Monday, December 12th, 2005
Liturgy, Protestants, and Celtic Christianity
My life has shot off on a tangent of late. I don't really know what's going on.
I've mentioned before that it bothers me the way the protestant side of Christianity is so predisposed to splintering. This is partly because of the increased importance placed upon the scripture by Protestants. Sects often seem to highlight the importance of some specific part of scripture, and decide to break from their parent group as a result. This could be a product of our inherent disdain for tradition, as well as our use of the Sola Scriptura (only by scripture) edict: one of the basic tenets of Protestantism which claims scripture as the sole source of our beliefs.
While I find it fascinating and troublesome that Catholics would venerate some people above others because of their display of faith or because of their martyrdom, it also bothers me that well over 1500 years of tradition were abandoned a couple hundred years ago in favour of a new approach to Christianity. And few have looked back. This seems unreasonable. It's typically modernistic to abandon truth because it appears to be not "historically correct."
But some traditions are so hard to reconcile with scripture at all! For example, I still find myself struggling to accept the veneration of saints and the associated "pray for us," or to call Jesus' mother Mary, the Queen of Heaven.
I find contemporary protestant worship services troublesome too. I've had some good conversation over at Church Alienation, where contributors are concerned by the growing trend found in churches today: more and more adherants are coming to church in search of entertainment. I've experienced it myself: often people comment to me that "today's worship was terrific," or "I really enjoyed the service today." I'm not exempt either: I have often caught myself lamenting over the details of the service: whether a song was a success or not, whether the message was too long, too boring, just right-- whatever.
So our church services are packed-- is that really what we want? The attitudes we face should reveal to us that we're coming to church to have our own needs met, rather than coming to worship our Creator, or to enjoy fellowship with other believers.
But I'm so torn! As I weekly put together contemporary ways to communicate the Gospel and to encourage one another, I see life change in our body! People come in off the street and express a desire to accept Jesus as the Saviour they so need, they decide to be baptised, they begin to grow in faith! Long-timers begin connecting their lives to the needy! Whatever we're doing, right or not, God seems to be using it! In fact, the churches I've been part of in the past have often seen dozens of new believers every year! Are pragmatics enough? How important is the mode of our worship to God? Does He care what form it takes?
I was interested by Glenn Teal's mention of Celtic Christianity. He uses a Celtic book of prayer as part of his daily devotional. Though I have an Irish past, though I love Celtic music and art, (and play the penny whistle whenever I can) I was unclear about what makes Celtic Christianity unique. I started with Wikipedia, and found a lot of interesting, though obviously slanted information. Other articles have balanced out the views.
Some people feel that this elusive Celtic Christianity is the closest to the original form of our faith. They believe this because of a long and unsupported legend that Joseph of Arimethea himself brought Christiantiy to the Britons, along with the Holy Grail. This would make the Celts evangelised before the Romans were. Interesting, eh?
I also didn't realise that Paul's letter to the Galations is likely written to Celtic Christians! The Galatians, otherwise know as the "Gauls" may have been a celtic group living in the north.
All of this reading of traditional Christianity and accompanying liturgy has created a hunger within me for a formal expression of worship. What a tangent? What's going on?
All I can say is to stay tuned... who knows how this will turn out!
~Jason
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