Contemporary Celtic-style Pilgrimage
Before examining contemporary ‘Celtic’ pilgrimage, it may be helpful to have a general look at the recent revival of Christian pilgrimage throughout our islands.
Although there has been a significant reduction in the number of people regularly attending church services in recent years, Government census and opinion polls show that there are still high proportions of people who consider their faith to be of some importance to them, and retain spiritual values, some by undertaking some form of pilgrimage. There is also recognition that there are many with no religious belief or affiliation who go on pilgrimage. A recent web article quotes William H. Swatos Jr., the sociologist: 'There is a real debate over what is a ‘real’ pilgrimage. There is a certain narrative about the terms, a romantic notion, the part … that everybody who went on pilgrimage was very religious and went for deeply religious motivations. That isn’t really true … there were many reasons for going on pilgrimage, and there still are'.
Today pilgrims travel for many reasons. One of these is personal need, the belief that being in a sacred location can bring healing, spiritual awakening, or other positive desires ... today pilgrims are likely to go to any or all of these places, not just where their particular faith prescribes.[1]
People journey to Christian ‘holy places’ such as Lindisfarne, Iona, Glastonbury, or further afield to Santiago de Compostella, Lourdes or the Holy Land because it affords an opportunity for some ‘time out’, individual space and fulfilment; with the additional prospect of discovering their personal place in the world. For some, what may begin as a solo or group journey, grows into a memorable communal experience on the road, and becomes a life-changing occurrence, particularly for those who originate from countries where community life has disappeared.
Dyas is convinced that the pilgrim movement shows ‘no sign of faltering … with the desire to set apart space as sacred and the instinct to link physical and inner journey, seem as strong as ever’.[2]
Those who advocate the contemporary ‘Celtic’ Christianity movement, recognise the many benefits of adapting this rich vein of spirituality to the challenges of our postmodern world with an acknowledgement that we must ‘belong before we can believe’. The Celtic Christians certainly were acquainted with this rationale as they placed great emphasis on hospitality to both stranger and neighbour, sometimes inviting them to be part of their own community, and always with the ideal of treating everyone with the same respect, graciousness and generosity as they would if indeed the person was Christ himself. The celtic-styled Northumbrian Community, Iona Community, and Community of Aidan and Hilda, whose members are mainly dispersed throughout the world, all espouse hospitality as a priority, and it is an attractive feature of their ‘way’ or ‘rule of life’.
Although there is little residual of the Celtic-era monastic prayers, there is evidence of the monastic liturgy celebrated at Gaul. There is limited appeal for Latin liturgy but some would argue that there is a transcendence of the spiritual in its celebration. The communities aforementioned are to be congratulated for composing their own prayers in a style which is similar to that of their Celtic forebears, and today there are a large number of prayer books available written by people such as David Adams and Ray Simpson who have spent time living on Lindisfarne. There is also creative and imaginative liturgy and music devised and composed by John Bell and Graham Maule of the Iona Community, to name a few, who draw from the wells of traditional church music and liturgy.
In reviewing the strands of traditional Celtic Christian pilgrimage, it is acknowledged that placing oneself in the hands of God may not be an attractive option to some modern pilgrims. Our society expects to control its own destiny, and the selfless generosity in trusting God completely is for many a step too far. The Hippie trail to Kathmandu is actually more like old Celtic pilgrimage than modern Christian pilgrimage is, though the avowed intention is, or was, finding oneself rather than finding God, and may be considered as irresponsible, feckless, and downright dangerous.
In addition, society’s current mind-set impacts on the traditional Celtic rationale and practise of journeying ‘away’ from home, as so few modern pilgrims would ever dream of undertaking such a venture without the expected modern guarantees and services when travelling by local bus, cross-country rail journey, or trans-Atlantic air travel. There would be little movement without an itinerary, timetable and fixed destination.
Columbanus’ virtue of essential instability describing life as a roadway, where Christians must travel in perpetual pilgrimage as guests of the world, may be anathema to people living in the 21st century who require a definite temporal destination, or do they? These same people, however, do have some instability in their lives. Invariably, many of them will eventually move away from their families and birth communities to find further education, housing, employment, and new relationships – none of which may last forever. Is this possibly the modern equivalent of white or green martyrdom with personal separation from everything and everyone that is loved, where their deepest desires and spirituality are suppressed in the pilgrimage of personal achievement?
Contemporary Celtic-style pilgrimage offers the possibility for both the individual and groups of people to recover what has been lost. A journey to the ‘quiet’, but not necessarily to a place of solitude, but somewhere where there is little that separates this world from the next; a place where the Holy Spirit may disturb, but gently; a locus of Christian significance with history and kudos, where saints and angels still tread, and the spirit of peregrinatio has been fostered.
This style of pilgrimage is related to the ‘visit to a shrine’, even though the focus is on the place not the person. For reasons of geography, locations such as Iona and Lindisfarne have been left behind by industrialisation and citification, and therefore may seem miraculously peaceful and ‘outside time’ to someone raised in Glasgow, Newcastle or Birmingham, which although perhaps being historically naïve, may also quite possibly be useful.
