Church hopes Celtic Mass attracts new worshippers
Incense hung in the air as folk musician Harry O'Donoghue strummed an acoustic guitar and sang "I Will Follow Him."
In the pews Sunday evening, about 75 worshippers swayed or quietly meditated to the song.
The service is an experimental effort by leaders of Episcopal Church of St. Paul the Apostle to draw in worshippers seeking a "high church" experience with unusual, but ancient roots.
Called the Celtic Mass, the weekly, hourlong weekly is centered on Celtic music and spiritual themes, said associate priest the Rev. Liam Collin.
A native of Tipperary, Ireland, Collins said the service infuses Celtic traditions of hospitality, kinship, storytelling, beauty, a love of nature and "a passion for the wild and elemental as a reminder of God's gift."
"Other themes that are not uniquely Celtic but figure very prominent in Celtic spirituality would be hospitality of course, and the theme of listening and the theme of humility and the theme of solitude and silence," Collins said. "We're drawing on some of those themes and developing them and letting them become a part of the environment and atmosphere."
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