Cowethas Peran Sans

Not long now!

2011-09-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Just a quick few lines (if anyone is still listening!) to say I'm back on 4th October for a month. While I've been working hard on learning Thai (if I'd known how hard it was, I'd never have started!), I have been learning something of Buddhism.

In "The Celtic Alternative" written by Shirley Toulson, it says that early Celtic Christianity was similar to Buddhism. I can say that she was right in that Christianity is (compared to other faiths), but wrong in that early Celtic Christianity was any more so.

More to follow when I get back!

This blog is suspended until October... sorry!

2011-06-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Just to say I am heading off overseas for three months on Thursday to learn how to teach English. Peter Mitchell will be taking the lead with the fellowship for now.

So do come back here in October when I'm back!

Gans pub bennath

Andy

Photo - me and John Lambourne on his Cornish lugger SS19 "Ripple". I can tell you, it's a hard slog sailing it!

Off to France AGAIN!?

2011-05-14T04:46:00.001-07:00

Yes, I'm off to Brittany again for two weeks from this Sunday. As I'll be camping, I just hope the weather will be good! I enjoyed my French course in Brest (see photo above of my multi-national class) and now it's time to put it into practice.

More to follow if I can find a cyber cafe over there as I'm not taking the phone or the computer, just some books.

Luxury!

Newsletter 45 - May 2011

2011-05-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

Dear friends

Sorry if I have been off the air a while with regard to newsletters, but there’s not been much to report. I don’t believe in emailing just for the sake of it! There are a number of things to share…

My movements I am taking a gap year and so I am handing over day to day running of CPS to my deputy, Peter Mitchell, with immediate effect. I am spending two weeks in May in Brittany networking and hope to go abroad to learn a foreign language during July, August and September. Peter lives in Truro and is very well connected, so this may result in new opportunities!

CPS Displays A fair amount of money has built up as a result of members’ subscriptions (PLEASE become a member!). I am getting two small display stands made which are suitable to be set up in churches etc with some leaflets to get us noticed. More to follow when they are made.

Celtic Spirituality Conference An important conference is taking place in Northumbria 11-15 July, hosted by the Bishop of Whitby, cost £298. It will have some experts in the field, and it would be great if someone could get to attend it. Ring 01482 562455 or see www.ukltg.com for details.

Goings on, down under…. I’m pleased to say that the bi-annual Cornish-Australian convention focused on the ‘Copper Triangle’ west of Adelaide will see CPS featured in workshops etc run by our two members there, Ted Curnow and Robin Pryor. Ted and his wife Beryl will be in Cornwall in August when we hope to welcome them.

Bewnans Kernow, CASPN, Diocesan Ecology Committee etc We have representatives on these august bodies, but maybe there are others we might send representatives to. Any ideas? How might we help? Networking is the name of the game – we are now involved, for example, with training Methodist and Anglican clergy who are coming to work in Cornwall.

The Bible in Cornish I have been assisting collect monies to help get the Bible in Cornish into print. I am glad to say there was a good response and it should be out in a few months with CPS as a sponsor. Might even get our logo in it with luck!

Oll an gwella

Andy

Photo: Me cutting my birthday cake today which says on it - Happy Birthday Andrew. Nearly a free man! (I'm a civilian on 1st June)

Our Breton connections.....

2011-04-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

Do you think that saints in the Celtic tradition ended in 664 with defeat at the Council of Whitby? I hope not...

St Tugdual, as he later became known, was a French soldier who was captured by the Germans in the Second World War. By the time he was released, he only weighed 36 kilograms – about five stone. He then went to live in Nantes in Brittany where he joined the Celtic Orthodox Church, eventually becoming one of its priests. He soon became renowned in the church in Nantes for his holiness, but felt called to live a more solitary life as a hermit. He was given some swampy woodland not far away near St Dolay by a woman he had healed of blindness and decided to live a life of prayer there alone in 1955, building a tiny church where he could offer the mass and pray. He had no money or income, but local people brought him food until he died in 1968 when only 51 years old. Before he died, St Tugdual prophesied that prayer would continue at the site after his death, but it was to be unoccupied for nine long years. It was only then that three men, inspired by his holiness and example, decided to live the monastic life there and to found the Church of the Sacred Presence.

This new, much larger church (see photo) was built by these monks’ bare hands, local people providing the money for the materials and continuing to feed the monks as they had fed St Tudgual. (There are parallels here with Revd George McLeod’s rebuilding of the abbey on Iona using trainee ministers.) Like their founding saint, the monks there today have no income and are still totally reliant on the generosity of the local people. One of the original three monks is still there – the saintly Bishop Maël (left) - and the remains of St Tugdual are to be found in a shrine in the church. Directly outside its entrance is the well that supplied St Tugdual’s needs, it still providing the water for the monastery to this day as the monks choose to live without electricity or running water. I stay there now and then and visit the monks when I can to take them food and to learn from their example of faith. For they have given up everything to dedicate their whole lives to prayer.

Tugdual was deservedly made a saint by his church after he died, proving you don’t need to go all the way to Tibet to find and meet holy people – I know just the place in Brittany where you can find plenty of them, and maybe one modern day Celtic saint in Bishop Maël.

I'm heading back over to see him in mid May and to see the huge improvements that have been made since I was last there. It seems they were left some money. I hope to see if I can get to see Father Job Irien of Mihini Levenez - they have a website now but is all in French or Breton! The Celtic Orthodox Church has a site in English if you want to have a look at it - www.orthodoxie-celtique.net/index_english.html

AN URGENT APPEAL! the Bible in Cornish

2011-03-30T04:29:00.000-07:00

I'm still in France until 9 April learning French, but I've just received this appeal for funds to typeset the newly translated Bible in Cornish. People need to get a cheque to me by early May to get their name in the book. It is in the same sort of Corish as our prayerbook.

The single most important factor in the establishment of modern written vernaculars in Europe was the publication of religious texts, for example, Queen Elizabeth’s Irish catechism (Dublin 1571), Foirceadul Aithghearr in Scottish Gaelic (Edinburgh 1652) and the Welsh Bible (1588). The publication of the Holy Bible has always been of crucial importance to any language, since a translation of the Bible is manifest proof that a language is worthy to express the word of God. Luther’s German version of the Bible (1534) and the English of the King James Version (1611) have both left an indelible mark on their respective languages.

We now ask you to subscribe to the publication of the first complete Bible in Cornish and thus to assist the Cornish revival. The book, published by Evertype of Co. Mayo in Ireland, is sponsored by Cowethas Peran Sans of Newlyn. An Beybel Sans is written in Standard Cornish.

The translator of the Bible is Professor Nicholas Williams, the foremost present-day translator of Cornish. The first draft of his translation was based on the original texts together with a collation of several other versions. Next the draft was reviewed by a number of competent Cornish speakers, whose comments helped improve the readability of the translation. Thereafter the translator searched the Middle and Late Cornish texts—miracle plays, homilies, and portions of scripture, to find all those passages where native Cornish renderings could be used in the translation. Such passages by speakers of traditional Cornish have been incorporated throughout the Cornish Bible, and add to its authenticity. Wherever possible, personal and geographical names are those attested in traditional Cornish.

We are now asking for contributions of £50.00 to £500.00 to help cover the costs of this project. All contributions will be gratefully acknowledged: the book will contain a list of subscribers (Rol An Ragprenoryon) for those who donate £50, and a list of benefactors (Rol an Vasoberoryon) for those who wish to donate more. Contributors will of course also receive a copy of the book.

The book will be set in two columns on pages measuring 130mm x 190mm (7" x 10") in a typeface suitable for easy reading. Maps of the Holy Land in Biblical times and St Paul’s journeys in the Mediterranean will accompany the text, with place-names given in Cornish.

We believe publication of the first Cornish Bible will be a very significant moment in the history of the Cornish language, and indeed will enhance the Christian tradition of the Celtic countries.

Contributions can be made by cheque in pounds sterling, payable to “Evertype” to Andy Phillips (Cowethas Peran Sans, 1 Orchard House, Orchard Place, Newlyn, Penzance, TR18 5BG), or in other currencies by cheque paid to “Evertype” (Cnoc Sceichín, Leac an Anfa, Cathair na Mart, Co. Mhaigh Eo, Éire). Subscriptions can also be made by PayPal to everson@evertype.com. Contributions should be received by Saturday 1st May 2011. Each contributor is requested to give his or her name (clearly written so that it may appear without error in the book) and his or her address (also clearly written, so that the Bible may arrive safely at its destination).

Michael Everson (Evertype, publisher)
Reverend Andrew Philips (Cowethas Peran Sans/Society of St Piran)

Lent is nearly upon us - HELP!

2011-02-28T11:18:00.001-08:00

Lent is nearly upon us – the 40 day period of spiritual self-examination and self-denial Christians go through in preparation for the great festival of Easter. Forty days after easter comes Ascension Day when we recall how Jesus ascended into heaven.

The day before Ascension Day I become a civilian again on the first of June. I will have served as a chaplain in the armed forces since January 1992. I’ve served with the paras, Royal Marine commandos, the Guards, HMS Albion and was Chaplaincy Team Leader at RNAS Culdrose for three years until recently. I’ve just finished serving with navy harriers based at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland and am currently on resettlement leave in my home town of Newlyn. I’ve had a great time but it’s now time for a change and to move on to other things.

Change is not usually very easy, so we often avoid it if we can. Three drinking, smoking, gambling old age pensioners all decided they should give something up for Lent and arranged to meet on Ash Wednesday the first day of lent. The first arrived and sat there twitching as he’d just given up smoking. The second came in and turned a shade of green as he had vowed to give up the booze and was now surrounded by temptation. Then the third man turned up with a big smile on his face puffing a cigarette, straight from the betting office with a big wad of cash and ordered a double whisky. His two friends asked him what he’d given up for Lent. Hang gliding, he said.

Lent is all about seeking to choose to try and change ourselves and our lives for the better. Christians are called upon at this time to be seriously reflective and try to see and own up to their faults so they can do something about them. So stay with me this week as I consider the opportunity Lent offers people today for positive change and spiritual growth.

Newsletter 43 - February 2011

2011-02-09T16:47:00.000-08:00

I am now in my final lap at RAF Cottesmore and will drive down to Cornwall 25th February. I will be going to Brittany on 12th March to do a course to bone up on French. This will help me networking during a holiday I want to take there May/June time. I hope to see if we can establish a twinning arrangement with Father Job Irien’s Mihini Levenez Breton fellowship, which now has a website.

I also intend visiting Llantwit Major near Cardiff early on to see if I can enlist the rector’s help in promoting Cornwall as a place of pilgrimage. (His church is on the site where they trained monks and nuns who came to evangelise Cornwall in the fifth and sixth century – see our website for further information.)

Talking of which, do see if you can get to the Bewnans Kernow meeting on 12th February where Peter Mitchell will be representing us officially. We are trying to publicise our work in promoting pilgrimage to Cornwall. Peter Mitchell and I will be talking individually to key people to enlist their support this spring.

And don’t think me mad, but I’m also hoping to live out in the wild at sites around Cornwall this spring and summer when I intend reading the whole Bible right through. I’m doing this because I believe Celtic Christianity enthusiasts usually let themselves down in two ways: they havn’t read enough proper academic studies of the subject, and they’ve not sought to experience something of the tough life the Celtic saints lived as hermits. (My army and Royal Marine training will come in very handy here!) I will put grid references on this blog so you can come and find me if you want, but please bring some fresh milk!

Anyway, keep praying for the fellowship which is about to become more visible and active. We have a firm foundation to build on and plenty of contacts to draw on.
.
Oll an gwella/all the best

The Great Bard....

2011-01-30T04:25:00.000-08:00

I'm enjoying a weekend in Stratford upon Avon this weekend. It's a lovely town with lots of medieval houses and nice shops. You can visit the house Shakespeare was born in and one he owned for a time. Shakespeare was of course a key influence on the development of the English language along with the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) which came into force in 1549 and the King James Bible first promulgated in 1611. When Shakespeare died in 1613 the foundations of the English language had been well and truly laid.

The photo is of Trinty Church in Stratford where Shakespeare is buried in the chancel. Right by the altar rail is a first edition King James Bible, a so called Chain Bible as the first ones put in churches by order where chained to the lecturn. I attended this church on Sunday and learned that the BCP is still used for some services. So there in that chancel are to be found all three main sources of the poetry and wonderful richness of our language.

The language we now usually use in worship is pretty ordinary and mundane in comparison. There are a few Anglican churches left that use the BCP, but very few. When I was first ordained we were using the new Alternative Service Book published in 1980. It came in for much criticism for rather banal english, but it did have Rite B which was in traditional (i.e. like the BCP) language. We still do in the ghastly Common Worship which came out in 2000, but the old form is hardly used. The RCs had their revision in 1974 when the Tridentine Latin Mass was replaced with an English one. So we mainly now address God as 'you' and not 'thou' any more.

Does any of this matter? Does it matter that we talk to God and of God in everyday English? I think it does. God is the maker of heaven and earth, but he is reduced in some services to being a holy chum or Santa Claus. We do not have the sense of penitence and humility expressed in worship these days. We have made God smaller and we have become bigger, brasher, and more confident before Him. The great sense of mystery and huge respect has consequently been largely lost. We've gone too far in one direction I think.

Call me old fashioned, but I'll stick with how God was (and always will be) when I was a kid growing up in Newlyn. I still seek out the BCP when I need to find somewhere to worship.

And funny old thing, I'm a huge fan of Shakespeare too!

Some people just have to find fault......

2011-01-18T12:25:00.000-08:00

OK, so what's going on here in this photo?

I've just got back from my holidays in Egypt where I spent a week on a Nile cruise visiting the ancient temples there. You see so many, you just can't remember which is which when you go back through your photos, but this one is of a damaged carving of a pharoah offering something to an Egyptian god.

You'd never know that unless I told you as it's been so badly damaged. Apparently, the Christians were driven out of the delta area by Roman persecution as they refused to worship the emperor or the pagan gods of Rome. They carved the cross to leave their mark.

Then a few centuries later the locals were converted to Islam which prohibites representation of anything animal, let alone pagan Egyptian gods; so they chiseled the relief carvings off. (The weird marks below the cross is where someone was sharpening their swords or agricultural tools). Some people just can't leave things alone and can only seek to damage or destroy that which they do not yet understand or what they consider to be alien or a threat.

Funny old thing, but the carvings which were buried by the encroaching sands for hundreds of years were found (as one would expect) to be in pristine condition. Fortunately there are lots for tourists to marvel at today.

It just goes to show that it is sometimes better to be ignored and forgotten for a time (and get ones 'ducks in aline' quietly perhaps) than to enjoy the limelight and all the problems that can ensue.

Every dog, as they say, has its day, and I'm sure in Cowethas Peran Sans that we will soon have ours!

Bledhen Noweth Da Oll an Bys!

2011-01-01T11:58:00.000-08:00

Yes, Happy New Year everyone! It's one in which I will become a civilian. But what will it hold for our fellowship?

Cowethas Peran Sans is now just over four years old (we voted on a first constitution remember in December 2006). During that period we have achieved a great deal. People have heard of us, and the feedback always seems to be positive! We have established an excellent foundation on which to build of books, publicity material, simple bilingual liturgies, an Australian branch in the making, membership of CASPN and now Bewnans Kernow, a first rate website, some money in the bank, and, if I might say, a popular CPS blog.

We are still rather few in numbers and have only so much time to give. It is my intention, therefore, to concentrate on just a few things, notably:

1. Setting up a CPS Pilgrimages Committee including key clergy, council officials and councillors to promote Cornwall as a pilgrimage destination.

2. Purchasing a CPS display board so we can set up a stall at Cornish cultural and church occasions.

3. Seeking occasions to speak on Radio Cornwall.

4. Seeking speaking engagements with the Church in Cornwall.

I regret to say I can’t see how I can spare the time or energy to visit Australia for the coming convention there in May. The reason is that I am very tired after my career in the armed forces, I need time to recharge my batteries, consider my spiritual direction, do a degree, and CPS here is still in too fragile a state.

While a thriving Australian branch one day would be wonderful, we desperately need new members in Cornwall and we are not going to get them unless we are more visible here. Maybe 2013!

So that’s my 2011 strategy in a nutshell.

Oll an gwella!

Happy Christmas everyone!

2010-12-20T05:24:00.000-08:00

Probably like everyone else at this time, I am dashing about shoping and sorting my life out afte braving the snows and driving back down to Newlyn.

Peter Mitchell and I will be doing a bit of networking while down, notably with Bert Biscoe CC - a true and loyal Cornishman if ever there were one! We're after his advice and support in working with the council to help raise Cornwall's profile as a place of pilgrimage.

For now, here is a lovely collage David and Pam Stringer did for a competition in Fowey. (Note Cornish saint in bottom left corner.) There were over 20 entries. And they won!

Nadelek lowen ha Blethen Noweth da ol an bys!

Andy

Cancun Conference - there is still hope!

2010-12-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

Some of you may recall my sense of depression after the debacle at Copenhagen. I have since learned (via a very good Radio 4 program) that it was mainly down to UN incompetence (having worked with them in Africa I know all about that!). It seems the USA seized the bull by the horns to salvage something out of the situation - the big countries were not simply ridding rough shod over smaller ones as it was reported at the time.

It seems Cancun has been more successful. Yet there are no figures or legally-binding targets (except to keep the world temperature rise to a very large 2%), but there was at least a world-wide agreeement (including the USA and China now)on basic principles. That is a huge step forward.

Our only hope now is that the hard right politicians in the USA now don't try to throw this modest agreement out like they did with Kyoto. If they don't, then we've finally seen some real progress and something we can rejoice in.

By the way, I've put an Ecology page on our website, replacing the events page (as we have postponed events for the time being). I'm hoping we can grow this with time.

Newsletter 43 - December 2010

2010-12-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

Dear friends

I am still in Rutland but will be moving back to Cornwall at the end of February. I do four weeks of resettlement training in London in March and then I am a free man! I have enjoyed life in the navy, but it is time for a change.

The members held our fourth AGM last weekend and decided on a number of issues. We have joined Bewnans Kernow ( see www.bewnanskernow.org.uk ) which is a cultural networking body set up by Cornwall Council. This will give us lots of opportunities to help promote Cornwall as a place of Christian pilgrimage and to further the Cornish language in worship. Peter Mitchell is our representative. We also decided we should amend the constitution to allow a deputy chairman to be elected which is again Peter. John Nash continues to do stirling work with CASPN (Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network). We’ve welcomed a couple of pilgrim groups visiting Cornwall and a few individuals.

And the future? We are building up enough cash through member’s subscriptions to think about producing some sort of display board so we can put up a stand at events. I will look into this in April when back in Cornwall. Also Doreen Sparey-Delacassa has told me she has the beginnings of a cell group or ‘teylu’ (= family) in North Cornwall where she now lives. Our Australian friends and members will be holding workshops in a biannual Cornish convention near Adelaide next May. (Would anyone like to go?!)

So we’ve seen slow but steady progress over the past year. Rome wasn’t built in a day and remember - the Iona Community has been going for over seventy years. We’ve been around for just four now. From little acorns, eh?!

May I wish you all a very happy Christmas and peaceful New Year.

Photo - David and Pam Stringer, Peter Mitchell and yours truly having a slap up meal after the AGM!

What lies beneath......?

2010-11-27T10:28:00.000-08:00

I was contacted a few days ago by Jeremy Schanche (hope I spelt that right Jeremy!) about the site of perhaps Penzance's oldest church dedicated to St Anthony. Its position is thought to be on the derelict land between the Barbican and the art gallery by St Anthony's Gardens.

I met up with Jeremy at the site, now fenced off awaiting development by... who knows? He showed me carved stones in the gardens which came from the medieval church that was on the site until it was covered over. It had become derelict and was being used as a pig sty in the nineteenth century. Luckily, the church sexton rescued the remains of a carved cross in his wheelbarrow. It is now to be found by St Mary's church nearby. You can still see the lower half of Jesus on one side and Mary with a staff carrying the baby Jesus on the other.

Jeremy has been valiently trying to raise attention to the importance of this site by writing to various Cornwall councillors. Our representative, John Nash, will be raising this matter at the next meeting of the Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network (CASPN). This has regular contact with archaeological groups who will be interested in all this. This site needs to be excavated as there is much to learn from what lies beneath. Who knows, the church may well have been an ancient foundation by early saints. (St Anthony was a popular saint of that era.)

And the interesting thing? CASPN was originally set up by pagans, and may now well find itself lobbying for the appropriate preservation of a Christian site.

Never mind the Truro inter-faith forum talking shop - this is what I call real, meaningful interfaith dialogue!

We will remember them.......

2010-11-14T12:56:00.000-08:00

Today our nation gives thanks for all those who fought and died in two world wars and many conflicts since for our freedom and for that of other nations and peoples.

And today British armed forces are fighting in Afghanistan against a resourceful, determined and utterly ruthless enemy. They are there so the Afghan people may enjoy the freedom which we enjoy, but which they have never known. Freedom from fear of the vicious thug with a gun, or an oppressive government.

In some wars there is a sense of satisfaction at a clear and definable end, as in the two world wars and the Falklands War; in others there may not be. The wars we fight in the future are likely to be like the latter, leading to a sense of frustration and even despair.

