The next Celtic Worship Service is Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 7:00pm in the Chapel.
After the service all are invited for fresh homemade scones and tea in the Heller Commons.

Welcome into the Fierce Silence

As a congregation in the heart of the city we seek a space not of withdrawal, but of perspective amid the vitality and clamor. The dual Celtic practices of stillness and spirited action put God back at the center of our lives.

What This Type of Worship Means - and Why it Matters
Why Celtic? Our Reformed Presbyterian tradition emerges from Scottish roots, and so we honor that culture's rich native heritage by reclaiming threads of what was repressed or lost in time. For centuries the Celtic Christian culture was marginalized and hereticized by competing Christian traditions and political forces. Acknowledging this complicated history, we don't seek to recreate or appropriate a culture so far removed from our current context. Rather, we humbly wish to learn from the remnants of voices and practices which are the ancient roots of some of our own.  We worship in the Celtic tradition, understanding the filter of our modern context and the web of history, yet still seek the profound blessing this dynamic tradition offers.

Celtic Worship is Radically God-centered and un-self-conscious. The early Celtic Christians had a rough-hewn and mystical theology; a fierce yet gentle spirit of life. Both harshly serious and festively celebratory, their spirituality is passionate and contemplative, incarnational, and hopeful. It is a tradition steeped in scripture. Worship is ragtag and adventurous, sublime and yet deeply rooted in the everyday. The God we worship is profoundly redemptive and unbound by space, coming to us both inside and outside the walls of the church. There is no room for complacency, sentimentality or compromise because our ultimate affirmation is that we belong, utterly and completely, to God alone.

You are Welcome. Feel free to sit or stand, pray with eyes closed or open. We invite you to participate in rituals as you are able and comfortable, but ultimately the focus of our worship is on the all-embracing presence of God, who greets you exactly where you are.  Come into the silence to be changed, to be healed, to find respite and peace -- and then go out again, charged for action and justice.

Be welcome, be welcome indeed. Celtic Worship takes place on the second Thursday of the month, 7:00pm, in the Chapel at Westminster.