INTEGRAL CHRISTIANITY: The Vision of Celtic Christianity for the Crisis of the 21st Century 

Celtic Christianity was one of the most vibrant expressions of the Christ-event in history. It developed its own distinct forms of worship and achieved a striking mystical relationship with its pre-Christian roots, especially in the experience of God in Nature and in art. It was monastic in character and organisation and challenged the more centralised forms of Roman Christianity which eventually – or so it seemed – absorbed it. But the spirit of a Celtic style of Christian living is by no means extinct. This Seminar will avoid historical romanticism but will explore the reappearance of Celtic Christian wisdom today at a critical moment for human evolution. We will do this through spirituality, poetry, art, the Celtic sense of the sacred in Nature, pilgrimage, monasticism – and meditation.

In highlighting and celebrating these delicious springs of hope, we will also be engaged in questioning what we can do, what we should do, in our crisis, once we have tasted its timeless wisdom. The Seminar will be hosted at the parish of Balally which is manifesting the potential that the Celtic Church strove – with much success for centuries – to make real.

This year’s Seminar will be enriched by contributions from the key speakers but also from the participants. We want to let it be like an immersion in a stream of hope and the remembrance of a living legacy – recovering an inspirational form of Christian faith but for our very present needs today. This will come together as we conclude with a ‘synodal’ experience, sharing in small groups and as a whole what the Spirit has taught us and see more clearly where it is leading us.