But those who have been on operational service know that it is in sharing its dangers and its hardships together that we can find real meaning. We can learn what really matters in life is the friendships we enjoy, friendships that are like no others because we have learned to rely on each other, to trust one another.

We may also learn that the greatest quality in a life that can ever be shown is the courage to risk ones life for ones friends, a risk that can and does lead to the ultimate sacrifice. Some may fight for queen and country, a few for God, but all fight at the end of the day for each other, that they get through things together in one piece.

In every act of remembrance we give thanks for our fathers' and grandfathers' generation who fought and died for the freedom of Europe; for those who died retaking the Falkland Isles and keeping the peace in Northern Ireland; for those who have laid down their lives so people in Iraq and Afghanistan need not live in fear of the bully and his gun.

And we give thanks that young men and women today, in this increasingly selfish and vain world, continue to live up to the highest standards of bravery set by the generations that went before them.

May they and we continue to follow in the way of Christ – the way of love for others, the way of forgiveness of ones enemies, and the way of self-sacrifice in the cause of humanity, justice and peace.

Photo: Cornish soldier on guard, RNAS Culdrose, St Piran's Day.

Tas a'n Gowethas Annual Report 2010

2010-10-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

Introduction: Last year when we had our AGM I was chaplain of HMS ALBION, which was always likely to cause difficulties. However, I was to become poorly immediately after Christmas. I was landed (as we say) and sent for a few months to the Royal Marine barracks in Stonehouse for tests and to convalesce. When well enough I was sent to RAF Cottesmore in Rutland for my final year in the navy where I am still stationed. I start resettlement 1st March and will be a civilian on 1st June 2011. I hope to take a gap year starting 1st April. I'm pleased to say I'm now fine!

Meetings: I did manage to find time to arrange and come down for a 1st Feb (Imbolc) open meeting in St Buryan. This was very well advertised, but very poorly attended. As attendance at meetings had been dropping anyway, it was generally agreed we had to suspend such meetings for the time being. Unless someone volunteers to arrange something, we will effectively only be having an AGM annually, which worries me. Maybe members can meet twice a year.

A Celtic Spirituality Centre? No meaningful responses from anyone over the last year to our mailing I’m sorry to say. But at least people know our intent. Who knows what may result one day? Cast thy bread upon the waters.....!

Down under: I and other members met with Robin Pryor when he was over here a few months ago and I was heartened by his enthusiasm for the CPS project. He is helping run a spirituality workshop/event in Australia near Adelaide next May. I may go over, but I’m keen to have a proper year off – a mini-retirement! Robin copies newsletters to a small circle of interested people down there, so we have the beginnings of an Australian branch perhaps.

Website: You will recall it was smitten with a virus this time last year and blocked by Google. However, I found an excellent web designer in Pat Parry of Cornish Computing who very much supports our work. She did us an excellent site for just £100. Hosting cost, I think, £40, so we got a real bargain! I am careful to keep my blog going and people seem to enjoy reading it. We should have a face book page too but I don’t want to commit myself to doing that as well. I will be updating the website to take account of any constitutional changes we decide etc shortly.

Books etc: I had a bit of spare time and so revised my Lan Kernow: a Theology of Place for Cornwall, calling it now, Kernow Sans: A Celtic Eco-Theology of Place for Cornwall. I decided not to print it as such, but emailed it out to as many people as I could. Hopefully, they have forwarded it on to many others. I printed off a dozen copies and sent it to various clergy and academics and got a nice letter from the Bishop of Truro (he really is very good!) and an email from Prof Ian Bradley. The bilingual assembly plans based on lives of Cornish saints will be on the MAGA website soon.

Progress elsewhere: John Nash and Peter Mitchell do stirling work in their own ways with CASPN and welcoming visiting pilgrims. I am delighted to say we have now been officially invited to join Bewnans Kernow (see their website at www.bewnanskernow.org.uk ). We seem to be becoming more of a lobbying/facilitating body rather than one developing people’s personal spirituality. We can only do what members are prepared or want to do. So my aim is to go with the flow and seek representation on bodies when possible and to network as much as we can. We are being noticed and the response is always very positive! But it will be down to your individual personal initiatives and those of members yet to join us in the future.

Do we need a deputy T/MaG? I think we need someone with a slightly elevated status to represent CPS and chair or convene meetings if I am away. It would also mean that if I got squashed under the proverbial bus that someone could step forward and offer leadership. I would not want to define the role too much for now, but see how it develops. We could do this by vote at an AGM every five years, say. Members will be discussing this soon.

It only remains for me to thank everyone for all their work and prayers in the past year and, I am sure, in the one to come.

The Galilee Project, Llanilltud Fawr, Cymru

2010-10-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to say I received a letter and a booklet from Fr Huw, Rector of Llanilltud Fawr in Wales today in response to a copy of my book An Forth Keltek I sent him.

The booklet is about the Galilee Project - they are raising money to house the important Celtic crosses they have there in a proper visitor's centre. I am hoping our members will agree that we should send a small donation to help this exciting new initiative. I have visited the parish on a number of occasions now.

However, I was most disappointed to read the description of the importance of St Illtud (see our website) in the booklet, a Breton monk who set up a monastic university there in about 500 AD. It was from there that monks left to evangelise Cornwall and Brittany. The text in the booklet reads: "It was from Llanilltud Fawr that Illtud's monks set out on their missionary journeys to Ireland and especially Brittany".

As is usual in writings about the Celtic Church, Cornwall doesn't get a mention. Why is this always happening? Can you see the importance then of our work in reminding people, even in Wales (if you can believe it), about Cornwall's Celtic history and heritage?

To find out more see www.illtudsgalileechapel.org.uk

A fishy tail....???

2010-10-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

While down in Cornwall this week I stopped off to see Zennor Church where the famous 'Mermaid Chair' is to be found. The church is dedicated to St Senara of whom we know nothing. It is set in a circular churchyard, which is a dead give away for an ancient Celtic foundation (Celts didn't like corners much).

Matthew Trewella was a fine young man with a voice to match his good looks. Every evening Matthew would sing the closing hymn at Zennor church alone - this was to be his undoing.

A mermaid, half woman and half fish, was entranced by the wonderful music from the village above her watery home off Pendour Cove. She listened to Matthew's voice with increasing interest until one day should could stand it no longer. She had to see who was making this beautiful music. The mermaid dressed herself in a long dress, taking care to conceal her long tail and walked awkwardly up to the church.

At first she just marvelled at the singing before slipping away to return beneath the waves before the ebb-tide. After a few more visits, she became bolder and waited longer. It was on this visit that her gaze met with Matthew's and the pair fell madly in love. The call of the sea was too strong however and the mermaid knew that she must return to her home or face certain death. She turned to leave but Matthew called after her 'Please do not leave, who are you, where are you from?'. The mermaid explained that she was a creature from the sea and that she must return now. Already deeply in love with her, Mathew told her that wherever she went he would follow. Carrying her, Matthew ran down to the cove and followed her beneath the waves. Neither were seen again.

It is said however that if you sit above the cove at twilight on a fine summer's evening you might just catch Matthew singing faintly on the breeze.

Cornwall is full of such legends and mystery. It so happens that mermaids - half fish, half woman - were used as a means of teaching locals about the nature of Jesus who was and is God and man. Actually, it's not a terribly good comparison as, in Christian orthodoxy, Jesus is fully God and fully man. There are no half measures when it comes to the Incarnation!

Newsletter 42 - October 2010

2010-10-10T12:46:00.001-07:00

Dear friends

I am still in deepest, darkest Rutland, but home a couple of times before Christmas for family occasions. The members will be holding our annual conference on Friday 27th November at 5pm in Truro. If you would like to become a member and be more involved, do let me know.

Bewnans Kernow (Living Cornwall) This is a Cornwall Council sponsored cultural networking body which has invited us to apply to join. We are in the process of doing. It seems Bert Biscoe CC has been singing our praises within the Gorsedd etc which is nice to hear!

Eco-theology of Place for Cornwall This was sent out in a pdf file with a cover which can be downloaded and printed off if necessary. You should have got a copy – if you have deleted it or have not received it and would like to do so, do let me know. I’ve sent out a hard copy to various key figures in Cornwall and elsewhere to generate interest. I hope it will help under-pin what we are about. Bert Biscoe seems very enthusiastic!

Feedback…. I’m aware that I am very disconnected with things being so far away and have been too busy lately to email out much (and don’t like ringing people as I don’t want to be intrusive). I keep my blog going, but I’m very dependant on hearing from you all – maybe you have some successes and built up some useful contacts I am not aware of. If so, PLEASE let me know so I can include them here!

Not much more at this point in time, but much more in the next newsletter which will be sent out at the end of November!

Oll an gwella

Trouble with Christianity is, it's never been tried!

2010-09-26T11:41:00.001-07:00

I’ve not updated this blog for some time. The reason is, it’s just that I couldn’t think of anything to say. There are times when the well overflows and others when it is dry. If the latter, one can only wait on God, and he never let’s me down.

For I was moved today by this painting of Holman Hunt (1827 – 1910), the famous Pre-Raphaelite. I saw it this weekend at the exhibition in the splendid Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It is a painting of two early British priests, both clothed in red chasubles. One has just been caught by the druids (far right - a bit blurred) and presumably is to be killed or ill-treated, the exhausted other one (centre) is being sheltered by a Christian family. But things are very different today (and were probably different in early Celtic Christianity).

For today Christians fall over themselves to be kind to muslims, Sikhs, pagans and Buddhists, but are very often beastly to one another. (It is interesting that we in CPS have cordial relations with Cornish pagans and are of a very broad ecumenical mix!). I am a traditionalist Anglican, and those not of our persuasion have quickly reneged on solemn promises made in the early 90s that we would be accorded equal respect for a very long time.

Such promises were never kept from the outset and any pretence was abandoned in the July meeting of General Synod when we were boo’ed and hissed at, any provision for us now to be brutally withdrawn. It is clear we are despised and not wanted – the feeling being we should leave our churches, stipends and vicarages and clear off to Rome so we will prove no further nuisance. My church is in a terrible state if this is how our church government behaves, especially when one remembers the command of Jesus who said that we ‘should be one as I am the Father are one". Our synod is clearly morally and spiritually bankrupt.

If I was painting this picture, I would have a pagan family taking in the poor priest and the Christians seizing the unlucky other one to be flogged, executed… who knows…. Clearly Hunt’s romantic view of the Church is sadly and naïvely romantic and inaccurate. Because the reality is that early Celtic Christians enjoyed cordial relations with pagans.

If only Christians could extend the same hand of friendship to one another as they do to others…..

Welcome Robin and Brownwyn Pryor!

2010-08-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been lucky/blessed/privileged to meet our Australian member Robin and his wife Bronwyn at a Christian conference centre near Worchester today and yesterday. The've been over here for six weeks and flyback Monday after visiting Cornwall and participating in a multi-national prayer conference here. I drove across from Rutland and stayed the night.

They have also been very lucky to meet Peter Mitchell while in Cornwall and to have a whole day with John Nash touring Celtic sites in West Penwith. I know you are a busy man, John, so thanks for sparing the time!

I was able to start planning my trip down under for next May. I'll be participating in a retreat prior to taking part in the bi-annual Cornish convention which takes place in the 'Copper Triangle' of Moonta, Karina and Wallaroo where many Cornish Australians live. I will be speaking about Cornish saints and their spirituality and, I hope, connecting with Aboriginal culture as I want to understand how they understand the Land.

After that, I hope to visit Tasmania and the cities of the south east such as Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Victoria. If funds permit (this is going to be expensive!) I would love to spend a couple of weeks touring New Zealand.

As I see it, the thing that matters most is ecology - we have to mine our past and find old ways of understanding Creation and landscape as a means to explore a spirituality more appropriate for today. There may be commonality and interesting parallels in Celtic and aboriginal spirituality.... we shall see!

Happy St Samson's Day!

2010-07-28T14:48:00.001-07:00

Saint Samson of Dol was born into a noble family and sent to Llaniltud Fawr in Wales to train under Saint Iltud. Samson was ordained a priest, and then went off to live in a monastery nearby on Caldey Island. He became abbot there, visited Ireland, and on his return was invited to become abbot of Llaniltud Fawr as the previous abbot had died falling down a hole while drunk. Samson was made a bishop before leaving to live a quieter life in a ruined fort on the banks of the River Severn.

Samson eventually felt called by God to travel to Cornwall. Landing probably at Padstow with a small group of monks, nuns and relatives, he journeyed up the Camel estuary to the monastery of Landocco, a place now called Saint Kew. The monks there had grown so lazy and lax that, not wanting to be shown up by Samson, they asked him not to stay there. So Samson moved further inland.

There he met a group of pagans and their king worshipping an idol on a hill. Samson asked them to stop and to return to faith in Christ, but they refused. At this point, a boy fell off a galloping horse, and apparently was killed. Samson prayed over the boy for hours until he was restored to life. The startled pagans and their king then returned to the Christian faith, and Samson carved a cross on a standing stone they had been using for pagan worship nearby.

The king was so impressed, he later asked Samson to deal with a serpent that had been terrorising his people. In Golant by the railway tracks is a small cave thought to be where the serpent lived. Sampson went to the cave and commanded the serpent to come out and to leave that place, which it did, never to be seen again.

Samson was then invited by the grateful people to be their bishop. Samson, however, moved on to found a monastery, probably at Fowey, before leaving his father in charge and departing for Brittany. There he founded many other important monasteries, the most famous being that at Dol. His signature has been found on church documents signed in Paris in 553 and 557.

Golant Church is dedicated to Samson and his holy well is right by the church porch. Just a couple of kilometres away is Castle Dore Fort, where it is thought the king in the story lived. We do not know his name, but in Arthurian legend King Mark was father to Tristan who went to Ireland to bring back the fair Iseult to be queen. Tristan, however, fell in love with her himself and an adulterous affair was to ensue. Wagner was to set a later embellished medieval Arthurian version of this Cornish love story to music in his famous opera. Tristan’s inscribed grave stone once stood in a field near Castle Dore, but it is now to be found on the main road just as you leave Fowey. The bones of a man and a woman were found beneath it at its original site. The inscription on the stone read, ‘Here lies Drustanus, the son of Cunomorus’. Cunomorus means ‘hound of the sea’ and was another name for King Mark.

Photo: Stained glass in Golant Church

Wot I did on my weekends....

2010-07-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of me and our member Sister Elizabeth who is a RC nun living in a convent in Kettering, Northamptonshire. I can now say whatever I want as she does not use the internet, preferring instead to write letters. I send her our newsletters by post and she sends me £5 now and then for stamps. In fact I've £30 saved up as she sends lots! It comes in handy for petty cash etc. She is well-connected and is always seeking ways to promote us and used to live in Cornwall years ago. It was a privilege to meet this energetic and deeply spiritual woman last weekend who has given her life to the service of Christ.

I've been up this weekend to Durham to meet Jean and Ros - two Baptist ministers. Jean is touring about the UK writing a sabbatical paper on where the Celtic Christianity revival is and she feels where it may be going. It is interesting she has picked up what I've also been hearing - that many people feel it's all getting out of control and silly or 'New Agey'(whatever that means...).

Indeed, it seems some of those promoting their 'take' on Celtic Christianity have openly told her they are just not interested in academic studies of the subject - i.e. they are not happy about basing what they do or teach on what the faith of Celtic Christians was actually like, only what they would have it be. It is like driving without your glasses on while blind as a bat - you're going to end up all over the place and in a ditch.

This surely will not do - this is our heritage that is being misappropriated and distorted, and it explains why things may be getting so daft and diffuse. We are fortunate in that our members, few though they are, are all well clued up and are unwilling to see Cowethas Peran Sans go down the route of cheap popularity. We'd rather try and follow the path of truth and integrity! However, it may mean we never get to be very popular or sell books etc! But the Christian faith is about seeking after truth, not chasing after popularity. People, anyway, are not stupid and are quick to smell rats as they are starting to do.

I'm really looking forward to reading Jean's observations (goodness only knows what she made of me and mine!), and hope she will allow me to distribute it to our members, maybe even our friends too.

Newsletter 40 - July 2010

2010-07-03T04:55:00.000-07:00

Dear friends

Well, it was good to have met up with David and Pam Stringer and Barbara Tripp on Mazey Day in Penzance. I’ll be back down 15th August for three weeks and hope to meet up with people then. I would love to walk the Saint’s Way, and maybe live in the Stringer’s hut like a true Celtic mystic for a couple of days. Their solstice event was a big success!

Eco-theology of Place for Cornwall I’ve nearly finished this 10,000 word document. Basically, it’s an ecologically updated version of Lan Kernow which I wrote a few years ago. I’m hoping it will theologically underpin what we are about. It won’t be published in print, but will be available in a pdf file with a cover which can be downloaded and printed off if necessary. I’ll be firing it out into cyber space soon.

Cornish Liturgies It is a great shame, but having been through available Tudor Cornish texts, there is insufficient material to do anything with. New plan is to craft something to be used in meditative evening services focused on ecological responsibility and maybe using some early Irish and Welsh texts.

Robin and Bronwen Pryor Our Australian friends are here soon and I will meet them in August in Malvern. John Nash and Peter Mitchell hope to meet them when in Hayle. I want to discuss my visit down under next May with them.

Promoting Cornwall as a place of pilgrimage Peter Mitchell spoke to a group staying at Epiphany House recently here on pilgrimage. Fr Job Irien was here recently with a group from Brittany and was hosted by our friend Fr Shane at Gunwalloe church. So we’re making a start!

Not much more at this point in time, but a lot more in August!

Oll an gwella

Andy

The Stringers, Barbara and my brother at Mazey Day at the Cornish language stall

Gulf Coast Oil Spill - Sioux Prayer Request

2010-06-17T08:20:00.002-07:00

Dear Relatives

The time has come to speak to the hearts of our Nations and their Leaders. I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, to come together From the Spirit of your Nations in prayer.

We, from the heart of Turtle Island, have a great message for the World; we are guided to speak from all the White Animals showing Their sacred color, which have been signs for us to pray for the sacred life of all things. As I am sending this message to you, many Animal Nations are being threatened, those that swim, those that Crawl, those that fly, and the plant Nations, eventually all will be Affect from the oil disaster in the Gulf.

The dangers we are faced with at this time are not of spirit. The Catastrophe that has happened with the oil spill which looks like the Bleeding of Grandmother Earth, is made by human mistakes, mistakes that we cannot afford to continue to make. I ask that we join together, united in prayer with the whole of our Global Communities. My concern is these serious issues will continue to worsen, as a domino effect that our Ancestors have warned us of in their Prophecies.

I know in my heart there are millions of people that feel our united prayers for the sake of our Grandmother Earth are long overdue. I believe we as Spiritual people must gather ourselves and focus our thoughts and prayers to allow the healing of the many wounds that ave been inflicted on the Earth. As we honor the Cycle of Life, let us call for Prayer circles globally to assist in healing Grandmother Earth.

We ask for prayers that the oil spill, this bleeding , will stop. That the winds stay calm to assist in the work. Pray for the people to be guided in repairing this mistake, and that we may also seek to live in harmony, as we make the choice to change the destructive path we are on.

As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected. And that what we create can have lasting effects on all life.

So let us unite spiritually, All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer. Along with this immediate effort, I also ask to please remember June 21st, World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites day. Whether it is a natural site, a temple, a church, a synagogue or just your own sacred space, let us make a prayer for all life, for good Decision making by our Nations, for our children's future and well-being, and the generations to come.

Onipikte (that we shall live),

Chief Arvol Looking Horse.

19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe

(via David and Pam Stringer)

Newsletter 39 - June 2010

2010-06-05T00:50:00.000-07:00

Dear friends

I have, in the last few days, put in my notice to leave the navy early next year so I can concentrate on Cowethas Peran Sans and to making Cornwall a place of pilgrimage. Being so far from home, I am unable to respond to those wanting to meet me and learn more about us. But that will soon change!

Summer Solstice celebrations David and Pam Stringer are holding a summer solstice celebration on Saturday 19th June at 1pm at their wildlife sanctuary near Fowey.. I’m sure you’ll have a great time!

Brittany in August I am considering going over to see Fr Job Irien and the monks at Landevennec in western Brittany towards the end of August for a week. I know where all the Celtic sites are nearby and plan to visit some. Perhaps you’d like to come too? If so, let me know as the company would be good.

Cornish Liturgies Some Cornish churches put on Taizé or Iona Community evening worship – wouldn’t it be wonderful if they had something Cornish to use instead?! So I’m hoping to produce some bilingual Cornish liturgies using material from our passions plays etc to be published perhaps by the Chubb’s Spyrys a Gernow.

Next time I am down I hope to be down for the Golowan festival in Penzance, so do come and meet me and other CPS members and friends at 11am by the Humphry Davy statue on Saturday 26 June. We will go off and get some lunch somewhere maybe.

I do hope to meet you then.

Oll an gwella

Saint Petroc of Padstow

2010-06-04T06:33:00.000-07:00

Today is Saint Petroc of Padstow's Day - the Ecclesiastical Patron of Cornwall.

Saint Petroc was the son of a Welsh king who did not want to be king on his father’s death. The young Petroc wanted to become a monk instead, and went to study in Ireland for twenty years with sixty fellow noblemen.

