Celtic Religion?

[Canuck000]

I’m curious regarding the Celtic Religion. I haven’t been able to find much about it. I have a friend whom is with this church and as we had lunch together the other day, the topic of religion came up. She knows I’m a new Catholic. She told me that the celtic faith is very much the same a Catholicism, except they allow woman to be ordained. She also mentioned that it dates back to 37 AC.

I really couldn’t dispute this as I know not enough of this religion, and the fact that it’s obviously not a very common one, as I had a hard time even finding anything written about it.
Has anyone here have much (name removed by moderator)ut into this faith?

Any information at all would be helpful. Links?
Thanks!

 

[ltwin]

I assume she is talking about the form of Christianity that developed in the British Isles, especially Ireland, in isolation from Rome. Eventually, Rome re-sent missionaries and the Island adopted more universal Christian norms.

However, I’m pretty sure your friend’s religious organization or group does not trace directly back to Celtic Christianity. They are most likely some sort of revival group.

I’m also pretty sure that the actual Celtic Christians would not have ordained women.

 

[Canuck000]

Here is a description on their website. I will remove the town’s name.

Description
St. Andrews Apostolic Celtic Church offers both a traditional Liturgal Service
at 9:30 AM Sundays and a casual, contemporary service at 11:15 AM

A CHU1RCH FOR THE CITY
We believe that God has called us to love and serve the () and
the () area… This means that this church exists not only for our own growth
and pursuit of Christ, but also to serve the city and lead people toward the person of Jesus.
To that end, we feel that it’s our responsibility to “clear the way” for people to
come to church. By building a bridge to our city through acts of kindness and by
teaching the Bible in a format that’s easy to understand, we seek to be a voice of
hope and truth to our city and beyond.

OUR VISION
Our vision is to become an ACTS 2 COMMUNITY with an ACTS 29 MISSION. Through all we do, we endeavor to write the story of GOD’S CHURCH in OUR GENERATION.

OUR CORE VALUES
TRANSFORMATION (Matthew 22:37-40)
COMMUNITY (Acts 2:42-47)
MISSION (Matthew 28:18-20)
WORSHIP (Romans 12:1-2)
This church is is the south eastern USA

 

[Novocastrian]

I’m curious regarding the Celtic Religion. I haven’t been able to find much about it. I have a friend whom is with this church and as we had lunch together the other day, the topic of religion came up. She knows I’m a new Catholic. She told me that the celtic faith is very much the same a Catholicism, except they allow woman to be ordained. She also mentioned that it dates back to 37 AC.

I really couldn’t dispute this as I know not enough of this religion, and the fact that it’s obviously not a very common one, as I had a hard time even finding anything written about it.
Has anyone here have much (name removed by moderator)ut into this faith?

Any information at all would be helpful. Links?
Thanks!

I’m sure they mean well, but they don’t sound much like the ancient Celtic saints. This sounds like a modern group that sees the Celtic churches of the first millennium as hippy-Catholics, which is just not true.

From what I can tell they weren’t the same as modern Romans, but they were certainly not like the liberal, Western ‘Celtic’ ethos of today.

 

[GKC]

I’m sure they mean well, but they don’t sound much like the ancient Celtic saints. This sounds like a modern group that sees the Celtic churches of the first millennium as hippy-Catholics, which is just not true.

From what I can tell they weren’t the same as modern Romans, but they were certainly not like the liberal, Western ‘Celtic’ ethos of today.

Yep.

GKC

 

[Brendan]

I assume she is talking about the form of Christianity that developed in the British Isles, especially Ireland, in isolation from Rome. Eventually, Rome re-sent missionaries and the Island adopted more universal Christian norms…

Really, the only major differences were a focus on monastic live as opposed to diocesan, and the means for calculating Easter.

The ‘isolation’ wasn’t really there, as Ireland was responsible for a substantial Christian missionary work on the Continent. (See Sts. Fiacra and Columbanus for example)

 

[Skadi]

I’m curious regarding the Celtic Religion. I haven’t been able to find much about it. I have a friend whom is with this church and as we had lunch together the other day, the topic of religion came up. She knows I’m a new Catholic. She told me that the celtic faith is very much the same a Catholicism, except they allow woman to be ordained. She also mentioned that it dates back to 37 AC.

