In our own words

Thoughts on the Celtic Catholic Church
by Fr. John F. Harrell

For me, the Celtic Catholic Church is a direct link with the earliest followers of the Way. They had no edifices within which to conduct their services, nor grand palaces in which to hold their councils and synods.

Even their faith was more a subject for mockery among civilized souls than anything else. Crucifixion in the Roman Empire was reserved for the dregs of society, so anyone in the family who was executed in such a fashion generally destroyed the family's reputation, as well. It was the sort of thing one hid if one wanted to be accepted in polite society. Paul, as fanatical, irritating tent-makers are wont to do, wouldn't let it alone. "I preach Christ, and Him crucified," he reminded his flocks. They responded to him with renewed commitment, I imagine, but also at least with winces of painful embarrassment and rueful chagrin.

The Celtic Catholic Church provides no justification for separating the plebs sancta Dei into separate camps in the ways the Protestant and Catholic rulers of Great Britain did -- they both persecuted our forebears. Our legacy as Christians has less to do with rationality and more to do with reacting out of love for the members of the entire family of man than I think even today most mainline churches insist their members understand. Being able to say, not just with words and a nod to scripture, but in the meditation of my heart, that "good or bad, Cousin Leroy is a part of MY family" is a gift of holy wisdom and not of the world's wisdom. In the Celtic Catholic Church, we know this and we wait on it.

Our little church is, in a deeply personal way, the vessel in which my own affections have been molded by the Holy Ghost and tempered over time. The joy and delight I know in all this are usually quiet, because that is my way; but they abide nonetheless. They drive me, fill me, and move me to pray, to touch, to bless, to forgive.

It is enough, a mystery full of quiet whisperings of glorious light somewhere off down the passageways of time, truly an exquisite journey and a remarkable gift.