Petroc returned home to Wales, and later sailed for Cornwall. Landing at Padstow, he met a Christian hermit. He asked the hermit for a drink of water and, being rudely told to go and find it himself, Petroc struck the ground three times with his staff and a spring of water appeared. A bishop nearby called Wethenoc was more friendly and gave his monk’s cell to Petroc. Petroc and his followers lived there for thirty years before going on pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land. Some say he even went to India!

Petroc was then warned by an angel to return to Cornwall, where he drove away a huge serpent terrorising the local people. One day a huge and fierce dragon came and stood outside Petroc’s cell. Petroc was not afraid, and carried on praying and copying the Gospels out for three days, until he came out to find the dragon still there. He noticed it seemed to be in pain and that it had a splinter in its eye. No wonder it was so fierce! Petroc pulled the splinter out of the dragon’s eye, and healed it. It was grateful for such kindness, but Petroc told the dragon it had to leave the area as the people were very scared of it. It left that region, and they never saw it again.

On another occasion, evil King Teudar had ordered that lots of serpents and poisonous worms be put into a marshy lake into which he intended criminals would be thrown. However, the serpents and worms ate each other until there was just one huge, fat serpent left, which then terrorised the local people. St Petroc ordered the serpent to leave that place, and it was never seen again.

Then Petroc, wanting to live alone and draw closer to God in greater silence, went off to live at Little Petherick a few miles from Padstow. One day a terrified deer ran down the road as it was being hunted by a king called Constantine and his men. It ran up to Petroc and he opened up his cloak so the deer could hide inside it. Constantine saw this happen, however, and angrily went to strike Petroc, but his arm suddenly went lifeless and numb. The astonished king and his men immediately became Christians, asked Petroc’s forgiveness, and the king’s arm was miraculously healed.

Near the end of his life Petroc moved further inland to an even more solitary place, where the busy market town of Bodmin is now to be found. There he met a hermit called Guron who let Petroc have his cell. Guron then moved a day’s journey to the south to where the village of Gorran now stands. Petroc’s monasteries at Padstow and Bodmin became very important places for the Church in Cornwall. It was at Bodmin that the Bodmin Gospels were copied, now kept in storage in the British Library in London. This is the oldest Cornish book in existence, and it would be really good if could be returned to Cornwall.

Petroc died at Treravel a few miles from Padstow, and he was buried afterwards in Padstow. In 981 Padstow was raided by Vikings, and it was probably around this time that Petroc’s bones were moved to greater safety to Bodmin and kept in a special shrine. The shrine was later destroyed in the Reformation, but the ornate box in which Petroc’s bones were kept was later found hidden in a room above the church porch. Petroc’s bones were sadly missing. This beautiful box and Guron’s holy well can now be seen at Saint Petroc’s Church in Bodmin.

What the story of St Petroc tells us

England’s patron Saint George was a soldier famous for killing a dragon, but the patron saints of the Celts are always Christian men and women of peace. Petroc was able to solve a difficult and dangerous situation not by violence, but by being kind. Petroc also protected a deer from hunters and showed how Cornwall’s Celtic saints were keen to live in peace and harmony with God’s Creation, something we all should try and do today. It might be said that Petroc is the patron saint of hunt saboteurs!

A Dhuw, te a dhanvonas dha servyas Petroc dhe vos penser a’th eglos yn
Kernow, gwra dhe sevel yn bann, ni a’th pys, servysy ha oberoryon sans
ha lel a wrella drehevel war an fundyans a veu settys ganso ev yn homma
agan bro ni Dre Jesu Crist agan Arluth. Amen.

O God, who sent your servant Petroc to build up your Church in Cornwall, raise up, we pray, holy and faithful servants and labourers to build on the foundation he laid in this our land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bernadette of Lourdes

2010-05-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

A pilgrimage to Lourdes in southwest France is a remarkable experience, with over a million visitors every year to the tiny cave where 14 year old Bernadette Soubirous had 18 visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858.

The Catholic Church is actually not too keen on visions and miracles – while in paganism just about everything seems to be believable, Catholic Christianity maintains a healthy scepticism about what can sometimes be called the ‘paranormal’. It needs real and compelling evidence to be convinced, and a great deal of it.

It so happens that many others claimed to have had visions after Bernadette, but they were thought to be charlatans and hysterics. Bernadette was from a desperately poor family in the nondescript town of Lourdes. She had poor health all her short life, dying when only 35 years old.

It was Bernadette’s matter-of-factness and compelling honesty that convinced the authorities her visions were genuine and not some attention-seeking fraud. She famously said: “It is not my job to make you believe. I am charged only with the task of telling you.” Also that her job was "being ill."

Lourdes was already a place of pilgrimage when she died tragically young, a huge basilica being built in her lifetime right over the tiny church built by her father and others above the cave. One must wonder what she made of all of this. She must have been amazed and bewildered.

Such things start with just one person having a vision and others believing in it. There was the vision of Lady Richeldis at Walsingham in 1061; of Fr Hope Patten in 1928 that it should be restored as a place of pilgrrimage; of Columba of angels in Iona in the sixth century; George MacLoud’s ideas years later on Iona; those of Brother Roger at Taisé in France. Some are merely aspirations, others vibrant experiences. All where about places that were to become places of pilgrimage.

OK, so I may not have seen the Blessed Virgin eighteen times like Bernadette, or the Holy House like Lady Richeldis did, or angels like Columba. However, I do have an aspiration to see Cornwall become a place of pilgrimage again – a place where people can come and find God.

We may not get a million pilgrims a year – I would be happy with a few hundred – but I hope this is a modest vision you will share and want to work to make a reality with me.

Newsletter 38 - May 2010

2010-05-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

Dear friends

I'm now currently serving in RAF Cottesmore in Rutland , Leicestershire. This is far from ideal but one must make a living and fulfil a calling. The worst thing is it's Helston Flora Day tomorrow and I'm 375 miles away!

The Calens Haf (Beginning of Summer) meeting in St Buryan was very poorly attended – only about a third of what we got three years before in Sancreed. We were unable to hold one in February as I was at sea and the November meeting before that was low on numbers too.

It is self-evident from this that using such regular meetings as a means of growing the fellowship is not working or practical. We also do not seem to be being used by the wider Church as a means of deepening personal spirituality. The members have been discussing this, and I do not plan to hold any further formal open meetings on the Celtic quarter days.

However, if people want to meet, they are welcome to organise something themselves (rather like David and Pam Stringer do now and then), and I will publicise it in our monthly newsletters. We are going to have to grow the fellowship more by networking opportunities as and when they present themselves, promoting ecological responsibility, and by producing bilingual religious services, Cornish sacred music, articles etc to gain publicity. (Incidently, we are extensively mentioned in the latest edition of essays Cornish Studies (17) produced by the Institute of Cornish Studies.)

At our annual members’ conference in December we will examine the constitution and amend it accordingly to take account of the above. I hope we will also be able to launch a quarterly magazine from 1st February 2011 onwards, free to members.

On a happier note, the twelve members continue to enjoy a strong sense of community and strength of purpose, John Nash is doing sterling work with CASPN, our contribution to the language is appreciated and valued, CPS Australia exists already, the website looks really good, and my blog is proving popular. We have done really well in so many ways, so please think of how you can help grow the fellowship, extend its influence and further our five aims.

I hope to be down for the Golowan festival in Penzance , so do come and meet me and other CPS members and friends at 11am by the Humphry Davy statue on Saturday 26 June.

I do hope to meet you then.

Photo: Golowan Festival, Penzance 2009

Calens Haf Lowen oll an bys!!

2010-05-01T09:48:00.001-07:00

It always surprises me that the Cornish motto is “Onen hag Oll” (“One and All”) because I think it would better be “All and Sundry”! Because if you have three Cornishmen, you end up having four opinions, all intensely held. We Cornish can be the most stubbornly divided people on earth.

The old divisions used to be based on Church and Chapel – we see this in the two different coloured hobby ‘osses I saw today dancing in Padstow’s Calens Mai (May day) festival that marks the begining of summer (Calens Haf). There used to be one red horse which came out of the Golden Lion pub at 11am. However, it was all rather too boozy for the Methodists.

As it was impossible to get people to change their entrenched and drunken ways, the Temperence Society made a blue horse which comes out of the Padstow Institute at 10am. So we end up with one village divided by denominationalism and drink expressed in two horses. Those who support the blue ‘oss wear blue neckerchiefs, those who follow the red ‘oss wear red ones.

Cornwall used to have only one orthography (spelling system) for its ancient Celtic language – Unified Cornish. However, another orthography was created in the 1980s. Trouble was, only half went with the new one. Then another was started after that, resulting in three. Until recently the leading lights of these systems of spelling couldn’t even sit in the same room together, such was the hostility created. It is all tragically ludicrous. What often divides the Cornish people now is our orthography, not our religious denominations.

One of our fellowship’s aims is to promote the Cornish language in prayer and worship. We’ve done quite well, with two prayer books and a downloadable Cornish Night Prayer in two different orthographies and a pronunciation CD. School assembly plans about Cornish saints, involving prayers in Cornish, should be on the internet soon. We do not choose to support any particular orthography, but we sought help from experts when producing our material by writing to the three orthographical groups. We only got a reply and help from those practicing Unified Cornish and something called Kernewek Standard (Standard Cornish) which is succeeding it.

It is debatable how ‘Celtic’ some communities that claim to be Celtic actually are. However, we are rooted in a genuinely Celtic place, we use a Celtic language, our meetings follow the cycle of the Celtic Year, and a large proportion of us are Celts. The only thing left to do is to ensure we express Celtic themes in spirituality and religious practices authentically, but how this is achieved is highly debatable.

If this debate ever led to divisions, we might one day end up with two fellowships – a blue one and a red one perhaps?! It easily could if we forget that Jesus prayed that his disciples “might be one”, so let’s make sure that never happens in Cowethas Peran Sans.

Calen Haf Lowen oll an bys! Happy Beginning of Summer everyone!

The Tas a'n Gowethas Easter Message

2010-04-03T02:31:00.000-07:00

Back in 1994 I was sent to Rwanda soon after the genocide there as chaplain to Operation Gabriel – 550 British airborne troops sent as part of an international UN aid mission. This tiny country had been devastated, 800,000 of its people were dead, and we were there to try and put it back on its feet again.

I can still vividly recall that, as we drove into the huge refugee camps for the first time, the children rushed to greet us shouting “komera”. It was a word we were to hear and use often. It means, “Be strong, for we are in solidarity with you”.

Solidarity is the key to understanding what Jesus was all about. Our God is not a God far off, removed from us and uninterested in our plight. The Christian understanding of God is of one of love, who loves us so much he was prepared to show solidarity with us in Jesus in some mystical way we can but wonder at.

But it does not end there. Because the constant theme of Christ’s teaching is that we are called to show solidarity with each other, for those in need – to befriend the lonely, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, and so on.

The Church today all too quickly skips past Good Friday to Easter, missing out the pain and grief. If you have read my book An Forth Keltek, you will know I am worried about the promotion of an ertsatz cosy Celtic Christianity without the Cross, without fasting, without the pain and suffering. I would like to say it is now a choice between spiritual titillation and something of greater substance, but that Celtic Christianity of greater substance is not here yet south of the Scottish border. Perhaps it never will be….

That is why I could not find a national publisher willing to print my book as it stood because it is a message people do not want to buy books about. They want to dismiss the fact that the Celtic monks and nuns chose to live lives of asceticism – of cold, hunger, loneliness, danger and pain; that they were commonly referred to as soldiers. If Christianity is at heart a ' muscular' faith, so much more the Celtic variety should be.

However, In Scotland we have the Iona Community which has a fine track record of Christian protest and social responsibility. They engage directly with many peace and justice issues of the day. The ninth abbot of Iona, Adomnan, negotiated his Law of Innocents – a precursor of the Geneva Conventions; St Patrick fasted against an uncaring slave owner; if Christians do not show solidarity with the poor and downtrodden, they are not worthy of the name. Yet Christianity in Britain has become too much about village fetes, teddy bears and roof appeals, not protest marches, demonstrations and petitions. No wonder some now question our faith’s relevancy.

So on Good Friday I always fast. In this way I try in this way to show solidarity with Jesus on the Cross and with those who suffer today from oppression, hunger and pain.

For you cannot have Christianity, Celtic or otherwise, without the Cross. And you cannot enjoy the joy of Easter meaningfully without it either….

Pask Lowen oll an bys!/Happy Easter everyone!

Photo: 11th Station of the Cross, Shrine of OLW, Walsingham

Let's get our message out there!

2010-03-21T16:42:00.000-07:00

I noticed something extraordinary the other day – I was doing a search to check weblinks to our old site and found an American Christian in Florida had ‘tweeted’ my blog to his friends.

Now I have little idea of what a ‘tweet’ is, other than it is some form of personal advertisement. I have recently had to come off Facebook as I cannot work out quite what it’s all about (as my only friends seemed to be my fellow Royal Marine chaplains!). But I was so grateful he was helping me out – someone I have never met and who is not a technophobe like me and who knows how to make these things ‘work’.

I found an email for him and sent him a message of thanks. (I also give thanks for a mention in the Institute of Cornish Studies latest collection of essays - I’m assuming it was positive!)

Because we are all, as Christians, in this together, and we have to work together to further our faith and save this fragile, dying world in whatever ways we can. There is little time for mulling things over and delay – we have to generate a sense of urgency (not easy in the UK Church today!). We need a new spirituality for today NOW!

Some have skills with ‘tweeting’ lots of people, others (like me) in reading ancient Celtic texts and trying to make them theologically relevant to the problems the world faces today – like, the clash of new empires; global warming; people’s need to know God more deeply when they are losing faith in Britain’s institutional Church. I could go on…

So I will remain a technophobe while giving thanks for all of you who are not and who visit this blog and publicise these ramblings globally. After all, a new Celtic, Creation-focused, eco-responsible, ascetic spirituality is theologically very ‘sexy’and relevant, I assure you!

So you are all welcome to print, post, duplicate etc anything on here anywhere and anytime – just give its source a mention. Unlike our MPs, I don’t want to make any money, only save the world and all who live on it one soul and carbon tonne at a time.

If that makes me sound like Cornwall’s answer to James Bond….

Well, proper job!

Photo: me in the jungle somewhere cooking my dinner with a rather nasty-looking knife!

St Paul Aurelian

2010-03-12T01:53:00.001-08:00

Did you know that it's St Paul Aurelian's day today?

Saint Paul Aurelian was the son of a Welsh nobleman who studied under the Abbot Iltud at Llaniltud Fawr, before leaving to live as a hermit at Llandovery when only sixteen. He then founded a monastery nearby at Llandeusant, where he was ordained a priest.

His fame soon reached King Mark in Cornwall, who ruled from Castle Dore Fort near Fowey. Mark wished to strengthen the Christian faith among his people, and so asked Paul to come to Cornwall. Paul arrived with twelve priests, before moving on to Brittany, apparently to avoid being made a bishop! It seems Paul travelled first to Mount’s Bay in Cornwall as it was there that he met up with his sister Sitofola, helping establish a church for her at Paul near Newlyn. The church there, as well as the village, is still dedicated to him. There is an old Cornish cross in the churchyard wall on top of what is thought to be a pagan standing stone. This may mean the place used to be one of pagan worship before the coming of Christianity.

Paul landed in Brittany and founded important monasteries there. Saint Pol-de-Lyon Cathedral is still dedicated to Paul, and has a series of beautiful modern stained glass windows with scenes from his life in them. It also has what is thought to be his bell. He died at the ripe old age of 104.

While we have no interesting stories of Paul’s time in Cornwall, we have one from when he was in Brittany. One day one of his monks left the monastery intending to become a hermit nearby. He found a pretty spot near a well, and built a small hermit’s hut. However, a huge and ferocious bull appeared, scared the terrified monk off, and then flattened his hut. When the bull had gone, the frightened monk rebuilt his hut, but the bull came back and destroyed it once more. The monk tried one more time to rebuild his hut, but the bull returned, scared him off and smashed it into pieces yet again.

The monk now went to seek the help of Paul Aurelian, who went to the spot and approached the fierce bull, which snorted and pawed the ground aggressively. Paul tamed the bull with the softness of his voice and the kindness of his nature. The monk was able now to rebuild his hut without fear of it being destroyed again, but Paul liked the quietness of the place so much he decided to stay there himself. There is still a church there today, and you can see the holy well that provided for Paul’s needs.

So happy birthday into heaven, St Paul Aurelian - the first Celtic matador!

Newsletter 36 - March 2010

2010-02-27T08:48:00.000-08:00

Dear friends

Just to let you know I have improved somewhat, but I do get occasional bad days. The general trend is up! I am being sent to RAF Cottesmore which is half way between Leicester and Peterborough as from 6 April. I am entering my final year in the navy, and it is a good place to finish in.

Next meeting This is now planned for 2.30pm Sunday 2nd May at St Buryan Methodist Church with a trip down to Alsia Well afterwards (or maybe St Leven if it’s nice and not too many people). I can’t do the Bank Holiday Monday as I have to drive back to work that day. I am hoping we can start a West Penwith cell group (teylu) afterwards.

Annual Perrantide March to St Piran’s Oratory This will take place at 2pm on Sunday 7th March, starting as usual at the Perran Sands Holiday Park . I will be there at 1pm to walk down to the site to bless it beforehand. Join me! My good friend Father Nikitas of the Orthodox Church will be holding Vespers at the oratory after the march. Let’s hope it isn’t raining!

The Cornish Rosary John Nash and I are designing a rosary of 29 beads which is intended to be used with verses from the Psalms to focus on God in Creation in the open air. I hope we can market this soon – it is very colourful as the beads are blue, green, yellow and white! John’s pretty hand-made ceramic crosses suit it just fine. The number relates to the lunar cycle and the colours to earth, sea, sky, sun and moon.

Proposed Celtic Christianity Visitor’s Centre I have spoken to the Bishop’s mission advisor/co-ordinator who says the budget for diocesan mission is just £5000! I am more hopeful of getting help from the Methodist District who are positive about mission and Fresh Expressions of Church. I have also seen the Vicar of St Buryan who is Cornish (it does open so many doors down here!) and so is keen to help! I am going out on Radio Cornwall morning of Sunday 7th May speaking about it.

Our Website This got hacked into and a virus put on it, but we got rid of the virus after a struggle. I am working with Cornish Computing to redesign it at a nominal cost (we have enough funds in our account to cover it). It will have less of some things and more of others, particularly prayers etc in the Cornish language with audio hyperlinks and a CPS Australia page. I will be able to update it myself in future.

Oll an gwella/all the best

Photo: Alsia Well - come and see it on 2nd May!

A Celtic Christianity Visitors' Centre for Cornwall?

2010-02-26T14:34:00.000-08:00

Cornwall has been blessed with a number of retreat houses, but over the years none can be said to have achieved their full potential. The reason for this is unclear, but is probably due to Cornwall’s remoteness – it is just too far for church groups to travel unless there is a compelling and unique reason to do so. Yet type in the words ‘Cornwall’ and ‘pilgrimage’ into an internet search engine and you will discover that Cornwall is very much a site of pilgrimage for the pagan community, drawn by interest in experiencing spirituality through the medium of the landscape.

No doubt some efforts to attract Christians to Cornwall by retreat houses have relied on promoting the beauty of its countryside and coastline to potential pilgrims. If so, then this is evidently not enough. It is the argument of this short paper that Cornwall’s Celtic Christian heritage and landscape is an untapped resource and ‘unique selling point’ in attracting pilgrims to Cornwall; that a Celtic Spirituality Centre for Cornwall is needed to act as a resource for retreat houses, visiting Christians, and the merely curious.

Cornwall is blessed with a rich Celtic Christian heritage, written into its landscape by the medium of place names, Celtic churches, baptisteries and holy wells. Presently, very little is made of this. Yet if one looks at the shelves of church bookshops, there are invariably one or two containing books about the Christianity of the Celtic Church. Modern expressions of Celtic Christianity such as the Iona Community, the Community of Aidan and Hilda, and Cowethas Peran Sans are also responding to such interest.

It seems that Celtic Christian heritage is powerfully speaking afresh to the hearts, minds and souls of many Christians struggling to find meaning and a sense of purpose. In a world that often appears confused and dark, filled with hunger, strife and poverty, the simplicity and faith of the Celtic saints and the deep peace of the sacred places associated with them can touch something very profound in each of us and offer a sanctuary amid the chaos.

A Celtic Christianity centre would bring people to Cornwall who would live in guest houses and eat in our pubs and restaurants. It could benefit Cornwall economically as well as spiritually and ecologically.

The Church has taken capital assets out of local communities which were paid for by these communities. Church of England has sold off lots of vicarages and Methodists loads of chapels. Church of England owes its wealth to past Church tithes and taxes, and Methodist chapels were bought with money raised from poor folk giving sacrificially. These churches have a moral responsibility to put some of this money back for the benefit of the local community.

Hear my Radio Cornwall interview about this in the morning of Sunday 7th March. See you at the march that day to St Piran's Oratory. I'm walking down to bless the site at 1pm - join me!

The spirituality of the Celtic Cross

2010-02-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

One hears all sorts of crazy interpretations of the symbolic art found on Cornwall’s Celtic crosses. The zaniest I ever heard in a book of popular archaeology was an explanation of the five bosses on the back of the cross in St Buryan’s churchyard; it said they represented the five breasts of the earth mother goddess! This is complete nonsense of course – they are merely designs in stone copying the the portable metal crosses inset with precious stones that would have stood on altars.