[1] Modern Pilgrimage, http://afcnewsource.org.s60463.gridserver.com/religion/modern-pilgrimage.html
[2] Dyas, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage.
Although there has been a significant reduction in the number of people regularly attending church services in recent years, Government census and opinion polls show that there are still high proportions of people who consider their faith to be of some importance to them, and retain spiritual values, some by undertaking some form of pilgrimage. There is also recognition that there are many with no religious belief or affiliation who go on pilgrimage. A recent web article quotes William H. Swatos Jr., the sociologist: 'There is a real debate over what is a ‘real’ pilgrimage. There is a certain narrative about the terms, a romantic notion, the part … that everybody who went on pilgrimage was very religious and went for deeply religious motivations. That isn’t really true … there were many reasons for going on pilgrimage, and there still are'.
Today pilgrims travel for many reasons. One of these is personal need, the belief that being in a sacred location can bring healing, spiritual awakening, or other positive desires ... today pilgrims are likely to go to any or all of these places, not just where their particular faith prescribes.[1]
People journey to Christian ‘holy places’ such as Lindisfarne, Iona, Glastonbury, or further afield to Santiago de Compostella, Lourdes or the Holy Land because it affords an opportunity for some ‘time out’, individual space and fulfilment; with the additional prospect of discovering their personal place in the world. For some, what may begin as a solo or group journey, grows into a memorable communal experience on the road, and becomes a life-changing occurrence, particularly for those who originate from countries where community life has disappeared.
Dyas is convinced that the pilgrim movement shows ‘no sign of faltering … with the desire to set apart space as sacred and the instinct to link physical and inner journey, seem as strong as ever’.[2]
Those who advocate the contemporary ‘Celtic’ Christianity movement, recognise the many benefits of adapting this rich vein of spirituality to the challenges of our postmodern world with an acknowledgement that we must ‘belong before we can believe’. The Celtic Christians certainly were acquainted with this rationale as they placed great emphasis on hospitality to both stranger and neighbour, sometimes inviting them to be part of their own community, and always with the ideal of treating everyone with the same respect, graciousness and generosity as they would if indeed the person was Christ himself. The celtic-styled Northumbrian Community, Iona Community, and Community of Aidan and Hilda, whose members are mainly dispersed throughout the world, all espouse hospitality as a priority, and it is an attractive feature of their ‘way’ or ‘rule of life’.
Although there is little residual of the Celtic-era monastic prayers, there is evidence of the monastic liturgy celebrated at Gaul. There is limited appeal for Latin liturgy but some would argue that there is a transcendence of the spiritual in its celebration. The communities aforementioned are to be congratulated for composing their own prayers in a style which is similar to that of their Celtic forebears, and today there are a large number of prayer books available written by people such as David Adams and Ray Simpson who have spent time living on Lindisfarne. There is also creative and imaginative liturgy and music devised and composed by John Bell and Graham Maule of the Iona Community, to name a few, who draw from the wells of traditional church music and liturgy.
In reviewing the strands of traditional Celtic Christian pilgrimage, it is acknowledged that placing oneself in the hands of God may not be an attractive option to some modern pilgrims. Our society expects to control its own destiny, and the selfless generosity in trusting God completely is for many a step too far. The Hippie trail to Kathmandu is actually more like old Celtic pilgrimage than modern Christian pilgrimage is, though the avowed intention is, or was, finding oneself rather than finding God, and may be considered as irresponsible, feckless, and downright dangerous.
In addition, society’s current mind-set impacts on the traditional Celtic rationale and practise of journeying ‘away’ from home, as so few modern pilgrims would ever dream of undertaking such a venture without the expected modern guarantees and services when travelling by local bus, cross-country rail journey, or trans-Atlantic air travel. There would be little movement without an itinerary, timetable and fixed destination.
Columbanus’ virtue of essential instability describing life as a roadway, where Christians must travel in perpetual pilgrimage as guests of the world, may be anathema to people living in the 21st century who require a definite temporal destination, or do they? These same people, however, do have some instability in their lives. Invariably, many of them will eventually move away from their families and birth communities to find further education, housing, employment, and new relationships – none of which may last forever. Is this possibly the modern equivalent of white or green martyrdom with personal separation from everything and everyone that is loved, where their deepest desires and spirituality are suppressed in the pilgrimage of personal achievement?
Contemporary Celtic-style pilgrimage offers the possibility for both the individual and groups of people to recover what has been lost. A journey to the ‘quiet’, but not necessarily to a place of solitude, but somewhere where there is little that separates this world from the next; a place where the Holy Spirit may disturb, but gently; a locus of Christian significance with history and kudos, where saints and angels still tread, and the spirit of peregrinatio has been fostered.
This style of pilgrimage is related to the ‘visit to a shrine’, even though the focus is on the place not the person. For reasons of geography, locations such as Iona and Lindisfarne have been left behind by industrialisation and citification, and therefore may seem miraculously peaceful and ‘outside time’ to someone raised in Glasgow, Newcastle or Birmingham, which although perhaps being historically naïve, may also quite possibly be useful.
[1] Modern Pilgrimage, http://afcnewsource.org.s60463.gridserver.com/religion/modern-pilgrimage.html
[2] Dyas, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage.