Standing by the 'noisome temple' 

"If there were people who ever needed re-educating, it's Americans. We all know that." Andy Raine's provocative statement hung in the digital space of a Zoom call, but his smile suggested he meant it with affection. The member of theNorthumbria Community, a Celtic Christian center in northeast England, had joined 35 Presbyterian leaders on Nov. 11 for the second day of a Celtic Spirituality Retreat hosted by 1001 New Worshiping Communities.

 What followed was a conversation that ranged from ancient saints to contemporary American political divisions, from theological authenticity to the practice of blessing one's enemies — all grounded in Celtic Christianity's distinctive approach to faith and community. 

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A pilgrimage that began with a photograph 

Raine's own journey to Holy Island — also known as Lindisfarne — began with an unexpected conversation. "I was a student in London, and I was busy having an argument with God," he recalled. "I was saying, 'So where are you sending me?' And I wasn't expecting an answer. I was just being rhetorically irritated. And there was a reply. It wasn't an audible voice, but it was enough to make me turn around, and I knew what had been said, and it was Holy Island." 

Years later, a forgotten photograph taken during a childhood day trip with his father. — a young Raine in "long, short trousers" gazing up at the statue of St. Aidan, the founder of the monastery on Lindisfarne. "I don't think he had any idea who Aidan was," Raine said of his father. "It just was a good photo opportunity." 

When Raine eventually moved to the island, he discovered it was "a prayed-in place" where "the prayers of the people who had been here and prayed centuries before had somehow changed this place forever." 

The island holds special significance in Celtic Christian history as the missionary base of St. Aidan, who came from Scotland in 635 to evangelize the Anglo-Saxon people of Northumbria. Later, St. Cuthbert served as bishop there. The Northumbria Community, which Raine helped found, draws on this heritage while maintaining its retreat center about 45 minutes south of the island. 

What makes Celtic spirituality Celtic? 

When asked for an "elevator pitch" on Celtic spirituality, Raine pointed to several defining characteristics. "One of the things would be a flexibility, an openness to welcome," he explained. "One of the pictures of Brigid is living with arms wide open, and that's also a picture of the cross — that we're to have a heart that's exposed." 

He emphasized how Celtic Christians found God revealed through Creation: "The created world speaks to us everything that the Scriptures would speak and does it more immediately for people. ... They had an experience of the created world that was part of that same whole thing that made perfect sense to them." 

Raine also highlighted the Celtic approach to encounter through stories of St. Aidan: "Aidan used to go and connect with individual people and listen to their story. He had a recognition that whoever he met had something to teach him, and he would meet them one-to-one." 

Significantly, Aidan "would travel not on horseback, because he didn't want to be associated with being the 'us and them,' the haves rather than the have nots. He was identified with people with their feet on the ground." 

Confronting questions of appropriation 

Hannah, a participant who has incorporated Celtic daily prayers into her family's practice, raised a concern many felt: how do white Americans engage Celtic traditions without appropriating them? 

Raine responded thoughtfully: "Some of you will have some Celtic blood in you anyway, but that almost becomes a distraction. ... The key thing is that some of the most important places of Celtic spirituality are not from people who were Celtic by blood anyway." 

He continued: "What we're looking to is something that predates it being called 'Celtic.' We're looking to the spirituality of John, the beloved disciple who leaned on the breast of Jesus, and the continuity beginning to come through." 

The crucial posture, Raine suggested, involves treating those we don't understand with respect: "You treat somebody who you don't understand with respect and say, 'What can I learn from you?'" 

The story of St. Martin 

The retreat's afternoon session centered on St. Martin of Tours, whose feast day falls on Nov. 11. Through a scripted liturgy from the Northumbria Community, participants heard how Martin, a Roman soldier, cut his officer's cloak in half to clothe a naked man shivering in a gateway. That night, the man appeared in Martin's dream, revealing himself as Christ. 

Later, when ordered into battle, Martin "found himself unable to cooperate with this, nor would he kill a living soul. But it was not cowardice that drove him to this decision, and so he agreed to be put in the forefront of the battle the next day, unarmed and unprotected," according to the liturgy. 

The scripted prayer invited participants to say together: "Let us each become the gift of refuge, warmth and strengthening, extend the mantle of compassion in humility." 

Another prayer read: "Make me an outpost of your kingdom, combining monastic rhythms and an outstretched heart with discipline of instant obedience, deployed as needed at the slightest whisper of command." 

Addressing American division 

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When the Rev. Jeff Eddings, associate for coaching and spiritual formation with 1001 New Worshiping Communities and the retreat's host, asked Raine for a word about America's current polarization, his response focused on human encounter. 

"I think one of the things is about holding things in balance, holding people who are being forced apart by algorithms and by rich people and by people making assumptions that if I believe this thing and you believe that thing, we have nothing in common," Raine said. 

"If they can see each other and meet eye to eye, if they can see this person not as a label but as a person, then we may find that the two things that are inspiring these two different groups of people — like a hatred of cruelty... both of those things are really, really important." 

His prescription was simple but challenging: "Let's bless our enemies. Bless those who disagree with us. Bless them. Bless them. Bless them. Bless them. Ask God to bless them, and then we won't be able to hate them. The more we ask God to bless our enemies, the more we'll learn to have compassion." 

Raine mentioned that someone had recently sent him "31 ways to pray blessing over your enemies ... one for every day of the month. If you haven't managed to shift your heart by the end of the month, then God help us." Raine offered to share the 31 blessings for your enemies with participants. These one-line benedictions included daily wishes including, “may you live all your years and finish your becoming” and “may the good in you devour the evil and the emptiness in you be filled.”  

Wrestling with institution 

Several participants asked about navigating tensions with institutional church structures while embracing Celtic perspectives. The Rev. Katie Kinnison, founder of Gathering, a new worshiping community for victims of sex trafficking, wondered aloud about boundaries of acceptable theology within Presbyterian tradition. 

Raine acknowledged the tension but focused on recognizing evil without celebrating it: "There's a recognition of evil, but not a celebration of evil." He noted that Celtic spirituality includes awareness of the fall and brokenness, but "certainly isn't that we are so bad that God can't reach us." 

During the retreat's closing evening prayer, participants read together a prayer by George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community, that captured the challenge many felt: 

"It was your custom to go to the temple, to the noisome temple, sometime to the scandalized temple, listening to the mumbo jumbo, but it was your custom to go," the scripted prayer read. "Give us grace in our changing day to stand by the temple that is the present church. ... Make it our custom to go till the new outline of your Body for our day becomes visible in our midst." 

As the retreat concluded, participants carried forward Raine's invitation to become people who bless rather than curse, who listen rather than label — embodying the wide-armed welcome of Celtic Christianity even within the tensions of institutional church life.