Yet there are some hints of the ancient Celtic Christianity to be seen in Cornwall’s Celtic crosses. Celtic Christians invented no designs of their own, but borrowed them from the Anglo-Saxons, Romans and even the churches of the eastern deserts. It is the distinctive ways they used these designs that matters, ways that may even reflect something of the pre-Christian beliefs that influenced Celtic Christianity.

After all, there is a definate continuity to be seen in the Cult of Stone of standing stones in the setting up of stone crosses and the Cult of Water by the Christian use of holy wells to baptise and heal. Early Celtic Christians were also to dig similar ‘holy henges’ about their churches to those seen around stone circles.
Early Celtic Christians (we’re still about of course!) saw Christ’s death on the cross as cancelling out the consequences of the Fall of Adam for all Creation, Christ dying to redeem every created thing; there was no concept of inherited Original Sin - they believed that we are now all born good because of Christ’s death and resurrection; also that Christ died and rose again so there might be harmony between God, Humankind and Creation (Colossians 1:20).

Perhaps this is why Celtic crosses have a certain peace and optimism about them, reflected best in those found around West Penwith. Christ on these crosses is pictured not as hanging defeated in pain, but as if emerging resurrected from his tomb as Lord of Life and victor over death, fully-clothed and booted and ready for action, his arms opened wide to greet and embrace us.

The Anglo-Saxons and Vikings loved chaotic knotted animal designs, the animals locked together in a life and death struggle. Look at Celtic crosses such as those at Cardinham, Sancreed or Phillack, however, and the interlace is orderly, and not made up of twisted, fighting serpents, or snakes biting their own tails. This suggests that the Celts’ experience and perception of life was rather more positive. It may be that we see in such Celtic interlace the expression of the Creator entwinned intimately and serenely with his Creation. Also, you will not usually find an end to Celtic knotwork unlike Anglo-Saxon and Viking designs, expressing perhaps God’s eternal nature. The classic halo of the iconic Celtic cross as seen at St Buryan and Lanivet may do the same, circles having no beginning and no end. In the early Irish In Tenga Bithnua, for example, it states: ‘The Lord who always has been and who always will be… is a circle without beginning, without end.’

Spirals in Celtic art seem to represent power or energy: take one look at the famous Christi Autem page in the Book of Kells and it is a whirlpool of spirals, reflecting the power and vitality of our faith. In some Pictish crosses in Scotland you will see a spiral design in the centre of the cross, probably intending to express that power radiates out from it. On one of the two fine crosses in Lanivet churchyard are a number of spirals, descending from the crosshead to us below, perhaps to express our energising and empowerment by faith.

There is therefore a very powerful and positive ecological and spiritual message for us to be found in the symbolism of the Celtic cross: we need not despair; the victory has been won and the powers of darkness put to flight; Creation and Humankind are now reconciled to each other and to God; and we will be equipped and empowered to restore the integrity of Creation, defeating most surely the selfish greed which has been devastating this fragile but beautiful earth.

Photos: St Buryan cross

Seen my article in Cornish World this month??

2010-02-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

Making Cornwall a place of pilgrimage again

Despite these increasingly secular times, we are seeing growing interest today in spiritual pilgrimage. When I keyed in the words ‘holy Iona’ into an internet search engine, I got 2,329 hits. With ‘holy Lindisfarne’ there were 57. But for ‘holy Cornwall’ I got none. It seems, therefore, from this crude internet survey that Cornwall is not considered to be as worthy a place spiritually as the isles hallowed by the Irish saints Columba and Aidan.

But Cornwall has just a strong a claim to be regarded as a Celtic holy place of Christian pilgrimage. Through the Celtic Christian fellowship Cowethas Peran Sans, Cornish Christians are now actively encouraging and welcoming pilgrims to Cornwall - our landscape, after all, is absolutely littered with significant and ancient Christian holy places, some being popular sites of medieval pilgrimage.

During Perrantide celebrations each year, hundreds make a somewhat secular pilgrimage across Perran Sands to the site of St Piran’s oratory, built in the early sixth century and now buried beneath the sand for its own protection. Funds are now being raised to excavate it and make our archaeological inheritance available to us once more.

This excavation represents a good opportunity to remind Cornwall about its forgotten Celtic spiritual heritage, a heritage that can re-energise the Church in Cornwall again. For we can learn from Cornwall’s Celtic saints how to make our faith vibrant and relevant in our society once more: power and status in the early Celtic Church depended on personal holiness, not a position in a hierarchy of authority; evangelism was through personal examples of holiness, not by threats or intimidation; there was a strong sense of the sanctity of holy places; the spiritual presence of ancestors and the communion of saints was considered very close and real; our humanity was viewed positively; women were not seen as some inferior class of citizen; the focus of authority was devolved, elected and local, not centralised, politically-appointed and remote; Celtic saints were very much in harmony and in love with nature and had a strong sense of God’s presence in it.

But the most important thing we can learn from Cornwall’s Celtic saints is the importance of total commitment in matters of faith, something which is becoming increasingly rare in Cornwall’s mainstream denominations. They are starting to realise that they will not survive in any meaningful manner more than another generation without a lot more of it.
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We owe a great debt of gratitude to those who evangelised Cornwall 1500 years ago, but we cannot afford the luxury of just basking in the warmth of our Celtic heritage. If digging things up is hard work, rebuilding the Church in Cornwall on firmer spiritual foundations will be too.

However, we have the fine example of Cornwall’s Celtic saints to show us we will not toil in vain, and that it can be done if only we try.

Photo - Phillack Church

Newsletter 35 - February 2010

2010-01-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

Dear friends

I am really sorry, but the next fellowship meeting on 31st January at Grampound Rd is cancelled. Very sorry about this, but I’ve been signed off work sick for three weeks and our speaker Professor Ken Mackinnon now can’t make it as a language conference the day before he was going to is cancelled (he lives in Scotland). I’ve tried to get another speaker at short notice, but without success. Next meeting therefore will be the early May bank holiday.

I’m hoping to get back to work as from next week, but I’m having to limit what I do. I developed abdominal pain after Christmas (did I swallow the six penny bit in the Christmas pud?!) - probably nothing serious, and some Guchi pills they’ve given me are helping. But they need to find out what the problem is. Your prayers please!

Good news is things still continue a pace in Australia. They are having a Cornish convention in March in Eaglehawk, Victoria in March at which CPS will be advertised and some of our prayers used in the Sunday service. I’m really heartened!

I’m writing another book to submit to a national publisher. This one will have a big chunk about Creation Theology, eco-responsibility and Celtic asceticism. It’s set in the context of walking the Saint’s way and has chapters on Samson, Petroc and Paul Aurelian. If well, I hope to walk it in May. Come along too!

I have heard that the school assembly plans about Cornish saints I have drawn up including prayers in Cornish will be on the Cornwall Council website soon. We’ll get there in the end!

The members decided at the December conference a Celtic Spirituality Visitor’s Centre was a Good Idea so I have written a short paper which has gone to the bishop, Chair of Methodist District, Wardens of Epiphany House etc. Hopefully, it'll spark some interest.

Keep reading my blog for updates etc.

Oll an gwella/all the best

Photo: me in Shamrock Fisherman's Lodge, St Ives

YOU MUST SEE AVATAR!

2010-01-18T14:59:00.000-08:00

If you must see one film this year – this life! – then see Avatar. I won’t say too much so I don’t spoil your enjoyment, but it’s about an ex-marine who travels to another planet in 2154 to work for a mining company. His job? To be the mind of an alien being so he can enter their world, share their life, understand them and win their trust.

The company is only interested in profit and starts to destroy the alien world and kill its people so it can exploit the world’s mineral resources. The ex-marine has to choose a side… that’s enough for now.

But the key thing about the film, the key moral concept, is the need for spiritual connectivity and empathy with the planet, each being and each other. This is a morality found often in what are sometimes stupidly refered to as “primitive people”, because the reality is, despite all our technology, we are far more primitive morally than they are.

The film’s message is clear: we must connect spiritually with the earth that forms us again or we will destroy it and bring about our own downfall. As Henryk Skolimowski wrote: "As we look at the bleak harvest of our pursuit of progress, as we contemplate the destroyed forests, the destroyed cultures, the destroyed lives - all in the name of material progress - we realise that the cause is a total lack of reverence - for the world, for life, for higher values. The spiritual reconstruction of our time must start from the very foundations."

People used to laugh at the Gaia concept, but those who did are now probably questioning such past mirth. The key thing Cowethas Peran Sans can have which differentiates us from other Celtic communities is our rootedness in this special land, a place I myself am formed from – for I was fed on the potatoes from the fields around where I live and the fish from the sea. And one day I will return to the soil that formed me.

Until then it is my sacred duty to respect and defend this place and this earth.

And it’s yours as a Christian too…

Be nice to me - I've had a hard day!

2010-01-10T15:03:00.000-08:00

I write these words at Hilfield Friary, a community of Anglican Franciscan friars and layfolk which occupies a farm in Dorset. I went there first nearly 30 years ago soon after I first felt called to ordained ministry in the Church of England.

Brother Vincent, now in his seventies, is still here tending the garden; Brother Samuel, once novice master when I first came, is now the guardian (effectively the abbot) of the community. While I try to come here every year in Lent to take my retreat, I sometimes come at other times for a few days as I am doing now. It is January and we are nearly cut off by snow, increasing the sense of isolation of this prayerful place.

I arrived a couple of days ago having only rung to book the day before. I was shown to my warm, little room in the guesthouse and unpacked my things. Then, as is my custom, I went to the chapel to dedicate my time here to God and to pray for the community and those I love. Later in the day, I will join in with the daily prayer that takes place at noon, the evening before supper, and just before we go to bed in silence. (The community prays too, of course, soon after rising in the morning.)

It has always felt like home here, or better than home as the community here sustains me in a way that my real ‘home’ in the tough little fishing village of Newlyn cannot. Were it not for this place, I would have given up Christian ministry years ago. I feel valued and cared for here; I don’t feel I have to do anything except pray; I can relax and renew my relationship with God; I can reflect on where I am going in my life.

It is all made possible by the Christian hospitality of the community, and I always try to assure them of the value of what they are doing as such things are not always so obvious.

I believe we need to relearn the value of practical hospitality. Hopefully, the Cowethas will be able to establish a house in the future so we can play our part in assisting in the vital ministry of supporting people in the Christian life.

So who's the man in the photo with the white furry hat? St Francis of course!

BLEDHEN NOWETH DA!!

2010-01-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

Dear friends

Well, I’m back from Egypt and preparing for a lot of time at sea until Mid-August. It is very much the last leg for me as I hope to start resettlement in March 2011. I am hoping to go to Australia soon afterwards to see our supporters there and have currently started networking with some Celtic Church enthusiasts in the USA.

The next full (Imbolc) meeting: This will be at 2.30pm Sunday 31st January at Grampound Road - please put it in your diary. Please get there 2pm if you want a cup of tea to start with. Professor Ken Mackinnon will be talking about the history of Celtic languages in worship. The imposition of English in worship speeded demise, so one of our aims is to do our bit to help reverse this trend – hence why our little prayer book is bilingual. I hope to do a new extended edition with a full Psalter etc when the final version of the language is decided in a couple of year’s time.

Copenhagen. This was a disaster, even with a new USA president. I am very pessimistic about the future now. Each Celtic Christian community’s ethos is defined by the age it was born into. I feel that ours should be defined by a God-in-Creation focused eco-responsibility if we are to be relevant and help address the major issue of our day. Please think of ways we can build up our expertise in this area.

Emails addresses. I recently put all addresses into categories and thought addresses invisible to each other when I mailed out. I now know this was not the case! For some recipients then started emailing all the fellowship with their specific interests/views. I apologise for poor internet etiquette and the unsolicited emails you have received as a result. I will ensure all emails go out Bcc in the future.

Oh, the photo? Me on first aid training recently with a skinny bloke and a bag full of radioactive fallout!!

May I wish you all a very happy and peaceful New Year, or as we say in Cornwall…

Bledhen Noweth Da!

Andy

Christmas Message - Copenhagen

2009-12-19T04:17:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems the only countries that happy with the outcome of Copenhagen are the world's biggest two polluters - the USA and China. For just about everyone else, it was an abject failure, providing little more than aspirations. Once again, it is the big countries that decide things, not the small ones who were outraged at their concerns, as they would see it, being ridden roughshod over.

It would be so easy to play the blame game, but President Obama is a huge improvement on his predecessor and could not have got anything firmer through the US Senate. The USA is in a desperate need of a change of heart at this critical time, and it s changing - but oh so slowly. But we must remember that this is a country which traditionally is inward-looking. It will all take time. Perhaps CPS will be able to work with the Celtic-American community one day, promoting a new spirituality more appropriate for today.

The Human Race has spent over 100,000 years as exploitative hunter-gatherers, but only a few thousand as more-nurturing farmers. It seems, from Copenhagen, that some need more time to change our old ways.

For what this world needs above all is a new theology and a new spirituality - a way of looking at and treating God's Creation. We need to see it as a precious gift to be cherished, adored and nurtured, not something to be raped and plundered.

It will take time, but how much do we have.....?

Some thoughts for 2010.....

2009-12-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

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Some thoughts from me on my holidays at the moment in the sun in Egypt....

It's been good having the peace and quiet to think here and I have formed a list of priorities for next year - I will be away lots and will have to do so.

The first one is a prayer rota for CPS - members need to pray for each other and others for us (and we for them!!). I hope to get one out for 2010 soon. It will partly comprise a list of members and associate members and their rough location. I will also involve praying for different aspects of God's Creation (its peace, integrity etc).

The second thing will be a cell group (or teylu) for West Penwith. We did try one in mid Cornwall but it folded. I am sure we will do better in this part of the woods as we seem to have enough interest.

The last thing will be moving towards a Celtic Spirituality visitor's centre for West Penwith - many people go there visiting holy wells and stone circles etc, but there is nothing to put it all into a spiritual context. I would see this centre as aimed at describing what the pre-Christian spirituality may have been as a lead into what Celtic Christianity was (and, in CPS, IS!).

If you have any thoughts on any of this, please do email me directly through the profile links or leave a comment. I'd love to know!

For now, I'd just like to say...

Nadelik lowen oll an bys! (Happy Christmas everyone!)

Andy

Newsletter 33 - December 2009

2009-12-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

Dear friends

The members’ council (the Cresen Cowethas) met on a wild and windy night tonight for our AGM. Minutes are only circulated to members, but I thought I would let you know what we decided.

We have introduced a new tier of membership of associated member for those living outside Cornwall only. Such members are welcome to attend members’ meetings when in Cornwall. One cannot apply to be such a member – you have to have been recognised by members as having been working to advance our aims in some way. No subscription is currently required for associate membership - it is a reward for work done. If you live in Cornwall and are interested in applying for subscribed membership, please contact me.

We have also amended our constitution so overseas branches can be set up, hopefully one in Australia soon. We are also looking at the possibility of a West Penwith cell group (teylu) and a Celtic Spirituality Visitor’s Centre somewhere in Cornwall.

Please try and come to Doreen Freeman’s carols around the Christmas tree at Greenbank House, Top Hill, Grampound Road on Wednesday 16th December at 6pm for mince pies etc. I, however, will be in Egypt in the sun by the pool. See my blog soon and marvel at my tan! Next full meeting will be 2.30pm Sunday 31st January at Grampound Rd - please put it in your diary

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas.

Cres ha lowen dhys

Andy

Tas a'n Gowethas Annual Report - AGM 2009

2009-12-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

Introduction: Last year when we had our AGM I was working at Culdrose. Now I find myself on a ship which adds a complicating factor as I can be away at times. In fact, after six months with the ship, it is manageable, but only just! Thank heavens for the Internet and mobile phones. The good thing is I am in much better health.

Meeting: We have managed to keep a schedule of meetings together. Peter Mitchell held the May one at St Neots when I was at sea. The one in February was held at Truro Baptist Church and we welcomed Professor Mackinnon, a strong supporter of what we are trying to do. We had to forgo the Michaelmas pilgrimage to the Mount as I was at sea again. The members meetings have been erratic and I wonder if there is much point to them for now.

Membership: This has not changed for another year. We have a good and increasing number of friends but none willing to commit any further. We will just have to live with it, but it means we are very one-dimensional. I have tabled a motion to amend the constitution so we can invite worthy supporters outside Cornwall to join a new class of associate members. This may provoke them to still greater things!

Oversight: This was raised last AGM when we agreed changes to the constitution to allow patrons. Unfortunately, the Bishop and Methodist Chair of the District wern't willing to resond to our overtures just now. We probably tried too soon and we will just have to be patient and bide our time.

Down under: One ray of sunshine is the Australian interest in us. Robin Pryor may be willing to start a branch down there and I have sent him quite a few books now for those interested. I have tabled some constitutional changes to offer him the opportunity to start a branch. Peter Mitchell met the Australian clergyman Marcus Curnow who was over a few months back.

Website: I would like to relaunch it at the end of next year when I will have more time to devote to such things. My blog keeps going and people do seem to read it.

Books etc: I have had two books published this year – An Forth Keltek and the new edition of the prayer book and an accompanying pronunciation CD. Last Christmas I also wrote 17 assembly plans about Cornish saints which I am assured will be on the Cornish Language Partnership website soon. I have not had time of energy to get things out into the shops much or seek publicity, but I have fired off a few copies to key people to get us support/publicity.

A Celtic Spirituality Centre for Cornwall? There is growing interest in pilgrimage and I have always hoped for a spirituality centre based in West Penwith or on the Saints Way, perhaps in collaboration with Epiphany House. I hope to write a paper and convene a meeting with the chap who set up Polzeath's TubeStation and others to plan a way ahead.

It only remains to thank you for your patient support for CPS during a period I have been insanely busy and away a lot and so unable to co-ordinate things as well as I would have liked.

Advent Sunday - New Church Year, new beginnings...

2009-11-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

Today is Advent Sunday and it marks the beginning of the Church's year. It is commonly thought Samhain marked the beginning of the Celtic Year, but the expert on such things, Prof Ron Hutton, blew that idea out of the water in his book "Stations of the Sun". It was merely the musings of Victorian romantics. It was the Romans who saw years as having a beginning, not the Celts. But Advent, the Roman year's beginning (1st january) and the supposed Celtic one are not far apart usually, so it's all a bit academic.

It so happens the Cowethas AGM occurs in December each year, this year's on Saturday 5th December. The members will sit down and review where we are and where we are going.

It's been slow progress really - I'll put my annual report on here soon (when I get time to write it!). The thing I really want to do is to put forward CPS as a Cornish expression of what Ray Simpson of the Community of Aidan and Hilda calls the "New Monasticism". While I have covered it a bit in my book An Forth Keltek, more needs to be said about it, how it works out in practice.

To that end, you will be pleased to know I have started on a book for distribution with a British national publisher (rather than a Cornish one). It will be about Paul Aurelian and what his life has to teach us.

More to follow!

Newsletter 32 - November 2009

2009-11-15T08:47:00.000-08:00

I am currently in HMS Albion off Plymouth behind the breakwater where we have had to go to shelter from the recent storms. This is just a quick update as as we are about to leave for further sea training!

The Samhain meeting went well, if a little sparsely attended. I spoke about my bookand the contents – what I’m trying to say. So what am I trying to say in it? Basically, religion is changing, and the church needs to change to take account of society’s changing attitudes. The modern expression of Celtic Christianity should be seen as part of the church’s response. Cornwall’s Celtic Christian heritage gives us a precedent for spiritual reform and repositioning.

The next thing the members need to talk about is where we go from here. I’ve about 12-16 months to run in the navy before I leave. I very much hope we will get the support of the Church in setting up a spirituality centre in Cornwall. I was lucky to meet Revd Steven Wilde, Chairman of the Methodist district recently and gave him a copy of my book. It is in such ways we will gain support so we can build for the future.

The members meet on 5th December for our AGM. Please pray for the success of CPS and for guidance. It looks like I will be around for our early February meeting (Imbolc) which will probably be in Grampound again.

The photo? It's me going ashore with my body handling/mortuary team during training for hurricane relief operations etc. I get all the good jobs!

God bless you all.

We will remember them.....

2009-11-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

Today we give thanks for all those who fought and died in two world wars and many conflicts since for our freedom and for that of other nations. The long list includes places such as Korea, Burma, Malaya, Cyprus, The Falklands, and Northern Ireland.

And today at this very moment British armed forces are deployed in dangerous circumstances in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are there so other peoples may enjoy a freedom which we enjoy but which they have never known. However, all wars, to a greater or lesser extent, have a political murkiness about them, and the present one in Afghanistan is no exception

Tragically the conflicts in such places goes on and many people here will know friends and comrades who have been killed in action in the last few years. War is always a failure, always a tragedy. In some wars there is a sense of satisfaction at the end, in others there may not be. There can be a sense of senselessness, that life its self is futile and meaningless, particularly if one has lost someone close.

But those of us who have known war know that it is in sharing its dangers and its hardships together that we can learn what really matters in life is the friendships we enjoy, friendships that are like no others because we have learned to love and trust one another. Friendships that death cannot end or destroy.

We may also learn that the greatest quality in a life that can ever be shown is the courage to risk ones life for ones friends, a risk that can and does lead to the ultimate sacrifice. Some may fight for queen and country, some for God, but all fight at the end of the day for each other, that they may see the end of that day together.

