Saturday, March 21, 1998

Celtic is cool these days

By LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News

It's ancient, and it's trendy.

Walk into any music store and be prepared to be bombarded with everything Celtic from Celtic Cowboy to Celtic Christian. Bookshelves are loaded with books from and about Celtic music, lore, legend, history, and religion.

Be sure to say, "Keltic," not "Seltic," unless you're talking about the Boston Celtics, because otherwise people will know that you don't know a shillelagh from a shamrock.

Next to the music, it's the religion that most recently has caught hold in the United States. Yanell Rieder, owner of Village Boutique, has been carrying James Avery silver jewelry for six years, and Celtic crosses, distinguished by a circle around the cross, have always been popular.

Recently, they have been even more popular.

"We sell a lot of those pieces," Rieder said. Just last year, Avery came out with a man's ring with a Celtic cross on it in addition to crosses to be worn around the neck.

"It has been very popular," Rieder said.

There are as many reasons for Celtic Christianity's popularity as there are leprechauns at a St. Patrick's Day parade.

"It's trendy," said Dr. Philip LeMasters, a McMurry University religion professor and member of Heavenly Rest Episcopal Church who is ordained in the Anamchara (Friend of the Soul) Celtic Church, a branch of the Celtic Christian Communion.

But trendy only goes so far, and LeMasters will tell you that his practice of Celtic Christianity is much deeper than the latest fad.

Celtic Christianity flourished from the fifth through the 12th centuries, but it was forced into accepting Roman ways at the Synod of Whitby in 664, LeMasters said.

Rome sent one of its bishops to "restore" Christianity to the British Isles and the Celts said "we don't need it," LeMasters said.

In fact, in his bestselling book How The Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill notes that St. Patrick's "gift to the Irish was his Christianity -- the first de-Romanized Christianity in human history, a Christianity without the socio-political baggage of the Greco-Roman world, a Christianity that completely inculturated itself into the Irish scene."

But Rome viewed the Celts' expression of Christianity as quirky and disagreed with the Celts on such matters as when Easter should be celebrated, how monks should shave their heads, and the Celts' emphasis on small group structure.

"That's very different from a Roman hierarchical approach," LeMasters said.

At the Synod of Whitby in 664 King Oswy of Northumbria "decided to follow St. Peter" and bring the church into conformity with Rome, LeMasters said. From that time, Celtic Christianity began its decline and is generally thought to have ended in the 12th Century, LeMasters said.

Some of the attractions of Celtic Christianity in its heyday are the same qualities that attract people today: it focuses on small group worship, it values scholarship, and it celebrates God in everyday life.

"They believe in basic Christianity," LeMasters said.

Many people today worship God for one hour on Sunday morning and then live another life the rest of the week, LeMasters said.

"Celtic heritage doesn't let you do that," he said.

LeMasters' interest in Celtic Christianity got a jump start in 1996 when he visited Scotland. His interest is not ethnic.

"I'm not conscious of any connection," he said.

But rather it's spiritual.

"My soul resonates with it."

When LeMasters returned from his trip, he set about learning all he could about Celtic Christianity. He made contact with a bishop in the Dallas area who accepted his doctorate in theology from Duke University as his theological education, and he later was ordained.

"I understand what I do as a professor of religion to be ministry," LeMasters said, and so ordination was a natural process.

And LeMasters found a natural home in the Celtic Christian Communion. A small group of like-minded people, including other professors, ministers and friends, meet periodically in members' homes for prayer, discussion and a simple celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

"That's when I find the greatest nourishment for my Christian life," he said.

But LeMasters' Celtic Christian life doesn't end there. Just as Celtic music permeates the airwaves, Celtic Christianity permeates his life. The Celts loved the ordinary, they celebrated everyday life and they were close to nature.

"They saw God's glory reflected in nature and what they did every day," LeMasters said. "They were in communion with God always."

Another point of contact for LeMasters is the Celts' love of scholarship.

"Their scholarship and love of learning really helped the civilization survive," LeMasters said.

They also were ahead of their time when it came to equality. The laity was very important in Celtic Christianity and legend has it that one woman, St. Brigid, was ordained a bishop.

In How the Irish Saved Civilization, Cahill said it "would be reckless overstatement to claim that women possessed equality in Irish society" of the time, but that Brigid and other abbesses were held in high esteem.

In fact, Cahill said, the abbesses were women whose "hands had the power to heal, who almost certainly heard confessions, probably ordained clergy, and may even have celebrated Mass."

LeMasters has combined his love of scholarship with his love of Celtic Christianity by promoting a "McMurry in Scotland" program. In July LeMasters will lead a 12-day tour of Scotland with visits to places of importance to the history of Christianity.

With his love of religion and scholarship, LeMasters finds participation in Celtic Christianity to be a natural extension for him.

"I find it to be a very good grounding for what I do," he said.