How can monks marry?

Oftentime people are confused when they learn that I am a Christian priest who is also married. "How can this be?" says the puzzled look on their face. And yet you could say the very same thing regarding this blog. "How can a monk be married?"

Good questions. The explanation to these questions is really quite simple. Celtic monasticism (and Christianity for that matter) was quite a different "brand" than that of the Roman kind. See my earlier blog entitled "Culture Clash" for a longer discussion. Remember that much of Ireland was influenced by the monks of the Eastern desert, particularly the writings of John Cassian. When this "brand" of the faith, returned to Ireland, it blended into with other local cultural understandings and ways of doing things, just as it has whereever it is taken, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.

We also need to thing differently when we hear the word "monastery". The Celtic notion of "monastery" was worlds different than the typical medieval monastery which existed in Europe. Unlike Latin Christianity, which often had a large stone monastery, and a huge church with flying buttresses and cloisters, the Celts had nothing of the kind. A monastery to them, was something like a monastic village. The village, or small town would be enwalled, a wall on a lesser scale than say St. Andrews, or York. Inside the walls, there would be huts, wooden buildings, and of course clochans, those stone beehive huts famously linked with Celtic Christianity.  And quite cleverly, the Celts built these small communities in strategic places, so that they could also be places of influence, and be places for strangers, seekers, and passerbys to go. Monasteries open to the public-sounds Celtic to me!

As you can expect, the Celtic understanding of religious orders was also different and at odds with Latin Chrisitianity. And perhaps it was this which really jazzed the Latin church, so much that it would send over St. Augustine to basically clean house. For most of Christendom, religious orders consisted of deacon, priest, and Bishop, with the Bishop top dog. This was not the case in Eire. There, the abbot (there's that monastic influence again) was number one, and the Bishop was often relegated to evangelical duties. Perhaps due to the close knit communities and tribes and clans, these distinctions may have seemed artificial. Anyway, what resulted was a wider range of religious orders and offices. So here, monks could marry, clergy could marry, and women such as Brigit could be Bishops, over a thousand years before the rest of Christendom ever began seriously considering these issues.

The history of the Christian church of one filled with the  themes of both freedom and structure. I've always like the notion that more is better, and in this case I think that is true. The church today needs to rethink the way it's conceives of clergy and how its trains clergy. A good place to see how things can be different is to look at the example of the early Celtic Church, which was way ahead of it's time.

The Gathering of the Clans

Each Fall, for the past five years, my three brothers and I get together to do something with our ninety year old father. On three of those ocassions, we have decided to attend an Ohio State football game-an easy decision, as my father and the rest of us, are all Buckeye fans. Two of those games were between Ohio State and it's bitter rival, "that team up North", the University of Michigan. This year we took the opportunity to attend the game with Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania. And as fate would have it, it was the best game that Ohio State has played this season. Both offensively, and defensively, it was a convincing win for the Bucks. If they win their next two games (against Iowa and Michigan) they will win the Big 10 conference outright, and for the fifth year in a row. For those of you who want to watch highlights of the game from Youtube, click here.

These games are always a "spectacle". There are lots of events both before and after the game. Before, there are "pep" rallies, where thousands gather, fans cheer, and allow their emotions get whipped up by the University bands. (This is easily done if you have also attended that University). Usually both players and the head coach have something to say to the gathered faithful, and the night become the game, we even got to hear the legendary coach of Penn State, Joe Paterno, speak. Then it's off to the game itself, in a large oval stadium, filled the team colors below, and deep blue sky above. And the energy and enthusiam of the stadium is electric. Every heard 110,000 people scream all at once?

What makes these games tribal is that fans on each team where their colors proud. For us fans of the Ohio State University, we wear scarlet and gray, or scarlet and something! And for Penn State, the colors are blue and white. There's something extra special about going to an away game and being in the minority. One tee shirt I saw put it well. It said "Don't be scared, I just invited 100,000 of my friends to the party today". As a result, one tends to look out for other people wearing scarlet and gray, whom you can easily bond with, as if they were new family members, or old friends. And that familiar code like cheer, "OH"  followed by an "IO" sounds extra sweet behind enemy lines. In the stadium itself, one is reminded again of our tiny minority as we few scarlet and gray spots, are engulfed in a sea of blue and white. And what makes it even greater, are the local gracious fans, who say "Good luck today", even though they don't mean it, and then ask to have a photo taken with you, as if it were some great Detente!

In my imagination's eye, I compared the wearing of the colors, that I and my brothers, and other Ohio State fans were wearing, to the tartans from Scottish clans of old. We represented the different clans from across the area who were their to support the Ohio State football team. And like the Scots of yesterday and today, we like to sing. So throughout the game, we OSU fans sing sections from "Fight the Team", "Across the Field", and "Carmen, Ohio".  As I age, I look forward to these rituals, these traditions, these gatherings. They are fun and meaningful. They remind me that I am part of several different families. Not just the Ohio State family, but also my own family, and the family of man. These events remind me that it's a good thing to be part of a group, to feel like you belong, and to remember one's roots.

I look forward to our trip again next year!

Go Bucks!