On this Remembrance Sunday we give thanks for our fathers and grandfathers generation who fought and died for the freedom that we and the nations of Europe continue to enjoy; we give thanks for those who fought and died for freedom in Korea and the so called savage wars of peace as we withdrew as gracefully as we could from empire; for those who died retaking the Falklands and keeping the peace in Northern Ireland; for those who have laid down their lives so people in Iraq and Afghanistan need not live in fear of the bully and the gun.

And we give thanks that young men and women today to live up to the highest standards of bravery set by the generations that went before them.

We give thanks that young people today, in this increasingly selfish and vain world, continue probably unconsciously to follow in the way of Christ – the way of love for others, even ones enemies, and the way of self-sacrifice in the cause of humanity.

Well done down there!

2009-10-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

Just had an order for eight copies of An Forth Keltek and four of our prayer book from one of our friends in Australia.

Mmmmmm.... This is interesting... particularly as I am aware that they had 60+ to the Celtic spirituality workshop he ran at a recent Cornish convention there. When I did one last year I only got about 18!

What we may well end up with is more CPS representation/activity down under than up here!

I always find it a shame that those from overseas seem to appreciate our history more than we do. Seems the same may apply to our ancient Celtic spirituality!

Newsletter 31

2009-10-10T06:38:00.000-07:00

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Photo: Me and Petty Officer 'Buzz' Honey (Truro lad) and child on bridge of HMS Quorn

Dear friends

I thought I would do this newsletter in a different format – as a kind of personal letter. I have now been onboard HMS Albion now since May and it has been a busy time. One of the difficult things is the ship’s programme can change in an instant because of mechanical problems. Also, because the ship draws seven metres and is so tall as to be affected more by winds, it can be prevented from entering harbour because of weather and tides. There is consequently never a guarantee we will get home for a weekend’s leave. From February next year we will be travelling further afield, first to Norway, then the USA.

Our next open meeting is 1st November at 2pm at Greenbank House, Top Hill, Grampound Rd. A green CPS sign should be outside the house so you can identify it. I have been unable to get a speaker so will be speaking myself about my ‘take’ on Celtic Christianity using some DVDs. My book will be available for sale, so bring all your friends and get them to buy one! I hope you can make it.

I have tried to make an appointment to see the bishop, but it is impossible as he is so busy. I will book him for the earliest time possible next year. He has had a copy of my book and our prayer book and pronunciation CD, so is aware of CPS. The support of the mainstream church will be essential if we are to obtain the assets needed to fulfil our aims within Cornwall. It is worth reminding you what these are:

To understand and embody the spirituality of the Celtic Saints

To share this spirituality with others

To use Cornwall’s ancient Christian holy places again in worship

To promote Cornwall as a place of Christian spiritual pilgrimage

To promote use of the Cornish language in prayer and worship

We have done quite well with our last aim in terms of the Cornish diaspora in Australia, but less so in Britain. Also, I am working with the Cornish Language Partnership to produce a website for schools with assembly plans based on lives of 17 of Cornwall’s Celtic saints including prayers in Cornish. We may not be setting Cornwall on fire, but we are slowly getting somewhere. I will be leaving the Royal navy in June 2011 which will help matters greatly, but we do need the support of Cornwall’s church authorities to speed things up. Let’s pray they will support our worthy project!

Cres ha lowen dhys

Andy

The Green Man

2009-09-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

Saw this while in Turkey on holiday at Ephesus or somewhere. It's the Roman god of wine and fun known as Baccus carved on a second century Roman pillaar Does it look familiar? A bit like the Green Man of British legend?

Of course, some have sillily claimed the Green Man is some sort of ancient British god when he clearly isn't. He's an early first millenium import from Rome.

The key thing with matters of faith is that they must stand up to scrutiny, and Green Man as an ancient British god just doesn't.

But then Christianity, as well as modern paganism, is not always presented as coherently as it could be. Like Jesus coming to Cornwall for instance (10th century myth invented by Glastonbuy's monks)?

Let he that is without sin cast the first stone.....?

What makes for authenticity in faith and art?

2009-09-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

I went to the Tate St Ives today to see the Alfred Wallis paintings. My father used to deliver mail to the eccentric old mariner and amateur artist who died in 1945 in Madron work house. It is a quaint but sad tale.

Wallis started painting when his wife died. He was lonely and it gave him something to do. People laughed at him – he was so poor he used to offer his crude paintings using household paints on scrap cardboard for bread from the bakery. They accepted them as an act of charity, but then used them to light the ovens. Now those paintings are worth thousands.

Looking at the other artists represented in the various Tates up and down the country, wallis shows up the shallowness and pretentiousness of many artists today. For artists today, modern conceptual art can be a game to play – poking elitist fun patronisingly at a public which is not so gullible as to be taken in (and often funded using charitable lottery or tax payers money!). We are not that daft and it's entirely understandable if we are outraged!

No, there is something about the innocence of the paintings of Alfred Wallis that can grip us with their simple authenticity. He wasn’t playing silly games; he’d never been to art school. Yet now his art is revered and admired, art that sold for pence or was burned is now worth thousands. But a true Bonfire of the Vanities would involve burning much of the rubbish that passes for conceptual art today.

Art is sometimes said to be the new religion, dispensing meaning to people via its high priests whose art is 'consecrated' by their being shown in galleries and museums: so is there a message here for modern organised religion too? Is what passes for family worship in Church today so much froth and dross? I often wonder why people put up with it! Is there more to be found in the simple silence of the landscape than the racket and superficiality that passes for modern worship? I certainly think so.

How about you....?

Lammas Day meeting 2009 - Lanlivery/Helman Tor

2009-08-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

The Lammas day (1st August) meeting this year took place at St Brevita's Church in Lanlivery on the Saints' Way. A good growd of about 20 turned out, which was not bad when one considers the rain we had in the morning. I intended we would visit the holy well nearby before walking to Helman Tor along the Saints Way. However, I checked the path in the morning to find it was impassible - it was overgrown along much of the route and under 9 inches of water in places!

Some of us had lunch in the pub next door before our short act of worship in the church. After this one of the churchwardens gave us a talk about how they had turned the church around, ripping out the pews and putting in more comforatble and flexible chairs. We then went to the holy well nearby where we renewed our baptismal vows and I blessed people using water sprinkled using one of the many ferns that adorn the well. Some of us then jumped into cars to drive to the tor where we held a Lammas service of blessing the coming harvest and giving thanks for its first fruits.

And this little pile of fruit we left behind?

Well, it's none other than the Stringer's early apples topped off with a Sainsbury's nectarine - there is an tradition in Ireland of burying the first fruits of the harvest on top of mountains at Lammas. As this is a protected place, we did not bury them but left them there.

Well, it'll give the birds something to eat and walkers something to figure out!

Buy my book!

2009-07-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Well, I've got my feet under the table with HMS ALBION and am realising my life will not be the same for the next 18 months. This is a parish which moves about! However, we must make sure the Cowethas moves forward during this time.

One way you can help is by buying this book and lending it to your friends. It really encompasses why we are needed and what we are all about: a Cornish expression of Celtic Christian spirituality, but with a distinctively ecologically-responsible focus. It is available from Ray Chubb (ray@spyrys.org), Amazon and from Books Plus in Penzance. A snip at £8!

We may be 70 years behind the Iona Community, 15 yrs behind the Lindisfarne based Community of Aidan and Hilda, but I believe we have the right formula and message for this day. I believe Cornwall can and will catch up.

So let's get it out to people and make it happen!

Oll an gwella

Newsletter 29

2009-07-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

Dear friends

The members met yesterday to discuss progress and we agreed we would give various people areas of interest/responsibility. Peter Mitchell will take on pilgrim hospitality and publicity, Doreen Sparey-Delacassa is our Fresh Expressions link and John Nash is already doing stirling service as treasurer and CASPN representative. I will be asking others to take certain remits on – whatch this space!

Next (Lammas) Meeting This will be on Saturday 1st August at Lanlivery Church at 2pm after lunch in the Crown Inn there. Then we will visit the holy well of St Brevita nearby before walking to Helman Tor (about 2km). I will have a car prepositioned there to drive people back if needed. We will bless the coming harvest from the Tor – bring some vegetables you’ve grown to leave there!

Cornish Daily Prayer There is now a pronunciation CD to go with it. It and the book are on sale in Books Plus, Penzance and Baron’s newsagents in Newlyn as well as Epiphany House, Truro. St Peter’s Church, Newlyn uses our prayerbook!

Cornish Night Prayer Attached again – please pass on to your friends for publicity.

Chris Dunkerly Chris is an Australian bard and friend of CPS who is very interested in our work who is over here soon: “15 August (Sat) we arrive in Cornwall and will be staying in a large cabin at ‘Tehidy Park’, near Illogan. 22 August (Sat) we head off northwards. 29 August (Sat) we arrive back in Cornwall, and stay at Lighthouse Studio, Praa Sands, seeing more sights and catching up with as many people at we can.” If you would like to come with me to meet him, let me know. We are getting popular down there!

Oll an gwella (all the best)!

Andy

Andy's back from sea (for a bit!)...

2009-07-04T03:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had three weeks away at sea and boy it's been hard work and fun! The time before was very frustrating - I had to get the church library out of stores and back into the ship after its refit and find my way about. This was not easy as it is very complicated layout. As I didn't know Plymouth or the dockyard either I spent a lot of time wandering about looking lost.

A sense of being lost is a frustrating experience but one which one has to go through now and then - after a bereavement, retirement, redundancy, a stroke or heart attack etc. Ones familar world seems gone forever and a new one beckons.

Christians are fortunate in that we are not alone in all this - we have Jesus by our side for company and support and a map to guide us - the Bible. And we have the compass of the Holy Spirit to give us a sense of direction.

No wonder statistically Christians cope better with life's trials and tribulations than others.

Just wish I had a map of this ruddy ship though!

Andy is all at sea....

2009-06-07T05:47:00.000-07:00

I'm away now at sea until 1st July (ish) so don't expect any blogs until then (unless the MOD computer allows access to this site, which I doubt). The CPS members meet 4pm the first Saturday I get back (4th July)to talk of progress.

The Stringers’ Solstice Celebrations Do get along to their celebrations near Fowey Saturday 20th June if you can. It’s always fun I’m told! They’re on 01726 833334.

Mazy Day 27 June If you go to Penzance’s Golowan Mazy day, meet up by the Davy Statue at 11am as usual. (I’m away I’m sad to say). And wear your CPS polo shirts!

Cornish Night Prayer This is hot off the press and will be going on to our website with hyperlinks so you can hear Cornish and sing parts if you want. Please forward it to your friends as it is useful advertising. Idea is you print it, fold it and laminate it to make a prayer card. Clever, eh?!

News down under… The Australian May Cornish Convention had 60 people attend the Celtic Christianity workshop. They are having a follow up retreat, so we may have a branch there soon. We are starting to see keen interest in the USA now too.

Next Lammas Meeting This will be on Saturday 1st August at Lanlivery. We will visit the church and holy well after lunch in the Crown Inn there and then walk to Helman Tor (about 2km - see photo above). We will have two cars prepositioned there to drive people back if needed.

My latest book – An Forth Keltek (The Celtic Path) This is proving popular – if you want one ring Ray Chubb on 01209 842394. It’s £8 plus p &p. A snip!

Got to dash - ship to catch!

Never play with fire - people may get burned...

2009-05-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

I admit to being very worried about the European and local elections on Thursday. The collapse in confidence in the three main parties as a result of the financial greed of some of their MPs has opened the field dramatically to smaller parties not so implicated. In many ways this is a good thing as our political system denies representation of minority parties who consequently rarely receive any funding from the business world. But in some ways it is not.

We are likely to see an increase in votes for Celtic parties such as the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Mebyon Kernow in Celtic regions of the UK and UKIP in England – no problem there. However, the BNP too will most likely see a resurgence in England. The rise over the years of the BNP, paralleling that of English nationalistic identity, worries me greatly – it missed a Euro seat by a whisker last time and will certainly win seats this time. Heaven knows what will happen locally in places like Bradford Council where it already has eight council seats.

What also worries me too is the well-meaning naivety of churchmen who think it is fine every St George’s Day to fly his flag and say it is about time we started celebrating Englishness more (the Church of England does fly it all the time anyway of course). One prominent figure recently was the Archbishop of York, no less.

It is a small step from celebrating Englishness, to celebrating English national identity, to promoting English Nationalism; and as William Hague wisely said, English Nationalism is the most dangerous of them all. Why he said this, I don’t know, but there is something of the night in it for sure, something the BNP thrives on.

I received this from a good and wise friend who is English, but who has a deep understanding of such matters and empathy with us Celts:

I very much agree with you on this, Andy. I was in Stoke-on-Trent a couple of years ago at about that time of year [St George’s Day]. What with all the red and white flags I felt that the BNP had certainly got a grip there. I said to my host that if I were a young Muslim and thus aware of the flag's origin as a Crusader emblem, I would very much fear for my safety.

So English clergy - be like Hercules and do not listen to the siren voices that would draw you on to the rocks for the sake of cheap popularity. Stop up your ears, tie yourself to the mast and just sail serenely by. To do otherwise is to discredit Christ by playing with fire, and risking a lot of innocent people getting badly burned, perhaps literally….

Have you ever noticed...?

2009-05-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

Walking the Saints' Way last week reminded me of how Cornwall's Celtic heritage is literally written into our landscape: St Wenn was a daughter of the Welsh king St Brychan, at least 24 of which were to become missionaries, many of whom settled around Bodmin Moor; St Columb had a male admirer, but wanted to stay a celibate nun - so he chased her and cut her head off; St Austell was friends with St Mewan and both may have headed off to St Meen in France later, but that's all we know of him.

The sad thing is how little local people know about their saints, even if we have reliable information about them. However, they are learning more as time goes by - the excellent play about Piran acted out on the annual march to the oratory, for example, teaching those who come the main facts.

I have compiled on behalf of the Cowethas seventeen assembly/family service plans about Cornish saints which should soon be downloadable from the Cornish Language Partnership website. (The bait I used to get their support was to provide prayers in Cornish to start and end the assemblies!)

When I was a child growing up in Newlyn, I was not taught one word of Cornish and not one single thing about our Celtic heritage (any Cornish heritage for that matter).

But today, I and many others will ensure thhe same mistake is not made with a new generation of children. A shared pride in a common cultural identity is good for communities and good for individuals.

So let's learn more about those saints whose names litter Cornwall's landscape!

Andy is away for a bit.....

2009-04-19T00:54:00.000-07:00

Hi! I'm off on courses and holiday now until 13th of May. Do come to our next meeting at St Neot, Liskeard on Monday 4th May (my birthday) - Peter Mitchell will be leading proceedings. There is a bring and share lunch before in the St Neot Institute from 1230 onwards, then we meet at the prettiest church in Cornwall (has to be!)for 2pm for prayers and a talk by the vicar, Father Balfour. Finally, it's down to St Neot's holy well for a final blessing with its waters.You might got to the pub afterwards on the way back to your cars!

I have a new book out - An Forth Keltek (The Celtic Path), price £8. Peter will have a few copies to sell, but I have only a few at the moment for people to review etc. He'll take orders and money if you are not able to get one. It's good!

New Cowethas Peran Sans prayer book launch!

2009-04-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

There are a great many people now learning Cornish who are looking for ways to use it in their daily lives. One is through the medium of daily prayer. This book has been compiled with two aims - to help you to learn Cornish, and to help you to draw closer to God.

The order for morning and evening prayer in this book follows a traditional format. A fixed psalm is used each morning and evening to make things simple, because prayer should be like that. Collects have been included for use during the Church year, as well as a list of Celtic saints’ days.

The book was compiled by me and kindly typeset for free by Michael Everson of Evertype. Translation was by Professor Nicholas Willams into Kernewek Standard which, I am told, is virtually the same as the Single Written Form (T).

Copies are priced at £7.95 and available direct from Amazon or from me - peransans@yahoo.co.uk.

I will be launching the book after the 3pm Cornish language service at Crowan next Sunday.

Please support this!

2009-04-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

Got this leaflet in Cornish World this month, and how heartened I was by it! It has been put out by the St Piran’s Trust (see www.st-piran.com) seeking to raise money to excavate St Piran’s Oratory on Perran Sands.

It’s Britain’s oldest surviving church, built in the early sixth century and now buried beneath the sand for its own protection. During Perrantide celebrations each year, hundreds make a pilgrimage across Perran Sands it.

This excavation will also represent a good opportunity to remind people about Cornwall’s forgotten Celtic spiritual heritage, a heritage that can re-energise the Church in Cornwall once more. For we can learn from Cornwall’s Celtic saints how to make our faith vibrant and relevant in our society once more: power and status in the early Celtic Church depended on personal holiness, not a position in a hierarchy of authority; evangelism was through personal examples of holiness, not by threats or intimidation; there was a strong sense of the sanctity of holy places; the spiritual presence of ancestors and the communion of saints was considered very close and real; our humanity was viewed positively; women were not seen as some inferior class; the focus of authority was devolved, elected and local, not centralised, politically-appointed and remote; Celtic saints were very much in harmony and in love with nature and had a strong sense of God’s presence in it.

But the most important thing we can learn from them is their total commitment to Christ, a commitment which is becoming increasingly rare. Cornwall’s mainstream denominations are starting to realise that they will not survive in any meaningful manner more than another generation without a lot more of it.

I have pointed this out in my latest book - An Forth Keltek: a spiritual pilgrimage with the Celtic saints of Cornwall, Wales and Brittany - and that, while we owe a great debt of gratitude to those who evangelised Cornwall 1500 years ago, we cannot afford the luxury of just basking in the warmth of our Celtic heritage.

We have to be brutally realistic - digging things up is hard work, and rebuilding the Church in Cornwall on a firmer foundation will be too. However, we have the fine example of Cornwall’s Celtic saints to show us we will not toil in vain, and that it can be done if only we trust in God and try.

All the nice girls love a sailor....

2009-03-21T03:33:00.001-07:00

Well, things are going to get a bit complicated from now on. This is a picture of my new parish where I start work on the 19th of May: HMS Albion - an 18,500 ton commando carrier. I will be her chaplain for two years, but leaving the navy soon after probably.

This will mean a lot of time away for me, but mostly next year. This year will be spend mainly on sea trials around the UK as she is just coming out of refit. It might even mean you see more of me this year as I will have no Sunday commitments when she is alongside!

Just extracting myself from RNAS Culdrose is proving complicated. I will be on leave when we have our 4th May Bank holiday meeting at 2pm at St Neot's church (do come early for a bring and share lunch in the village hall before - past the church on your right, over the bridge and it's on your right). This will mean that Peter Mitchell will be leading things (the vicar is talking about the church and taking us to the holy well). Hopefully, I will be about for the Saturday 1st August meeting when we will be climbing Helmand Tor on the Saint's Way near Luxulyan.

CPS will have been going for three years when we get to August - quite an achievement in an increasingly-secular age. I find people are really interested in what we have to say (hopefully, the new bishop will be too and let me have a nice old vicarage for a spirituality centre one day!)- for instance, I am now on the diocesan ecological committee.

With my new book out soon, we should see a growth of interest and numbers over the two years I am at sea - but that will depend ultimately on the more commited CPS members of which there are so very few.

So let's make it happen, but I'm afraid it's going to be down to you all alot more from now on!

Happy St Piran's day everyone!

2009-03-04T13:41:00.001-08:00

Well, another St Piran's day is upon us!

I only just remembered in time to tell the duty officer at Culdrose so he could make sure our flag is run up the yard arm tomorrow.

When they first did it a couple of years ago grown Cornishmen were in tears and the grand bard wrote in to thank us! Amazing, really, as when I was a kid you never saw the flag or heard our language.

So happens today I had a first meeting to sort out the website for the Cornish school assembly plans I wrote over Christmas - 17 in all, and with all the prayers available in Cornish. Hopefully, we'll see them used in schools by the summer. Not only will this help kids learn about their language, they will also learn about the saints that brought our faith to these shores and the spirituality they professed.

So many people are working so hard on behalf of our culture that it makes you wonder - why? Why does it matter to us and why do our children want to know about it?

Because we all need to know we come from somewhere different so we can be different. It wouldn't just be boring if we were all the same - it would be positively unhealthy.

So let's toast our national saint tomorrow and strike a small blow against the Globilisation that threatens to make clones of us all if we did not.

Kernow bys vykken oll an bys!

Joseph would have been proud!

2009-02-10T15:01:00.000-08:00

I usually tell people I wear this top for a bet. They then tell me I have won!

I was something of an extrovert, but am changing as I get older. Trouble is, my energy levels are fading too. So it is getting hard to be noticed and I am not sure if I want to be noticed. A large part of me wants to just retreat to a monastery and pray (similar to Jesus in the desert who was also very busy at times).

But Cowethas Peran Sans MUST be noticed as we have so much to give. I have written to a couple of leading clergymen seeking patronage but have had no reply. What should I do? Ring them up? Camp on their lawn? Are they really importnat? Should I be bothered? I really don't know. I've written articles for the papers, books, been on the radio etc, but still it is hard to get any response.

Perhaps the Church is spiritually dead and that is why it is not listening or responding. No doubt the people concerned will say they are very busy. Fine. Funny old thing, but so am I! It really is not good enough. But then jesus was ignored at first by the religious leaders of his day, but they crucified him when he got their attention!

