a vocalless guitar/bass/drums band. Explosions songs are intense affairs which build and build over many minutes. The musicians close their eyes, sweat, and get lost in it.

During the Explosions set, I managed to get my body up against the big speakers by the stage. It wasn’t deafening, but as I hugged the speaker I could feel the chords and beats reverberating through my lungs, heart, liver: a kind of benign radiation.

The gig happened in the basement of a converted church. God was present – and this was a thin place, for me.

By: Tim Summers

At my Father’s funeral.

Visiting a friend who was terminally ill.

At a John Wimber conference 20 years ago.

When I read John’s gospel as my wife underwent a nine hour operation for a brain tumour.

Whenever we sing “Look What God Has Done For Us” and sing the line “children that have grown”.

Seeing U2 play “Where The Streets Have No Name”.

I get hairs standing up on the back of my neck just watching the concert videos.

By: Derek

Wow, its amazing how God can reach down and touch people in so many different places and ways. For me a big area that leads to thin places is music – particulary misere at the moment. Also the Forum in Rome, sitting there where Paul had preached, hearing the waves of voices wash over you like the sea crashing on the sand and just feeling the touch of God in that place. Another is the Winter Gardens in Sheffield and Lea Abbey in Dorset. Sunsets, seasides and storms also bring me to a thin place. Finally the thinist place I’ve experienced recently was when my Nana died just after we’d all been worshiping and taking communion around her – we toasted her and she slipped away to take her communion on the other side of the curtain – it was so breathtaking, full of God’s presence in that moment, washing away the sadness for a brief minute.

By: Kt Hartless

Four days ago as I held the hand (tightly) of my friend as she gave birth to her son.

By: Charity on November

Had a very strong urge to walk across the bay in Shetland to a narrow strip of land by the machar and to search, which I did curiously, and found the ruins of a monastic cell. Here I found inner peace – a thin place, full of years of prayer, so I joined in, to connect with those of the past of this holy place. Another site is the field to the east of Rake Hey Covert at Storeton, Wirral, England, just by the edge of the wood. Another: the RC Basilica on the Isle of Gozo in the Med; another place full of prayer and praise to God, whose presence is felt acutely in that place. Finally, Tigh na Cailiachan Dubh ( House of the black women [ convent ] )near Breanis, on t’eilean Leodhas, Outer Hebrides. A quiet and prayerful place where the Daily Office or the Scottish Episcopal Eucharist would not be out of place – indeed, they need to be celebrated with the feeling of, or is it an unconscious awareness of others there with you? “We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.”

By: Graeme

Struggling with the memories and images and experiences of this hunt for hope I went on in South Africa and Zimbabwe last month while researching aids survival. Can’t find a place for them–my heart overflowing these days. I thought maybe I can’t find a place for these stories because there isn’t one. But now I’m wondering.
In wonder.
These stories of courage and comfort in the face of death and despair belong in a thin place.
Light in darkness.
Heaven a breath of breeze just barely felt
Caressing my heart
In hope.

By: Anne de Graaf

Sitting in an empty car in an empty parking lot. For sure.

By: Jeff

HI – I just found out i am pregnant, we are very excited! Last night waiting for my husband to come home so I could take the test nearly killed me. but when that little blue + came up there was much jumping up and down and squealing.

So now finally I am pregnant and suddenly realise that I don’t know anything, so that’s a bit scary!

I need to start researching diapers and strollers and stuff! This is great!

I just had to tell someone! weeeeeeeeeeeee!

By: Joniepoo

sitting with my mp3 player listening to some worship music during my break at work ..

By: aksu

I wanted to write something but reading all these other posts just reminded me that there have been too many thin places to list here and reading everyone elses’ just now when I really need a thin place helped me affirm that I have always been brought to them/found them when I need them and that thin places are always with us…like right here and right now on this page and where I am this moment…

By: Leslie Clark

When I think of “thin places” I can’t help but invision the Great Smoky Mountains in Eastern Tennessee. Some of the oldest mountains on Earth, they are enveloped by ethereal clouds where the ancient time worn mountiantops are welcomed and held as if returning from a hard fought battle . Their verdant still forests evoke the mystical stillness of the garden of eden. The abundant species of life that exist there are truly testaments to the power and majesty of God’s creation.

By: Susan

Definitely has to be Holy Island (Lindisfarne) – especially standing on beach at sunset for night prayers and listening to seals singing. Awesome.

By: Margaret

The mountain road above macynthlleth in south snowdonia has a memorial to Speaker Thomas, who considered this has spiritual home. When I stand at this vantage point, i sense some of the wisdom which I’m sure he gained through faith. It’s a hell of a ride to get there.

By: jim

I love this site! I was going to type something more profound but I just got a call and have to go.
But I’ll be back. 

By: SteveMullo

I don’t think 99% of your posters really know what a thin place is. Most of them say stuff like, “having a baby is a thin place!” or, “when I’m happy!”.
Ross point cemetery in Victoria, BC is a thin place, I have seen the spirits walk there, and statues move. I don’t mean that metaphorically.

By: Sam

I was introduced to Barafundle Bay in June by a special friend and felt an instant connection to it. I was stunned by its beauty and, despite the fleeting visit (probably only on the beach for 30 mins or so), I knew I would be back many times and that it held something very sacred to me.
I have been since to watch the sunrise twice, once on my own and once with some friends just last Friday. Only today did I find out from a colleague that it is known to be a thin place. Its connection now makes complete sense. Doing sun salutations (yoga) with the sun rising in front of me and the moon shining behind me, very very heavenly moments.
I recommend it to you all, it is well worth any distance and journey.

By: Lucy O’Connor

 

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