The Tale of Two Cathedrals

We headed south today and stopped by the city of Armagh.

It is a small and beautiful town.  Di wanted to stop due to the remarkable people and events that have occurred in this town throughout Irish history.  

St. Patrick named this town the ecclesiastical city in the mid-400's.  This reality seems to have taken over the people of the town as it has two different yet equally magnificent cathedrals bearing his name.  The catholic version is ornate and around 160 years old.  The anglican version is less magnificent in physicality, but carries nearly 1600 years of history.

I was blown away by the distance between the two.  The proximity, as you will see is nearly nothing.  Relationally it seems to be as if the city is a great chasm and once you climb a hill you have chosen a team for life.  David, the caretaker at one of the sites shared that he had never been to the other. "Not for any other reason than, I haven't found the time."

The disparity between Catholic and Protestant seems to be less one based on hatred and more on an apathy or neglect to actively engage and pursue relationship with the other.  I did not leave judging the people of Armagh, but feeling convicted of the chasms in my own life and the apathy that I show towards crossing over them.

I appreciate that when we come to Ireland we do not feel as if we have arrived.  Both times we have returned home with a greater desire to live well in the present rather than quit life and hold out for the hope of a perfect future.