The call of the desert....

2009-01-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

This bush may not look very impressive or important, but it is reputed to be the burning bush which Moses saw on Mount Horeb in the Sinai Peninsula during the jews wanderings there before the conquest of the Holy Land. It is to be found in the grounds of the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Horeb - the oldest monastery in the world.

You will see a pattern in the development of the Christian faith in which deserts feature strongly. First the Jews left Egypt and went out into the desert for 40 year; then Moses left them to be on his own and to receive his deep experience of God in the burning bush; then the Desert Fathers and Mothers, a huge influence on the Celtic Church, went out into the desert in the 4th century; finally, we see the austerity of the Celtic monks and nuns who shunned towns and cities to be on the remote edge of things.

I have lived in the desert on a few occasions. It is empty of distractions, and consequently it is is easy to hear the voice of God there. No wonder it has been such an influence on the life of the Church.

So why not choose to go off into your own desert for a few days this coming Lent? Why not take a retreat somewhere and be alone and silent before God?

Maybe you too will see your burning bush in the vibrant experience of God's closer presence in the silence and majesty of his Creation, just like our Celtic forebears did...

The Tas a'n Gowethas New Year message

2008-12-31T07:55:00.000-08:00

Well, I listened to the Queen's message at Christmas and heard there was one by the President of Iran on the TV too. I think the archbishop is doing one tonight, so thought, hey, maybe I should start doing them as well!

I got a wonderful card from Professor Ken MacKinnon - a wonderful Christian man, a good friend of CPS - of mine too, and a Celtic languages scholar who is extremely knowledgable about Celtic Christianity. This photo is of Bethlehem, believe it or not - more specifically, it's of the so-called 'peace' wall that separates the Jewish people from the Muslims. It reminds me of the one we had to build across Belfast to keep the Republicans and Loyalists apart. Well, some of them anyway.

Because the Bethlehem wall has had written on it: "Friends cannot be divided". That's the trouble with such walls - they keep everyone apart: those who would be enemies, but also those who would be friends or who might just become them.

We see the terrible effects of putting up walls between those who would be friends to keep those who would rather be enemies in Israel today - there is no physical contact between the leaderships of the Gaza Strip or Israeli government at all. So they try and communicate instead by rockets and bombs.

That's why I now call myself a Celtic Christian now when asked - we avoid walls because the Celtic Church was as accomodating and accepting as it could be. It did not oppress pagans and we know that they reciprocated as there were very few Christian martyrs. The Celtic Church was not into putting up walls and conveniently consigning people beyond them like the Church of today often is. We have so much to offer the Church and the world if it takes time to listen.

So Bledhen Noweth Da oll an bys (Happy New Year everyone!) and let's resolve to rid this world of walls in 2009.

Having some beer, but keeping your sense of balance....?

2008-12-20T13:03:00.000-08:00

Tonight I went to see the Montol festival in Penzance held on or near the winter solstice. I was there last year when it was re-established for the first time in hundreds of years after being stamped out by those who would put paid to our fun.

My brother plays in the band and my other brother and mother were both there, so it is becoming something of a family occasion. This year I wore a mask, not because I was worried about being seen there, but that is the tradition - you get up to jolly japes in disguise and have a beer and a bit of fun. In fact, we had lots of fun!

It has to be said, however, that the Protestant Church was largely to blame for banning Montol - the Calvanistic Puritanism of the 17th century just couldn't cope with it. They obviously would not have approved of Jesus changing water into wine at a wedding feast either where there would have been music and dancing.

I know someone who is a member of the ever so 'dour' Church of Scotland and assumed he was going to Helston Flora Day. When I found out he was not, I asked him why. "It's pagan", he said. To which I replied: "And your point is....?"

Here in Cornwall we like to do things our way and differently. We are not scared to enjoy ourselves, and we are not happy when alien cultures seek to overide our fun-loving one.

Because our Celtic ancestors didn't beat themselves up over having a good time. Yes, their monks may have been an austere lot, but they were doing it on behalf of their communities, perhaps so they could then go out and have a fun time with a good conscience. I'm sure the monks wouldn't have tried to stop it.

So yes, keep control of your desires by all means, and don't get blind drunk and go around punching people. But do let your hair down now and then - it's the Celtic way of doing things.

'Montol' comes from the Cornish word meaning 'balance' by the way. Makes sense, doesn't it?!

Tas a'n Gowethas Annual Report 2008

2008-12-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

This has been a difficult year for me personally. Firstly, because my back problems, which started a year ago, grew even worse, eventually setting off other problems and pain and incapacitating me in August. Unfortunately, while I have improved somewhat since then, I am sorry to say the last few days have not been good for me.

However, much has been achieved. Our February meeting was reasonably attended and Revd Steven Dawes gave a challenging talk. The May meeting at St Clether saw our largest numbers ever and the well guardian, Vanda Imman, was on good form. I was not at all well at the beginning of August, spending days in bed flat on my back, but the Stringers stepped in by holding the Lammas meeting at their sanctuary by the Fowey. A small number of CPS pilgrims walked the old Saints’ Way to the Michaelmas celebrations on St Michael’s Mount. Our November meeting was down on numbers, but it was good to make friends with Revd David Rake who runs a spiritual direction network in Cornwall and is well versed in Celtic Christianity. So we are in business, if not exactly cooking on gas just yet!

I went to see the new rector at Llaniltud Fawr, but he is not very interested in things Celtic. His new curate may be and I left a booklet for her. I have not been to Brittany lately. There is a big Companions of St Guenole meeting in Brittany in April we might go to.

Our membership has not changed since this time last year and worries me somewhat. The number of friends too has remained pretty static and I have grave concerns about the reliability of email as a means of staying in touch. I do not have the time to get out and arrange the talks etc I would like to in order to move things forward. The introductory booklet sells well in SPCK, Truro, but we need to find other outlets. I have written a proper book An Fordh Celtek: A Spiritual Pilgrimage with Cornwall’s Celtic Saints but cannot find a publisher. I will need to self-publish yet again, which will result in yet more distribution problems.

I believe, therefore, that we need a publicity officer to get things out into bookshops, seek talking engagements and get books and leaflets etc around churches. This will take someone centrally-located with time and the necessary confidence and organisational ability. There is no point getting just anyone to do this. It must be done well. Our bank account is up and running and we are accumulating cash. Do we need to spend some? If so, on what? A nice leaflet maybe? Posters?

As I have mentioned on previous occasions, some sort of oversight from the major church denominations is needed for two reasons. Firstly, to prevent things ever going cranky – we might not be cranks, but there is no guarantee that cranks will not rule the roost on, say, seventy years time – the length of time the Iona community has been going. Secondly, it means we are able to gain the confidence of Christians more easily if big names have put their name to our headed paper. I would like to approach the new bishop of Truro, the Methodist District Superintendent and the RC Dean of Cornwall.

I will define what I believe we have to offer:

A spiritual path attractive to modern society, but based on an ancient one that has historical roots in Cornwall.

A fellowship where people can explore and discuss it openly, safe from fear of condemnation or judgement.

A way of looking at Creation which is more in keeping with an ecological agenda.

An understanding of Cornwall as a spiritual landscape.

The question is, how do we move things forward for CPS in a society which is becoming more hostile towards the Church and a Church which is generally becoming more and more self-absorbed, inward-looking and defensive in nature? How can this best be done? We have the foundation in place; how and what are we going to build on it?

Well, the first thing I think we need to do is to broaden responsibilities. We have a chair and a treasurer, but we need more. My illness in August made it clear to me I needed to share responsibility out for things. It is dangerous and not good practice to rely too much on one person – what if they get ill? I am going to be posted soon – who knows where… to sea maybe? How will this affect things? Will everything grind to a halt?

The second thing is, while all our quarterly meets are open, we need an open meeting each year advertised specifically to get new recruits.

Thirdly, we need to promote a strong eco-responsibility agenda.

Lastly, we need to reach out to young people more – for they are likely to be more receptive to new ideas. This will not be easy with current child protection legislation.

We will remember them....

2008-11-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

I've just had to do one of the hardest things in my life. I've jumped out of planes in the dark in full kit with 89 other blokes, been to war, done an artic survival course, told people someone has died, had a pipe shoved down my throat without anesthetic,... I could go on...

But today I had to go to a school and talk to some kids about the importance of remembering our war dead. Trouble was, I knew a few, and I knew what often happens to innocent kids in wars. It was consequently impossible to look them in the eye.

One of the people in my unit in Iraq was a navy pilot - Lt Cdr Darren Chapman. He, like me, survived the Iraq war, but only to be shot down by a missile over Iraq two years later. He was 40 and had three small children.

I shared a cabin in HMS Ocean with Captain Jim Phillipson of the Royal Artillery on the way to Iraq. He also survived the Iraq War, but only to be killed a couple of years later in Afghanistan when he got shot fighting the Taliban who were terrorising their own people. He was 29.

Then there was Marine Chris Maddison. He and I played guitars on the ship on the way out to the Iraq War to have a bit of fun and entertain people. I didn’t know then that his landing craft was to be hit by a missile and that he was to be killed. He was 24.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

So wrote Colonel John Macrea and gave us the inspiration for the symbol of remembrance we use. But do people remember the last verse of his poem as well?

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The Torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep. Though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

So far as I am concerned, the 'foe' he mentions that we need to fight are the leaders, who stir up hatred and fear between peoples for political leverage and gain, and so make wars all too possible.

And, as I know too well, in wars it is innocent children who suffer most of all, including those of my dead friends.

Maybe remembering the kids too might just make our politicians get their act together, but somehow I doubt it....

Funny, but has anyone ever told you you look just like....

2008-10-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

Someone the other day said to me: "Do you know who you remind me of?" "No, who?" "Curley in Coronation St." I then had to watch an episode and was NOT impressed. Then someone else said: "Do you know who you remind me of?" "No, who?" "Frank Skinner!" Now I knew who Frank Skinner was and was definately now getting fed up with this: "Do you know who you remind me of?" thing.

However, there is something about human nature that makes us seek similarities in nature. I mean, don't the Brizons off Cape Cornwall look remarkably like General de Gaul in the bath?

We need to find some sort of order in things, to catagorise them in some way into "Frank Skinner look-a-likes" or "Curley look-a-likes" etc. And we do this in so many other ways. You can't just call yourself "a Christian" with some people - you have to further define yourself as Protestant, RC, evangelical, conservative, (heretic?) etc etc. People should never be so tritely pigeon-holed because of our laziness and for the sake of our convenience or prejudices. I'm sure an all-loving God doesn't do it, so nor should we.

So I just say I am a Celtic Christian. If that totally confuses them, well good!

Don't you just hate Italy?

2008-10-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

I have just got back from Tuscany in Italy. My word, what a place! I visited Florence, Lucca, Sienna and Pisa (see photo above) and was bowled over by the grace and beauty of the architecture and art found in these places.

Such aesthetic skill pervades Italian culture - just see how many classy clothes shops they have. No J & B sports here and people walking around in football strips and shell suits. Even their graffitti was so much more tastful than ours!

Beauty can raise the soul towards transcendence and heaven - small wonder that some now talk of art being the new religion. In the Financial Times this weekend one writer suggested artists may be able to help business and goverments to get out of the hole we are all in financially; to challange our greed and calm our fears.

I'm not quite sure how they will do this, but I will be off in November to see various exhibitions in London and to draw strength from what art has to offer.

So don't knock it - it has its place in the great scheme of things as you will find out in the ever-so-tasteful churches of Tuscany.

Oh, the photo above is of me trying to look cool and Italian.

I failed miserably........

Whoops, is it really three weeks since my last blog?

2008-09-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

Just realised I havn't updated my blog for a bit. As I usually try to every two weeks... SORRY! I am aware a lot of people do visit it. It's nice to know it is that interesting.

I feel sorry for anyone who had to share a cabin with me on board a royal navy warship, because I snore loudly, grind my teeth, I am forgetful and I scoop up loads of other people’s property which I think is my own. And I am incredibly clumsy, having a slight balance problem – not helpful in bad weather. I was, in short, the ship mate from hell.

I can be guaranteed to knock over your mug of tea, get mud on your duvet and grease on your white shirts as I am also said to have a medical condition common to the male of the species called dirt blindness. As a result, I have learned a great many things from people who have learned how to clear up the mess I leave in my wake.

For red wine, pour soda water or white wine on the stain, rub with lemon and salt and then soapy water.

For chewing gum, put the item in the fridge (not easy if its your living room carpet) and chip it off.

For mud, try and get the wife to allow you to let it dry, then brush and vacuum.

For rings or stains caused by mugs of tea on wood, rub with toothpaste, then either mayonnaise or salad oil and salt. It may not get it off, but if you get peckish later you can always lick the table.

Now at this point you are wondering why there is a photo of St Michael's Mount on this blog and I am rabbitting on about my clumsyness and disorganisational skills etc. This is because I want you to know I am by now aware of my limitations in this area and that I have left sorting out the CPS St Michael's Day pilgrimage to the Mount until the last minute (as usual!).

So SORRY again. And I hope you will join me at 9.30am at St Erth Church on Monday 29th September for the five mile walk there and Holy Communion in the chapel and lunch afterwards. Let me know if you are coming.

Oh, and the tide will be out so no need to walk on the water!

If you can't stand the heat,......

2008-08-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

I seem to have got myself an unpaid job writing book reviews for Cornish World magazine. I wrote one once when asked on a book about the church in Cornwall and now, every time I go in to see the editor (who is a good friend of mine), he throws a load of books at me and asks me to review them.

I don't mind if it's a subject I know something about (see previous blog post), but he asked me to review a book the other day about the knitting of Cornish guernsey jumpers. Being vaguely interested (my gran knitted them), I did a bit of research and produced something positive and passable. I also reviewed a book I personally found totally boring about the banners of the Old Cornwall Societies. This time I gave it to my mum to see what she thought, and she loved it. So it couldn't be that bad then! So I wrote a fairly positive one.

No, the real problem is not reviewing a book on a subject about which you know little - the author will forgive you anything just so long as you say you love his/her book. The problem is when you think the book is rubbish and then say so.

Now at this point you are probably wondering what this all has to do with the Christmas tree in the photo above. This was my best effort last Christmas, and it is so rubbish I didn't want anyone to see it. I just can't decorate Christmas trees to save my life. But when you produce a book, you want people to see it, to read it. And if you send it to be reviewed, you had jolly well better write a good book or don't send it in the first place.

Yes, I'm always getting it in the neck when I neegatively review a book; yes, I know some people will then hate me for ever. But if I wrote a good review about a bad book and you were on benefits and then bought it with what little money you had, what would you think about me then?

You just have to be courageous, honest and truthful to be a good reviewer, and it seems it is something a professional journalist thinks I can do well - much better than I can decorate Christmas trees as it happens!

I guess it's a case of 'print and be damned', or 'don't print if you want to be always popular'. But if you have a God-given gift, what is the point if you don't make use of it. So I guess I'd better stick at it.

But tell that to a growing tribe of very angry authors!

Did Jesus come to Britain? Sorry - probably not!

2008-08-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

I was asked to view this book for Cornish World magazine last week. Sorry to spoil your dreams, but the ‘ancient tradition’ that Jesus came to Britain as a boy with his tin-trading uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, is most likely just a local fable of questionable authenticity.

The earliest written sources of how Christianity came to Britain never mention Joseph, the earliest reference to him not being found until the ninth century. The original Glastonbury myth was probably invented by monks there to draw in gullible pilgrims and so swell their coffers. Such religious fraudsters would welcome this modern-day offering of rambling and irrelevant conjecture Did Jesus come to Britain?

Alarm bells started ringing when the author cited the old-English carol I Saw Three Ships as some sort of hard evidence to support his firm belief that Jesus came to these shores. (The ship carrying Jesus referred to in it actually lands in the Holy Land.) Concerns grew when more equally-dubious evidence was provided by a mystical Belgian nun and (second-hand via a Cornish hotelier) an unnamed ‘visiting archaeologist’. At the end, Glastonbury’s druids are cheerfully brought in to teach the boy Jesus a thing or two before his return home, perhaps to ensure the book’s popularity within our Pagan friends.

Throughout this book sweeping statements are liberally made, never properly discussed, and seldom referenced. Any quotations are usually from the writings of eccentric pre-war Anglican clergymen, rarely an original ancient source, and never from a trained modern historian. If this is ‘history’ (the book is boldly described as such on the rear cover), then this word is in need of drastic redefinition.

I think it was C.K. Chesterton who remarked that when people stopped believing in God, it wasn’t so much that they believed in nothing, but that they believed in anything. Books like the Da Vinci Code and The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail have shown that many people today will indeed believe any old nonsense if they should read it in a book. That any publisher should deem this one worth printing at all is a sad indictment of the general gullibility and lack of education common in modern society. It is complete rubbish (expensive rubbish too at nine quid for 74 pages!).

Christianity has always been a tough and mentally-disciplined faith which is why it has survived all these years. It never gave into the Gnostics where anything went; it doesn’t allow itself to be infected (much) with New Age beliefs today. People may not like that there is little space for romanticism in it when we have to be so academically honest and, sometimes, brutally ruthless.

The alternative is becoming a bizarre cult where everything is true and so nothing is.

Would anyone really want that……..?

If only......

2008-07-28T15:06:00.001-07:00

On the archery range on which I shoot is a most beautiful and affectionate cat. I love it to bits!

It is friendly and seems healthy. It turns up and shows us affection, but we are never sure where it belongs or if it belongs somewhere. The most important thing is that it belongs with us, and we all love it and we feed it!

If only we all loved the poor, homeless, ugly or marginalised as much as we love cats.....

On holy ground.....

2008-07-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

Despite these increasingly secular times, we are seeing growing interest today in spiritual pilgrimage. When I keyed in the words ‘holy Iona’ into an internet search engine, I got 2,329 hits. With ‘holy Lindisfarne’ there were 57. But for ‘holy Cornwall’ I got none. It seems, therefore, from this crude internet survey that Cornwall is not considered to be as worthy a place spiritually as the isles hallowed by the Irish saints Columba and Aidan.

However, Cornwall was of great importance as it acted as a launch pad for the evangelisation of Brittany. The long list of Celtic saints who came to Cornwall en route includes internationally famous figures such as Samson and Paul Aurelian. Then there is the importance of Petroc’s monastic foundations at Padstow and Bodmin as well as Cornish saints such as Cuby and Gunwalloe. Cornwall can take pride in being blessed with a plethora of Celtic saints who have left many signs of their presence in church and place names. It is a heritage we have made little of – perhaps it might be used to turn some of our visiting tourists into pilgrims!

For despite being increasingly marred in places by ugly buildings and insensitive over-development, Cornwall overall has just a strong a claim to be regarded as a Celtic holy place of Christian pilgrimage as Iona or Lindisfarne. Through the Celtic Christian fellowship Cowethas Peran Sans Cornish Christians are now actively encouraging and welcoming pilgrims to Celtic Cornwall - our landscape, after all, is absolutely littered with significant and ancient Christian holy places, some being popular sites of medieval pilgrimage. One was St Piran’s Oratory on Perran Sands, which is to be excavated in 2009, an event which is destined to be of the greatest spiritual significance for Cornwall.

With such a vibrant history behind us and a spiritual landscape surrounding us, it should be seen we do not need to expend carbon wastefully by travelling all the way to Iona or Lindisfarne to find holy ground. We may not have realised it and we certainly havn’t valued it, but it lies here in Cornwall, right beneath our feet.

Photo: St Leven holy well, West Penwith

Happy St Peter's Day everyone!

2008-06-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

The Swordfish in Newlyn has always had a reputation for being the pub where you may go in through the front door, but sometimes come out via a (closed) window.

This is a bit unfair, but there is a grain of truth in all this. It is the sort of pub you don't want to fall out with people. Unwise middle class folk and gobby yanks on holiday have had to leave in a hurry sometimes when they realise this is not Sloane Square. Yet Newlyn is a safe place because of the unofficial self-policing policy here run by fishermen. They can be a rough bunch, but the great majority have hearts of gold and follow an ethical code that can be described in some way as 'Christian'. They may have muscles, but they get them fishing, not posing in the gym in front of mirrors. So show some respect for them!

Funny old thing, but it is easily forgotten a third of Christ's disciples were fishermen: the two sets of brothers - James, John, Andrew and Peter. We have a romantic image of them, but they were probably no different from fishermen in Newlyn today.

My own Church, the Church of England, has had difficulties winning the hearts and minds of the British working classes. Yet I am a working class lad from Newlyn and now an Anglican priest with friends across Newlyn's diverse local community. I get invited to meet Princess Anne as a Newlyn VIP, yet I can go in through the Swordfish door and do not risk going out through the window. How are such things achieved?

The first requirement is a little humility - you must never see yourself as better than working class people, just different. I have always believed in the nobility of the Working Class - fishermen, for example, work hard for what they earn to feed their families in conditions of great hardship and, at times, extreme danger. The fish on our plates has sometimes been won at great cost - we should be grateful for it and those who catch it.

The second must surely be harmony - go looking for a fight and you will find one, but seek friendship and it is equally assured. I have been in some very dodgy pubs in my life, and I firmly believe you never find trouble unless you go looking for it.