I really couldn’t dispute this as I know not enough of this religion, and the fact that it’s obviously not a very common one, as I had a hard time even finding anything written about it.
Has anyone here have much (name removed by moderator)ut into this faith?

Any information at all would be helpful. Links?
Thanks!

Firstly, i dont know where the heck she got that date but generally pagan religions dont have a start date. they develop over time evolving as their cultures do. furthermore, the Celtic culture is much older than 2000 years old.

If your talking about a particular Celtic sect of Christianity that would make more sense, but classical Celtic religion is polytheistic, had a strong magical tradition, involved animal and sometimes human sacrifice, and was much older than Christianity.

 

[Skadi]

wow, should have read the responses, what your talking about seems to be a cultural variant of Catholicism.

 

[Picky_Picky]

I’m curious regarding the Celtic Religion. I haven’t been able to find much about it. I have a friend whom is with this church and as we had lunch together the other day, the topic of religion came up. She knows I’m a new Catholic. She told me that the celtic faith is very much the same a Catholicism, except they allow woman to be ordained. She also mentioned that it dates back to 37 AC.

I really couldn’t dispute this as I know not enough of this religion, and the fact that it’s obviously not a very common one, as I had a hard time even finding anything written about it.
Has anyone here have much (name removed by moderator)ut into this faith?

Any information at all would be helpful. Links?
Thanks!

We should be wary of the slippery word “Celtic” – there seems to be no consensus among historians, archaeologists or anthropologists about where, if at all, it is appropriate to use the term in connection with the various ethnic, linguistic and cultural characteristics to which it has been attached. It is, however, commonly used to describe the society the legions of Caesar and Claudius found when they invaded the southern part of Albion, the island now usually called Great Britain. Our ignorance of the British Isles in the pre-Roman millennia is profound, but we can reasonably accept that the religion of southern Albion at the time of the invasions was, like that of Gaul, druidic. No doubt aspects of that religion survived in superstition and folklore into the Middle Ages, but where they are evoked today they are perhaps more connected with concoctions of new age tomfoolery. The “Celtic church” is another thing altogether: it is the name often given to the Christianity of the British Isles before the Augustinian mission. The Church of England is prone to consider St Augustine of Canterbury its founder, but Christianity had been present in these islands since the Roman occupation. How prevalent it was in the Saxon kingdoms at the time of Augustine we cannot tell, but it was present, and in Ireland and non-Saxon Albion it was well established. Part of St Augustine’s brief from the Pope was to try to bring the local bishops under his control and to realign local practices with those of Rome. There are groups today which profess to follow the practices of that pre-Augustinian church; whether they are correct I am not qualified to say.

 

[GKC]

We should be wary of the slippery word “Celtic” – there seems to be no consensus among historians, archaeologists or anthropologists about where, if at all, it is appropriate to use the term in connection with the various ethnic, linguistic and cultural characteristics to which it has been attached. It is, however, commonly used to describe the society the legions of Caesar and Claudius found when they invaded the southern part of Albion, the island now usually called Great Britain. Our ignorance of the British Isles in the pre-Roman millennia is profound, but we can reasonably accept that the religion of southern Albion at the time of the invasions was, like that of Gaul, druidic. No doubt aspects of that religion survived in superstition and folklore into the Middle Ages, but where they are evoked today they are perhaps more connected with concoctions of new age tomfoolery. The “Celtic church” is another thing altogether: it is the name often given to the Christianity of the British Isles before the Augustinian mission. The Church of England is prone to consider St Augustine of Canterbury its founder, but Christianity had been present in these islands since the Roman occupation. How prevalent it was in the Saxon kingdoms at the time of Augustine we cannot tell, but it was present, and in Ireland and non-Saxon Albion it was well established. Part of St Augustine’s brief from the Pope was to try to bring the local bishops under his control and to realign local practices with those of Rome. There are groups today which profess to follow the practices of that pre-Augustinian church; whether they are correct I am not qualified to say.

I agree.

GKC

 

[Picky_Picky]

I agree.

GKC

Especially about my lack of qualifications . . .

 

[Methos]

Synod of Whitby

The synod that rectified the differences between the (retroactively) so-called “Celtic” Church and Catholic Church. As stated, it was mostly practices, such as the date of Easter and tonsures.