About the Gnostic Celtic Church
The Gnostic Celtic Church (GCC) is an independent sacramental church of nature spirituality affiliated with the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), a contemporary Druid order. The GCC functions as the center of the religious dimension of the AODA tradition, and is responsible for the education and ordination of Druid clergy in AODA.
The GCC does not train clergy to do the work of leading congregations, providing weekly worship, “marrying and burying,” offering pastoral counseling to parishioners, and addressing political and social causes. Clergy that serve congregations in that way commonly require graduate-level training for such ministry and become professional clergy who serve as congregational ministers, chaplains, or other ordained professionals. While this model may work well for a variety of different traditions, it is not a good fit for the AODA’s structure.
The GCC has chosen to establish what was once called a regular clergy, as distinct from a secular clergy—that is to say, something much closer to monks than to ministers. The GCC includes people who have chosen to embrace a monasticism centered on a personal Rule of Awen: one in which the core principle of aligning the whole life with the spiritual dimensions of reality can express itself in forms relevant to the individual practitioner and the present age, in which a rich spiritual life supported by meaningful ceremonial and personal practice can readily coexist with whatever form of outward life is necessary or appropriate to each priest or priestess. This concept, which the GCC terms “the Hermitage of the Heart,” is what the GCC offers to those members of AODA who feel called to a path of devotion and service as a priestess or a priest.
For more information on the GCC, please contact GCC Preceptor and Archdruid of Fire Kathleen Opon.