The third is simplicity. What you say must be simple and clear to get through and you must have something to say. The integrity of your personality and the way you live your life is paramount and pivitol.

The last thing needed is self-sacrifice. People respect those who give of themselves, their time and money - it shows you you mean business and really care for them and the world we live in. So buy 'em a drink!

Sunday is St Peter's Day - Peter the rough, tough fisherman. So let's drink to him, to fishermen everywhere, to the Swordfish crowd and to humility, simplicity, harmony and self-sacrifice - the four cardinal qualities of Jesus and the four listed in the Way of Cowethas Peran Sans. They're better than any stab jacket.

Happy St Peter's Day everyone!

So sad, isn't it...

2008-06-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

This article REALLY shocked me in the Western Morning News this Thursday. Polperro Church was down to two, that’s TWO people, and had to shut.

Polperro? That’s quite a big village. What seems to be happening is that the Church of England is retreating to the extent that in a generation it will only have a focal point at Truro Cathedral (er, …it will probably be just a parish church by then for Cornwall, the cathedral being at Exeter). Just what is going wrong here?

Ministry in the Church of England and its faith is in danger of becoming a hobby for those taking early retirement or whose kids have left home. As numbers decline and people age, it is becoming more and more of an ancient building preservation society, leaving less and less time for mission, developing spirituality etc.

Take Helston – they have a great vicar, but his congregation is now down to 30-40 despite having an assistant NSM priest. The Free Methodist Church there which meets in a school is now over 200; another in Penzance is growing spectacularly too.

When a church eventually shuts, its people are then expected to go to another village church miles away. We just have to help isolated Christians in small villages to grow in the faith - that is where CPS is ideally resourced, placed and structured. Trouble is, any beleaguered vicar may well see us as unwanted competition rather than as people wanting to help by trying to provide a spiritual resource and focus. Old Church often sees New Church as just another threat.

So we are in a Catch 22 situation – CPS is likely to be seen as unwanted interference by clergy, but I am sure we would be welcomed by the people they serve if we were allowed access to them. The trouble is always getting past the gate keepers.

It has always been the way in my Church – new initiatives like Fresh Expressions of Church are struggling against 'The System', but I don’t think it can carry on like this much longer.

The alternative, after all, is extinction. Then there won't be problem as there won't be a System.

So just what IS Parallel Community?

2008-05-25T09:21:00.001-07:00

“Parallel Community has been formed to create a platform where people can express their positive contribution for change.”

“Parallel Community is a worldwide body of people interested in the well-being of all humanity and the planet. No one person has the answer to eradicate poverty, stop oppression or give back civil liberties,
but collectively we will make a difference.”

Right, easy then! That’s PC! Or is it? Just what is PC about? I’ve been trying to work that one out for many months now since Cowethas members first brought it to my attention and suggested we join collectively. During all that time I seem to be still none the wiser, so I thought I would go to their garden party (price £5) this weekend. And who should I find there but the Stringers and Barbara Baldock (see photo)! With Terry Truscott arriving just as I left, Cowethas Peran Sans was very well represented.

The weather was poor, but I had a nice cream tea and those serving it were very friendly. When I felt cold, one of the organisers suggested I lie back on an energy line in the garden where I could also look up and admire the buzzards, but I decided to go back to my car and get a jumper and a coat instead.

Despite the grandiose aims and flowery claims in its literature, I have come to the conclusion PC is at the moment just a local social networking group where you can meet like minded people. I don’t have a problem with that. Years ago the Church fulfilled this function – it was where you met the teachers, doctor, councillors, Women’s Institute, fellow freemasons, people from the charity shop, and so on every Sunday and got things done.

With the Church’s demise perhaps another institution needs to be formed to do the same thing. If so, then CPS will need to be in PC networking, because you can guarantee the institutional Church won’t have the humility to - the Church is always uncomfortable being part of something it doesn’t lead with. That’s why it’s becoming marginalised.

Parallel Community may come over as a bit woolly at its inception, but it’s well-intentioned. I don’t know if it will stand the test of time, but it deserves our support so long as it exists. We need to encourage the well-intentioned.

But it had better be free!

Happy 50th Birthday to me!

2008-05-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

Crikey! I don't believe I made it to 50! I have certainly tried very hard to get myself killed over the years: I have completed 20 military parachute jumps, some at night; made an emergency ascent from 100' when my aqualung packed up; I got trapped in a wreck while diving; I have fallen off a two-storey building in the dark and broken a leg; I have been through one high-intensity war, and three years in the low-intensity one of Northern Ireland; and I have driven my motorbike (unintentionally) through a hedge.

What have I learned in this time? Be kind to others and they may be kind to you; be nasty and they will understandably be nasty back; always seek as much advice as possible before making decisions and always listen to that advice; they can take away your house, livelihood, car, dog, wife etc but no one can take away your integrity unless you let them - it is a bit like losing your virginity: never tell a lie and you will aways be believed; tell just one and all you say will be questioned. And don't drive a motorbike...

I could go on and on. So could we all. But the photo above says it all - it is of me, my immediate family, my many cousins and my only three friends if defined as those who ring you up just to see how you are.

Health, friends and family matter more than money ever will. So treasure them always and never take them for granted. I certainly won't!

Beware dragons!

2008-04-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Just before leaving to go on my holdays to Brittany I had to send off some letters and emails to try and curtail the activities of a Cornish nationalist agitator who has been causing immense problems, stirring up hatred against English people. I decided it was time someone took action when a very concerned Cornish woman came to me with evidence about what might be developing. People were starting to get worried.

It was just a week ago that I got my first very nasty and menacing email from a nationalist who was using a pseudonym. I strongly suspect he got my address and information about me from the one whose activities I was now taking steps to counter. It was full of foul language and venomous insults. However, I felt that he was probably just a poor, lost and embittered soul who had had a difficult life and who thus more deserved our compassion and prayers rather than condemnation.

The person was evidently mentally ill and this illness was probably being craftily exploited by another. I thought it might be that he could be saved from the evil that is controlling him and the hatred that is consuming him. So I politely emailed him back suggesting we met to talk. He has not yet responded.

I went into the cathedral of St Pol de Leon to pray about it all with a heavy heart and to seek strength from God. I went to Paul's shrine, prayed and looked up to find God's answer (he is getting very quick these days!). For there above me was a window depicting the story of Paul casting out a dragon that was terrorising his Breton community.

In 1500 years nothing has changed - just the type of dragons that threaten us. And it seems that we Celtic Christians are still being called upon to sort them out.

Thou shalt not emit carbon!

2008-04-04T03:12:00.000-07:00

Is it dawning on you what is dawning on me? The extent of the huge threat hanging over the world posed by climate change?

I have just been reading the most excellent but very scarey book - Christianity, Climate Change and Sustainable Living by Nick Spencer. In it he outlines the problem, but also solutions. There can be no doubt our world is in for some very difficult times climactically indeed in the years ahead. In fact we are already in them - it was only a few years ago now that 20,000 old people died across Europe in a heat wave. We need to reduce our carbon output as individuals, but also to build communities fit to survive and deal with the challanges ahead.

So I thought I would suggest 10 Commandments that Cowethas Peran Sans friends and members might seek to live by (in addition to the original ones of course!):

1. Pray that the world will show greater resolve in tackling human- induced global warming

2. Share your concerns about it with others, especially children

3. Run your washing machine and flush your toilet as little as possible. Wash dishes by hand. Drink tap water, or, if you really have to, local bottled water!

4. Reduce your mileage as much as possible, even sell the car!

5. Thoroughly insulate your home and set the thermostat low

6. Do not eat beef

7. Do not make more than one return flight a year

8. Eat local or UK produce as much as possible

9. Befriend isolated older neighbours

10. Invite your neighbours into your home

Is it all worth doing? What do you think?

An Easter Message - from Revd George MacLeod?

2008-03-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

Having spent the last 18 months defining and refining our aims and structure, the Cowethas has now attained all that is needed for a basic level of stability. Yes, we have a website, bank account, constitution, rules, cycle of meetings, and promotional material, but what will be our ethos? I say ‘will be’ as it is still in the very early stages of development.

The key in all this will be the teylow – ‘families’ in the Cornish language or cell groups as they are more commonly known. Our first one, led by Doreen S-D and based in Grampound Road, has met three times now and its members are still getting to know and understand each other. But what will they choose to do together one day? Jesus said his true followers will be known by their fruits, so any community that says it is Christian and is happy achieving nothing is not a Christian community, but a secular one.

As the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said of our now secular Western world’s shallow and egocentric self-obsession:

“In the West you can travel anywhere in the world, yet you don’t bother to cross the road to meet your neighbours. Your lives have become easier, and it has spoilt you. I don’t think people have become more selfish, just too self-absorbed. You have less resilience, expect more and constantly compare yourselves to others. New easy-come, easy go relationships give you more freedom, but less commitment.”

The key to our creating an alternative Christian society within the self-absorbed one we live in will be individual commitment to one another, but also courageous leadership and vision. The simple fact is that all successful communities worthy of the name need someone willing and able to lead them if they are to be effective. While people may come up with ideas, it will always a leader, such as the Dalai Lama, who draws things together in a common vision and purpose and who then motivates and guides them towards achieving it. Perhaps that is why Jesus used the metaphor of a shepherd and his sheep?

I'm presently reading an excellent biography about George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community (see photo above), and the struggle he had against ridicule and inertia to achieve his vision. It all took him many years, during which he went through deep depression and great heartache until he was confident enough to hand things over to someone who understood and was fully committed to his vision of a Christian community.

The unavoidable fact is that without leadership, vision and the courage to take a risk, nothing significant ever happens.

So Doreen, our hopes and prayers are with you and, I trust, with me too as I start the process of working towards setting a similar teylu in West Penwith. Perhaps there are others out there who feel called to taking the risk of setting one up? I hope so!

I look forward to seeing you all, I hope, at our next main meeting at St Clether Church on the May Bank holiday and to us showing Cornwall something of the love of Christ in our midst.

Pask lowen oll an bys! (Happy Easter everyone!)

Andy

It's time the Church got Celtic and freshened up!

2008-03-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I led a day seminar with Mike Firbank, vicar of Camborne (seen above in action!), at Epiphany House on the theme Celtic Christianity as a Fresh Expression of Church (FxC). We were pleased that it was well-supported and at the positive response we received to what we had to say.

Mike started the morning session with an explanation of what FxCs are and why they are necessary. In a nutshell, we need to make ‘Church’ more culturally accessible to the unchurched – those who maybe have only the slightest idea what Christianity is all about and who have difficulties with the institutional Church. It is not that society needs to change – the expression of ‘Church’ has to if our faith is to survive and prosper. And, happily, it is thriving in Camborne because of Mike’s courage in pushing FxCs there.

I started the afternoon with a review of the history of the Celtic Church, a resumé of why its spirituality was different and why it is considered so attractive today. I then examined modern expressions of Celtic Christianity such as the Iona Community, those focussed on Lindisfarne and, of course, Cornwall’s very own Celtic FxC - Cowethas Peran Sans.

I then rattled through a quick slide show of some of Cornwall’s Celtic Christian places (see our ‘Pilgrim Places’ page on our website) – people were astonished to find out just how much physical Celtic spiritual heritage Cornwall enjoys. We do not need to go anywhere to find holy ground – it lies here right under our feet.

But I think what really grabbed people was our closing worship. I gathered the group together in the chapel as chanting from the ancient Celtic Inchcolm Antiphoner played quietly. I began by saying the Prayer of Cornwall’s very own St Merisiak in Cornish before Peter Mitchell read Psalm 103.

We then all raised our arms as the Celtic saints did in penitence, facing the crucifix, to reflect on our failings as a human race in this our holy land of Celtic saints, a land being slowly chipped away and ruined by the greed and stupidity of politicians, property developers and road-builders:

My Lord and Saviour, confronted by the wounds of your passion, we pray for the world you died to redeem.

For your wounded hands in yet more new roads driven through fields and woodlands;
For your tortured feet in ever-more sprawling cities;
For your piercéd side in smoking chimneys and land fill sites.

For company directors who betray you and condemn you for greater profits;
For politicians who shout “Crucify him!” in the name of progress;
For property developers who play dice to build on fields that clothe you in their beauty.

Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.

Hold your cross before them; hold them with your wounded hands; let them touch your tortured feet; let them kiss your piercéd side.

Then may they too see you crucified in your Creation and turn from sin and be saved.

May it be so quickly, please God, may it be so...

“A Christianity so pure and serene...."

2008-02-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

Nora Chadwick

Christianity in Cornwall is going through a tough time: declining congregations and chapel sales have dented the confidence of many Christians; incessant squabbling and divisions nationally have not helped; money, or lack of it, is becoming a dominant theme; younger people seeking a spiritual path in life are turning increasingly to paganism and Buddhism.

One answer to this spiritual malaise involves what some call the Americanisation of Cornwall's ancient Christian faith. But Cornwall’s Celtic past offers a complimentary path of spiritual renewal, one which is quieter and gentler and which may prove more appealing to those put off by noise and bustle and loud, twanging guitars.

For during Cornwall’s age of the Celtic saints, Christians experienced God in silence in beautiful and holy places; personal holiness was what really mattered, not power over others or a position in a hierarchy of authority; their faith was thoroughly orthodox; we weren’t all considered to be born morally corrupted or totally depraved; the focus of church authority was elected and local, not politically-appointed and remote; Celtic saints sought to live in harmony with Creation and to protect it; evangelism was through the attraction of holiness, not by intimidation.

The renowned expert on this era, Nora Chadwick, once wrote: “A Christianity so pure and serene as that of the age of the Celtic saints could hardly be equalled and never repeated.” Perhaps so, but maybe Christians in Cornwall today can learn from this past golden era, something which Cornish Christians are exploring in the recently formed Cowethas Peran Sans – the Fellowship of St Piran.

I am aware some are discouraging seekers after truth from following this new and gentle wind of spiritual renewal by simply dismissing it as being of the New Age despite knowing nothing about it. Those who feel the need to control others will find it hard to move with the times, but they are being forced to face reality as people rebel against their authority and the traditional expression of Christianity, an expression commonly considered too judgemental, dogmatic and authoritarian.

Celtic spirituality is not about controlling people by criticising and condemning them, but about allowing them space in their personal quest for holiness and humility. This spiritual path should be seen positively as an opportunity for spiritual growth and renewal based on ancient tried and tested principles, not as a threat to the more-recently-established Church order.

I commend it to you.

Published in the West Briton 28/2/2008

How did he do that.....?

2008-02-16T17:37:00.000-08:00

When on my post-Christmas break in Brittany I went to see my good friend Father Job Irien, a Breton speaking catholic priest. He is over here in June with some of his parishioners.

Job is a dowser – he showed me once where some water flowed through a ruined Celtic church, his pendulum swinging in a different direction when he walked over where it was supposed to be. He said it was not magic but all perfectly natural - it wasn’t a gift and that anyone can do it. Having done a science degree, I am something of a cynic in such matters and asked if I could try. Job gave me his pendulum and I did exactly the same as he did. And at the same place it did the same thing without me doing anything. I was astounded.

When I was a kid doing O level physics we were all taught about the so-called Bohr Atom – the model of what atoms are supposed to look like: a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons with lots of electrons spinning around it. What they didn’t tell us at the time was that it is a complete guess – they’ve known since 1927 apparently that it is impossible to say what the atom looks like all because of some chap called Hesenburg who in this matter turned out to be smarter and righter than Einstein. Since then, nothing has changed – we still don’t have a clue what atoms actually look like and we probably never will.

I find this all a bit shocking – the boffins have had 80 years now to sort this one out. It seems incredible there are some pretty basic and fundamental things about the universe that we just don’t know.

So when the likes of Richard Dawkins pooh-poohs miraculous healings, the resurrection, Padre Pio’s stigmata, the virgin birth, Jesus walking on water and a host of other things they say can’t happen, just tell me what an atom looks like.

And then let’s go and do some dowsing!

St Tugdual - a modern day saint in an ancient tradition

2008-01-25T13:18:00.000-08:00

Do you think that saints in the Celtic tradition ended in 644 with defeat at the Council of Whitby? I hope not...

St Tugdual, as he later became known, was a French soldier who was captured by the Germans in the Second World War. By the time he was released, he only weighed 36 kilograms – about five stone. He then went to live in Nantes in Brittany where he joined the Celtic Orthodox Church, eventually becoming one of its priests. He soon became renowned in the church in Nantes for his holiness, but felt called to live a more solitary life as a hermit. He was given some swampy woodland not far away near St Dolay by a woman he had healed of blindness and decided to live a life of prayer there alone in 1955, building a tiny church where he could offer the mass and pray. He had no money or income, but local people brought him food until he died in 1968 when only 55 years old. Before he died, St Tugdual prophesied that prayer would continue at the site after his death, but it was to be unoccupied for nine long years. It was only then that three men, inspired by his holiness and example, decided to live the monastic life there and to found the Church of the Sacred Presence.

This new, much larger church (see photo) was built by these monks’ bare hands, local people providing the money for the materials and continuing to feed the monks as they had fed St Tudgual. (There are parallels here with Revd George McLeod’s rebuilding of the abbey on Iona.) Like their founding saint, the monks there today have no income and are still totally reliant on the generosity of the local people. One of the original three monks is still there – the saintly Bishop Maël (left) - and the remains of St Tugdual are to be found in a shrine in the church. Directly outside its entrance is the well that supplied St Tugdual’s needs, it still providing the water for the monastery to this day as the monks choose to live without electricity or running water. I stay there now and then and visit the monks when I can to take them food and to learn from their example of faith. For they have given up everything to dedicate their whole lives to prayer.

Tugdual was deservedly made a saint by his church after he died, proving you don’t need to go all the way to Tibet to find and meet holy people – I know just the place in Brittany where you can find plenty of them, and maybe one modern day Celtic saint in Bishop Maël....

Silence is golden, golden....

2008-01-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

Something that never seems to be picked up on by popularist writers about Celtic Christianity is that many of the Celtic saints chose at first to be hermits and to live alone.

Cornwall's saints St Sampson and St Paul Aurelian left the great monastic university at Llaniltud Fawr to become hermits while still just teenagers; St Martin of Tours was dragged out of his hermit’s cave and compelled to be a bishop by the local populace; St Kevin went off to live in an Irish cave alone at Glendalough; St Cuthbert left Lindisfarne towards the end of his life to live all by himself on the remote Farne Islands.

I write these words at a monastery at Landévennec in Brittany I am particularly fond of as it was founded originally by the 5th century Cornish Saint Gunwaloe, or St Guénolé as he is known in Brittany. I have been there the best part of a week now in silence apart from the daily worship. I have not listened to music or the radio, watched TV (no loss there), made any telephone calls, received any mail, been on the Internet or read a paper. I have no idea what is going on in the outside world. I only found out Benezir Bhutto had been assassinated four days later.

If this seems difficult, just think how it must have been for the American Cistercian monk Thomas Merton: he never spoke to the person he joined his monastery with for fifteen years and didn’t know about Hiroshima until ten months afterwards. Yet Merton wrote the finest spiritual literature of the last century despite his isolation. Or was it because of it?

Being silent for extended periods is not easy to begin with. I first learned to appreciate the spiritual value of silence at the theological college I attended for three years – the regime there tough enough to be described as monastic. Most clergy find parish life to be frustratingly lonely at some point in their ministry, so enforced silence proved very appropriate training in spiritual self-reliance as I was to discover later on. I have fond memories too of the week’s silent retreat I was required to attend immediately before I was ordained as a Priest twenty years ago now. However, those from colleges of a different persuasion were positively squirming by the time they were ordained – they had not been trained to be silent and alone before God.

So much of what we say to others is so we can feel better about ourselves. We feel we have to impress them in some way, to justify how we live our lives to them and so to ourselves, but you can’t do that if you are silent. You just have to sit there and face up to yourself, warts and all. So much of what we say or fill our time with is what psychologists call ‘displacement behaviour’ – the things we do or say to distract ourselves from our thoughts because they are so unpleasant to us. But you can’t do that if you are silent – you have to face up to those thoughts, however bad they may be, and deal with them.

Jesus was driven out into the Judean desert immediately after his baptism by the Holy Spirit to confront Satan; the Desert Fathers and Mothers went out into the deserts of the eastern Mediterranean in the fourth century to fight with the demons there, or so they thought. What they were really fighting was the dark thoughts there are lurking within each of us; demons that would make a misery of our lives and a wreckage of our faith if we allowed them to control our thoughts.

Thoughts about being infertile, childless, unmarried, or homosexual; about getting found out to be a liar, an adulterer, an alcoholic, a paedophile; about getting left on the shelf, fat, unattractive, lonely or depressed; about being in a loveless marriage or growing old, impotent or infirm; about dying alone, unloved and unmourned. The potential extent of our fears is boundless.

It is only when we are really still that we can discover what really is bothering us and deal with it; when we can work out who we really are, away from the demanding congregation, the screaming kids, the bullying boss, the abusive husband or the nagging wife, free of the distractive noise and clutter of daily life, stripped of the petty self-deceits and strategies we go through to prop our self-esteem up. It is only in the silence of our hearts that we can know ourselves intimately, and only then can we hear the quiet voice of God and see the path ahead of us. It is only in aloneness that we too can learn to be truly at one with God.

