pat loughery

Sunday – Day 2

 

 

After breakfast, a bus picked us up at the Farset Hotel to take us to Jack Drennan’s church for worship and lunch.  I managed a few shots of the Belfast city skyline before the bus arrived, but nothing I would be proud of.  We arrived too late for the church’s 10am prayer meeting, but had plenty of time to explore before the 11am worship service.  We met a few of the church members. 

 

I haven’t experienced Presbyterian worship services before, but having had some time with Jack, I appreciated his laid-back, comfortable and engaging style of leadership.  I journaled a note that Jack’s opening prayer included a reference to “the God behind the mountains and rivers and trees”, a Celtic-ism.

 

We had lunch with the church after the service; I got to know my fellow students – especially Brian Turnbow and Jan Hendrik Van de Kamp.  I joined a few men who Jock invited into a separate room to sing a bit together.  Jock taught us a couple of songs, a theme which would continue for the entire trail.  I immediately realized that my untrained voice was out of its league with some of the other students, particularly (from this moment) John Lamb’s gospel-y deep bass.

 

The bus took us to Downpatrick where there is an interactive museum describing Patrick’s life, and a beautiful cathedral.  Outside the cathedral is a stone commemorating Patrick’s presumed grave, which stories say is somewhere in the area.  I took photos of cathedral, and the stone in the cemetery which had a Celtic cross and Patrick’s name engraved.  Part of the stone had fallen away, taking with it the last letter or two of the man’s name.

I was unhappy with the quality of photos of this stone, particularly because I was on the lookout for interesting Celtic cross designs which I could use for a shoulder tattoo.  I had in the back of my mind that, since I’ve wanted a Celtic cross tattoo, what better place to have it done than Belfast.  I had done web-based research and saved the name of a candidate tattoo parlor in Belfast city.  This cross design grabbed my attention (especially since it had such a strong tie to St. Patrick, for whom I was named).  The photo details aren’t as clear as I would like, however, to act as a permanent design for my body.  The day was cloudy and rainy, making for flat photos.  My wife will probably be relieved.  She knows that I’m considering a tattoo here, and she’s not particularly excited about the possibility of me returning with decoration.

 

In the cathedral in Downpatrick, I had a highlight of the trip, as we heard first from the minister of that cathedral and then from Roy Searle, who introduced himself as a member of the Northumbria Community, which produced the Celtic Daily Prayer book that I’ve used as a resource for several years.  Roy was a simple, humble man; in fact I didn’t know that he was anything but a “lay” member of the community until that evening when I was web researching the Northumbria Community webpage, and I realized that he was a key leader in the community. 

 

Roy told the stories of Aidan, and Oswald and the establishment of the monasteries at Iona and Lindisfarne.  He described Celtic spirituality’s connection with eastern monasticism as being highly Trinitarian and community focused, with practices that valued both being alone with God and in community with one another.  He described Aidan’s great gift as being able to create community.  He describe Celtic spirituality as positive, highly redemptive, looking for positive signs in the culture and life affirming.  He sees Celtic-Christianity as an antidote to the driven-ness of contemporary culture, using the image of Purpose-Driven as a counter- example which fits contemporary culture well, but isn’t counter-cultural as Celtic spirituality is.

 

Roy described Celtic spirituality as deeply incarnational, and learning to live with the rhythms of God.  He invited us to rediscover incarnational spirituality, to truly dwell in our cities – to be truly present in them, not transient, as a way to honor the city.  He used the illustration of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, a tidal island, where there is a rhythm of withdrawing in order to engage.

Today in the Celtic Daily Prayer book was the feast of St. Oswald, and so we prayed the mid-day prayer for Oswald’s day.  This was my first experience praying the Celtic daily Prayer in community, and I appreciated it deeply.  I was very disappointed to learn that we wouldn’t be visiting the Northumbria Community on our trip to Lindisfarne later in the week. 

 

I thanked Roy deeply for his time with us.  He suggested that I contact Colin Greene, a member of the community who teaches close to me at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle, who has been pursuing questions about what it means to be neo-monastic in the suburbs, which is where I live and minister (and feel called to remain) as well.

 

It was at this point, and in a discussion about monastic models with Mihai Pavel, a hilarious man who I greatly enjoyed – and a Serbian Orthodox priest, that it began to become clear that for my doctoral project, I wanted to look at monastic and prayer models from the Eastern, Celtic and Benedictine streams and see how they might be incorporated as spiritual formation practices today.  This idea would evolve through the trip, but it was a dawning realization that I had a focus and a direction for my trip and for my thesis.

 

Thank God.  That helped me focus and also gave me great motivation and passion.