This section is taken from an article written by Kristin Berkey-Abbott on the Living Lutheran blog
If you want to see modern people trying to use a coracle, look up a post by Dave Bonta at vianegativa. I knew that ancient Celtic monks set off in little boats, but seeing modern people in a coracle made me think about those monks with new admiration.
Dave reminds us, “Though the ancient ocean-going coracles did probably have rudders (and according to ‘The Voyage of St. Brendan,’ could be fitted with a sail), their relative unsteerability constituted part of their attraction to Celtic monks, for whom the ideal form of travel involved surrendering to the will of God and going wherever the winds and currents took them. Some of the more God-besotted ones set off without even an oar.”
Without even an oar! Celtic monks have become famous for this kind of faith, for their willingness to go to the wildest places to bring the word of God. Think of Columba heading off to Scotland and looking for ever more wild places before settling down in Iona.
In many ways, modern people are living in as distant an outpost of an empire as those ancient Celtic monks. Many of us are far from the corridors of power, whether they be in the U.S., in China or in India. Most ELCA members reading this post are far from the places where Christianity flourishes today, in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
But instead of despairing and longing for the mythical glory days of past times when the church was more influential in the U.S., perhaps we should think of ourselves as Celtic monks, trying to till a very rocky, thorny soil. We should take comfort and encouragement from how much God can accomplish, even in the most unlikely circumstances. There’s plenty of transformative work for us to do today. Let us launch our coracles!
Kristin Berkey-Abbott is a lifelong Lutheran, a college teacher and department head. She has taught a variety of English and creative-writing classes for the last 20 years.
Of Celtic monks and little boats
Of course, Celtic monks may not have been surprised. After all, they’ve gained a certain amount of fame (or notoriety?) for setting off in tiny boats, called coracles, to see where God, by way of currents, led them.If you want to see modern people trying to use a coracle, look up a post by Dave Bonta at vianegativa. I knew that ancient Celtic monks set off in little boats, but seeing modern people in a coracle made me think about those monks with new admiration.
Dave reminds us, “Though the ancient ocean-going coracles did probably have rudders (and according to ‘The Voyage of St. Brendan,’ could be fitted with a sail), their relative unsteerability constituted part of their attraction to Celtic monks, for whom the ideal form of travel involved surrendering to the will of God and going wherever the winds and currents took them. Some of the more God-besotted ones set off without even an oar.”
Without even an oar! Celtic monks have become famous for this kind of faith, for their willingness to go to the wildest places to bring the word of God. Think of Columba heading off to Scotland and looking for ever more wild places before settling down in Iona.
In many ways, modern people are living in as distant an outpost of an empire as those ancient Celtic monks. Many of us are far from the corridors of power, whether they be in the U.S., in China or in India. Most ELCA members reading this post are far from the places where Christianity flourishes today, in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
But instead of despairing and longing for the mythical glory days of past times when the church was more influential in the U.S., perhaps we should think of ourselves as Celtic monks, trying to till a very rocky, thorny soil. We should take comfort and encouragement from how much God can accomplish, even in the most unlikely circumstances. There’s plenty of transformative work for us to do today. Let us launch our coracles!
Kristin Berkey-Abbott is a lifelong Lutheran, a college teacher and department head. She has taught a variety of English and creative-writing classes for the last 20 years.
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