The call to holiness in the Celtic tradition must involve self-sacrifice and times of hardship if it is to be truly answered, but we can never become the people God calls us to be if we are not willing to learn to love the silence where we can meet with him.

It can be a hard and difficult way at times, but this is the Celtic way.

The Edge of the Sea

2007-12-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

One thing those who wish to learn about Celtic spirituality cannot get from reading books is the formulative experience of being at the edge of things and of the sea. Coming from Newlyn, just a few miles from Land’s End, I was brought up as far from the bright lights and shallowness of London society and as close to that of the sea as you can get; for West Penwith, the very tip of Cornwall, is surrounded by it.

And if Cornwall is an enchanted place in comparison to cities like London, then West Penwith is positively charged with magical mystery. And if the Church is significantly failing to connect with this sense of the numinous here, Cornwall's artists and poets have had far more success.

Today I took my mother to St Ives to lay a wreath on my grandmother’s grave high above the waves breaking on Porthmeor Beach. We stopped off afterwards at what must be the best gallery in St Ives – Bob Devereaux’s Salthouse Gallery. We were greeted by the great man himself and his stunning abstract paintings. After a little polite conversation and light reminiscing, Bob kindly offered us seats and then launched off into our very own private reading of one of his epic poems about the sea.

Bob started his poem at a crescendo like some mighty storm and finished with the gentle murmer of the sea on a calm, moonlit night. It was a tale of hardship and death, of fear and loss. This was no romantic meandering; this was a story about the cruel and brutal reality of fishing in years gone by told by a man who had dwelled among the fisher folk and lifeboat men for many years, years in which he had come to understand the Cornish and our relationship with the encircling sea. You can see it in Bob’s painting The Edge of the Sea (see photo) – it is dark and dangerous, mysterious and menacing, calm and cold.

Celtic spirituality is very much about the experience of God in Creation, and Creation can be a very dangerous thing. The Celtic saints were mostly sea farers; they knew too well that when it comes to the sea, you have to be prepared for anything - it can give you food, bring you wealth or take your life. My grandfather, who could not swim, got sunk twice while fishing and was finally converted to the faith in a storm; I lost a schoolfriend to the sea while he was trawling on a calm night; another fell overboard and drowned in calm weather, his waders fatally dragging him down; the whole crew of our local lifeboat died just before Christmas 26 years ago.

So many Christians today treat God as a holy chum or some comfort blanket, paying scant regard to the unfathomableness of his inner nature. In poems and in scripture the sea is often used as a metaphor for God; so when you stand at the edge of the sea, show a little respect and humility.

For the sea may tell you wonderful secrets, but maybe some deep and disturbing things about a God whose ways, as it says in one of the psalms, are not always our ways, his thoughts not our thoughts …

Henry Jenner must be weeping....

2007-12-08T02:51:00.000-08:00

The fifth aim of Cowethas Peran Sans:

“To promote the use of the Cornish language in prayer and worship.”

When Henry Jenner, the saviour of the Cornish language, was asked why we should learn it, he replied: “Because we are Cornish!” As someone who started to do so and gave up over the destructive spats over systems of spelling, I have often felt ashamed to call myself Cornish.

For when it comes to our language, we have not exactly covered ourselves with glory lately: witness the late-night, thuggish vitriol of emotionally damaged and probably inebriated bullies on internet forums; the obsessed language fundamentalists who make life hell for anyone who disagreed with them by incessant emails or character assassination; an openly partisan journalist who claims he can put out the fire with gasoline; biased news articles, some apparently contributed cowardly under false names to avoid responsibility; the use of the Church’s blessing on books in Cornish to blatantly gain a petty advantage.

It all reminds me of a Christmas many years ago. Two of my friends, who were drunk, had a disagreement and a scuffle ensued. I stepped in to break it up, but unfortunately walked straight into the path of an enormous right hook. I woke up dazed on the floor, the fight still raging above me during the season of peace and goodwill. This strikes me as akin to the situation the Cornish Language Partnership faces as it seeks to reconcile the various factions in the language movement, a group of particularly vicious linguists harrying it mercilessly. The nature of the madness that grips the Cornish language is that the rest of us have to stand by and watch helplessly as our friends savagely attacked each other. We know that to intervene risks them rounding on us also.

Small wonder many choose to give our language a wide berth or, like me, to give up learning it to avoid recrimination. To get involved means having to pick a side and the risk of being infected by its particular suspicions, conspiracy theories and animosities. Before you know it, you have descended into a disturbing parallel universe of hatred and mistrust where nothing is real as everything is potentially lies and untruths.

But the last Cornish Language Partnership consultation in October at Tremough Campus finally provided grounds for hope. The overwhelming consensus then was for a compromise and the language fundamentalists were decisively trounced. Unable to let go of their obsessions and animosities, a few have vainly tried to torpedo the process of reconciliation, but those now agreeing the compromise knew there was too much at stake to fail. And more than just the future of our language – this madness was poisoning a people and has gravely undermined Cornwall’s struggle to regain our lost freedoms and to defend our culture. Our motto maybe ‘One and All’, but egged on by others, we Cornish have allowed ourselves to become a factionalised laughing stock.

Happily, our language now has a chance for a fresh start. Not all will be content to seize the moment, but those who have been wreaking havoc, who see themselves as mighty warriors and big beasts of the language movement, should be warned: they will be seen by the rest of us as the most pitiful of creatures if they do not mend fences quickly and cheerfully. It will require much humility as some have behaved quite disgracefully.

For the dinosaurs were at one time all-powerful and fearsome and ruled the earth, but it was to be far humbler and nimbler animals who were to end their rule evolutionarily in due season. Those who refuse to compromise are ignoring the sign of the times and can only become increasingly marginalised. The only option left open to them then will be to retreat into the wilderness to vent their spleens alone and unloved, uttering curses on the rest of us. It would be a tragic loss.

Sadly in all this, the reconcilers, who surely deserved only universal thanks and praise, have been rewarded with more than one incoming right hook.

Henry Jenner must be weeping….

Tas a’n Gowethas - Annual Report, December 2007-We're in business!

2007-11-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

After the initial interest shown and aims agreed at the exploratory meeting at the Oratory of St Piran in July 2006, we agreed a simple constitution and started drawing up something to define what we are about. The meeting last December to do this can be said to have been the launch proper of CPS.

Introductory Booklet The document I circulated then and which was generally affirmed was to be combined with my exploratory booklet Reclaiming Cornwall’s Celtic Christian Heritage. John Nash contributed an excellent logo and we then produced 500 copies of our first introductory booklet Celtic Christianity Today: An Introduction to Cowethas Peran Sans. I have sent review copies off to academics and people working in the Celtic Christianity field and it was warmly and positively received. Cowethas Peran Sans was up and running!

The Website is now finished except for a links page at some point. It should only cost us about £50 a year to run. It’s cheap, informative and cheerful! And thank you our Cornish cousin Alan Richards, webmaster/designer.

Diary of Events 2006 This was set up and posted on the website. The events have been a bit hit and miss, with the walk up Brown Willy being a bit of a wash out, but the May meeting at Sancreed and October's were real hits.

Publicity I have done two series of reflections on Radio Cornwall, a couple of interviews, a few talks, and there has been coverage of our booklet in various local newspapers and Cornish World magazine.I'm on again 27th January at 0800.

The Bank Account was finally opened and, after many problems with Nat West, we are with Lloyds TSB! Hopefully we can get some standing orders set up into it soon. Money will help us do things.

Membership We have seen growing interest from people, some of whom have gone on to the friends mailing list. Hopefully they will become full members one day. We have 18 friends in Cornwall, a handful in the south of England and even a few overseas. We welcomed our first new member at the February meeting – Doreen SD. Our nine members are:

David and Pam Stringer, John Nash, Peter Mitchell, Guy Aldis, Doreen Sparey-Delacassa, Joy Dunn, Stephen Treseder and me.

Links I have visited Brittany and Llantwit Major in South Wales to start forming links. I had a very warm welcome from the vicar and people of the latter and found they are just starting to seek links with Iona and Lindisfarne. I hope they will organise an inter-community conference soon. Fr Job Irien from Brittany came to our last meeting. I gave a talk to the Companions of St Guenolé of which I am a member. We are now also a member organisation of CASPN – the Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network; John Nash is our representative on it.

Cell/Teylu Groups I became all too aware of the limitations of my health these last 12 months with a back problem now adding to my intermittent ME. I could see that I could only do so much and that, if we were to up the tempo of things, we would need to move to a cell group structure quickly to permit this - I only have time/energy to put on the four main meetings, do some talks and to co-ordinate things generally.

Just at the right time the two Doreens (Freeman and S-D) came on the scene and our first cell group (teylu) is now a possibility. The idea is that each teylu is run by a member appointed by the Cresen Cowethas and has a purpose it decides for itself. Such groups can meet as often as they like and may come into and go out of existence – they are very flexible. I hope we can get two or even three up and running this year – maybe one to put on worship in churches, another to lead pilgrims around West Penwith, and perhaps one to develop prayers and worship in Cornish (I have written to the language organisations to seek their help and interest). But it will be the teylow members which decide at the end of the day, not me!

Summary All in all, a reasonably successful year. We have everything in place now to grow the Cowethas. It can’t grow too fast as we mostly have daytime jobs and little time to spare to raise the tempo or respond to a high level of interest. CPS seems to be growing nicely organically by personal contacts and with people finding us rather than us advertising for members. Now we have a cycle of quarterly meetings up and running, the teylow will be the way ahead from now on when it comes to growing things.

The Year Ahead I hope we will be able to start sounding out major denominations so we can work towards some sort of oversight system. This will increase the confidence of the respective authorities in the Church in Cornwall about what we are doing. I would say the Methodist Church, being generally less controlling in nature and keener on fresh expressions of Church, would be a good place to start. I want to draw in Revd David Rake’s skills in spiritual direction to help us to grow spiritually together. We also need help in the area of exploring and developing sustainable living from somewhere.

Meurasta why oll an bys!

"Eee, boi gum, there's nowt as strange as folk...."

2007-11-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

‘There’s nowt as strange as folk’ goes the old saying, and I find people fascinating as they are never quite as you imagined them to be.

John Nash and I invited the chairwoman of CASPN, Cheryl Straffon, to lunch to get some background on Christian-Pagan antagonism at Cornwall’s holy sites. I suddenly wondered if I had chosen the right place – she was bound to be a vegan and here we were at The Radgel in Pendeen, hardly famous for alternative cuisine. I breathed a sigh of relief when she ordered ham, egg and chips - and I could happily wolf down a steak without guilt, and John his pasty!

I didn’t really know Cheryl, but she is a complete dear and we seem to have hit it off as friends immediately and naturally – we are now swopping emails about our respective faiths. (Funny old thing, but I am reminded one of my my best friends just happens to be an out and out atheist.)

It just goes to show that you never know how things in this life will work out when it comes to people. I often find I don’t get on with those I should get on with theoretically because they are Christians of my ilk, and yet I do get on famously with card-carrying pagans and atheists. Figure that one out.

But then, didn’t Jesus fall out with the respectable religious people of his day who should have been on his side, but enjoyed a rare old time with fishermen and publicans etc? I rest my case!

The Calan Gwaf (Beginning of Winter) meet

2007-10-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

Each and every meeting of the Cowethas fills me with total dread.

Will anyone turn up?

Should I really have risked inviting a speaker?

Will my back give out completely?

Every time I feel silly to have so doubted that things would not turn out fine.

I cobbled together the worship at the last minute as usual: Pat Robson gave an illustrative and interesting talk; Doreen S-D did some prayers using imaginative symbolism; Father Job Irien, over to meet us from Brittany (see photo) - a true master of Celtic Christianity who all should revere - gave us his words of wisdom; Doreen Freeman was a wonderfully welcoming hostess; the Stringers gave us all a lift with their natural enthusiasm; I somehow kept things together despite my bad back (more to follow....).

We also significantly welcomed our first ever new member within our worship, powerfully illustrating the distinction between those prepared to make the small commitment to go beyond just being an interested friend and those who presently could not. This will gently challenge more to follow in her wake into full membership soon, I am sure - I feel we desperately need more committed members, people who are prepared truly to follow the example of the Celtic saints and work hard to make CPS grow…

The cell groups should be starting soon; we will then be moving into second gear at last; we have established links with fellow Celtic Christians in Lindisfarne, Wales and Brittany; we are on CASPN and working to create a much-needed more positive atmosphere between pagan and Christian; we even have a bank account at last!

It may be going slowly, but it is all going oh so well.

So why should I still continue to doubt you, God?

Fr Job Irien to the rescue?

2007-10-20T14:14:00.001-07:00

It's not been a good two weeks. The week before last my back ache kicked off again big time.

The physio decided it was time to get tough and try some acupuncture. I'm OK with needles and, such has been the pain, I would put jam in my socks if she assured me it would work.

So last Monday she stuck four needles in my back, one in my shoulder and one right through my hand. It didn't hurt too much and I got some relief for five hours, but then the pain came back. By this weekend I was back to normal - high strength pain killers and lying on the hot water bottle to get some relief. We're going to have another stab at it (!) again on Monday.

With so many pagan and Christian healers running about Cornwall desperately looking for someone to lay their hands on, I have to be careful who I tell I am not so good. (There is a particularly camp Romanian waiter I know who is always offering to massage me who I have been particularly avoiding.)

However, I've just heard my good friend Fr Job Irien is over here next week from Brittany. It was Job who taught me how to dowse for water (see photo) and I have seen him dowse for back pain and he has a reputation as a healer - I've seen him doing it on a couple of occasions. I really need to get this sorted as it is gravely affecting my ability to progress things with the Cowethas.

If Job can't fix it and the acupuncture can't, I guess it'll have to be the jam in the socks...

Stakes are for vampires, not for holy wells...

2007-10-11T14:04:00.001-07:00

I recently read in Meyn Mamvro magazine that stakes with Christian messages on (e.g. Isaiah 33:20 - look it up!) had been driven into the ground at various ancient sites across West Penwith. This prompted me to email the editor, Cheryl Straffon, and to blag an invite to the next Cornwall Ancient Sites Protection Network meeting accompanied by our treasurer, John Nash. Cheryl is chair of CASPN and a leading pagan.

I said a bit about what we are about and mentioned my concern about the stakes. I said that we would be willing to try and find those responsible and to campaign for so-called 'Christians' to not do such things in future. We were then warmly received into CASPN by our pagan bretheren as an affliliated organisation.

I was shocked to find that at least nine or ten sites are known to have been attacked in this way. The daftest thing is that one of the sites was Sancreed Well - a Christian holy place - where there was also hammer damage. I recalled that shortly before the first of the stakes was found I encountered two Christians down from Bristol at Madron Well looking very suspicious. It seems they were upset at the clouties in the trees, but were non-plussed when I said Christians may well have put some up and that we worshipped there too.

'Christians' vandalising these sites in this way is not just daft, it is criminal damage as they are protected in law. Like Christians protesting outside mystic fairs, it will do absolutely nothing to convert pagans to their way of thinking; in fact, it will do the complete opposite.

Who would want to join a gang of aggressive and intolerant vandals?

Not me.

Photo: Clouties at Chapel Euny holy well

Jesus never told us it would be easy, did he?

2007-09-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

Just over two years ago now I inherited a tiny Sunday congregation in a church clinging on to existence. So I set in motion a traditional visiting plan involving knocking on 800 doors and delivering Christmas and Easter cards with times of church services. However, after a year’s hard footslogging, it became obvious this plan just was not working – we only saw two or three extra people at Christmas services and we never saw them again.

Turn the clock forward now to a year ago when I wanted to test the feasibility of setting up a Celtic Christian fellowship in Cornwall. I fired off an email outlining the idea to a small number of contacts I had made. About forty mainly unchurched people turned up to the two early meetings, most of whom I had never met, such is the power and reach of the internet. They are mostly still involved in some way with what was to become Cowethas Peran Sans. It had all taken only a relatively small amount of effort to get a very positive result and I had learned a hard but useful lesson: don’t waste time and energy randomly knocking doors –adapt to changing times and make technology your friend.

But things can get messy in fresh expressions of Church, the ecclesiology and theology very often end up catching up with the practical realities of mission. One accusation levelled at what is being called ‘fresh expressions of church’ is that they are ‘popularist’, implying that popularity is somehow wrong. But that is the very point. Should the Church die a gloriously-sacrificial death, embitteredly clinging on to its old ways, or live a positive new life engaging with society in fresh expressions? Should the Church choose splendid isolation where it is now or seek to be at the centre of people’s lives where they are? Jesus turned his back on no one, sharing fellowship with pimps, prostitutes, quislings and revolutionaries; are we to turn our backs on a generation of young people simply because we will not make any effort to adapt to their distinctive culture? We should not be surprised if they then turn their backs on us.

The safest thing, of course, is to carry on battering ones head against an ever-hardening brick wall - there is no risk of ridicule involved from your peer group; but the cleverer way is to go around the side of it. Society is changing rapidly; we don’t know who our next door neighbours are now most of the time; we are suspicious of strangers at the door; we make our friends at the soccer match, golf club or on the internet, not at the post office; we move house on average every few years; 40% of people have never had any contact with the church now apart from perhaps an occasional wedding or christening; a further 20% have had a bad experience of the Church and are therefore hostile to it. Consequently, the Church is finding it has to adapt its approach to an ever-changing and more mobile society.

Almost every parish priest is frustrated by resistance to change among the people he serves; what clergy may not be as aware of is their own reluctance to change. Much as we would like things to stand still in society, they don’t. There is no point moaning about it: we have to try to adapt the presentation of the Gospel intelligently and bravely in these changing times while still preserving the integrity of the catholic faith. In a Church which in many places is imploding numerically there is surely no alternative.

The SAS have a motto: “Who dares, wins”; if our Church is to survive in any meaningful manner more than maybe a couple more generations, it will have to show a lot more initiative and dare to take a lot more risks. But the failure to adapt culturally will be the biggest risk of all.

Find out more about fresh expressions of Church at www.freshexpressions.org.uk .

SAVE TARA NOW!

2007-09-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

While on my holiday to Southern Ireland I stopped to visit the Hill of Tara, home of the Irish high kings and seat of sovereignty for Ireland. The view in all directions was stunning and I felt moved by the history of this peaceful place and the natural beauty which surrounded it.

On the way back to my car I noticed a hand-made sign about a protest camp further down the hill and a sacred fire that burned there. I found out that the government had given permission for a new motorway to be driven down the pretty Boyne valley right by the Hill of Tara (www.tarawatch.org). As there was a tradition of maintaining sacred fires in the Celtic Church, and being an inquisitive person, I went to pay the camp a visit.

I strolled in to the camp to be welcomed by a tall and colourfully-dressed chap called Taurus (real name Nigel) who showed me the sacred fire which had been lit by three druids at the summer solstice 16 months earlier at Tara. It had been brought down the hill to form the focus of the protest camp in a purpose built wigwam. I chopped up a few logs to help out and later on stayed a night there in my little tent, the protestors welcoming me and feeding me (well, I did bring a lot of food for them!). The protestors were, of course, all pagans.

As I said in my previous blog, these days it’s tough getting Christians out on a wet night to go to a house group, but here I found pagans tenaciously and sacraficially bearing witness to something they believed to be deeply immoral and wrong; pagans who offered me hospitality and welcome; pagans who were prepared to be arrested and go to jail for what they believed; pagans being supported by the local community who brought wood and food for them in the same way the community supported the monks on Skellig Michael and Iona.

I really get the feeling that Christians have much to learn from these people, that it is about time we started showing similar initiative and resolve in standing up to the mighty power of these developers - I am sure they would tarmac over the whole planet if it paid them to do so, if no one stopped them.

If we do not, I am convinced our faith will be condemned more and more to the bin marked ‘irrelevant’ by society and I got the feeling that it is there already for these pagans.

And can you blame them???

Salvation or sofa? It's up to you...

2007-09-10T14:34:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I made up a list of the ten places I wanted to visit before I died. As three of them were in Ireland, I thought it was time to go there on holiday.

The first place I wanted to visit was the Newgrange Stone Age burial mound where the midwinter solstice sunrise sends rays right down the entrance passageway to the central chamber.

The second place was the hill at Tara where the Irish high kings were crowned. This again was steeped in history and the most beautiful of places; but the Irish government had just granted approval to drive a motorway past it just when our government hopes to bury the A303 past Stonehenge in a tunnel (more to follow in a later blog…).

But the most awe-inspiring place for me was Skellig Michael – a 217m rock off the west coast of Ireland where early Celtic monks had built a monastery at the very edge of the known world in the teeth of the Atlantic gales. They survived there for three centuries before the Vikings turned up to slay them, their stone monastery still remaining after all these years as a testimony to their strength of faith and sense of purpose.

These days it's hard to get Christians off their sofas and out of their warm homes on a rainy winter’s evening to go to a house meeting; how then can we create a sense of urgency when people are so lukewarm about their salvation and that of this world? Are we going to have to return to preaching hellfire again? But the Celtic monks didn’t.

No, the answer is to say that our failure to save the world by following the new Celtic asceticism will condemn our genetic inheritance to suffering and hardship, maybe even death. In this sense, our salvation and that of this world are linked - if we don’t get off our sofas and do something, our children and grandchildren will suffer and maybe even die.

It may not be the most compelling argument in a selfish world now locked in battle with the dragon of Consumer Capitalism in this new dark age , but it is at least a starting point…