News and Thoughts from Ray Simpson

Topic: BAREFOOT CAMPAIGNER

Today I met a man named Ewen Hardy. He is walking barefoot from Edinburgh to London to show solidarity with the oppressed Burmese, and to raise money for their development and education. He aims to arrive on the day the Beijing Olympics begins, in the hope that this will not entirely crowd out the world's awareness of Burma's plight. You can donate online at justgiving.com/barefeetforburma. For more information visit barefeetforburma.blogspot.com

Submitted: 09:17:25 on 2nd July 2008

Topic: SANCTUARY IN LONDON

Members and friends of some Ealing churches devoted a week-end to learning how to build an inner sanctuary while living in the fast lane. This involved learning several arts: the art of saying 'no'; the art of planning margins of time around each area we need for a balanced life; the art of meditation, and the art of loving God in the present moment. To find out more visit www.churchoftheascension.org.uk

Submitted: 09:08:08 on 2nd July 2008

Topic: THE ANGEL AND THE TOUCH ON THE SHOULDER

Sixteen Norwegians walked the sixty three mile Saint Cuthbert?s Way and then stayed on Holy Island in order to walk more closely with God. Two days before youth worker Hovard Haugland took his First Voyage vows with Anamcara ? The Community of Aidan and Hilda in Norway - he had a vision of an angel. Then Philip, a young man from Ghana doing business studies at Durham, who was staying elsewhere on the island, asked if he could sit in on the morning retreat session. That evening he knocked on my door to tell me something. He had felt a hand on his shoulder. But neither the man on his right nor the woman on his left had their hand on his shoulder. He kept looking to check this out, for the hand would not go away. Eventually he came to the conclusion that it was God?s hand on his shoulder, and that is why he had to tell me, for he had never experienced something like that before.

Submitted: 09:09:09 on 30th June 2008

Topic: Seabirds and saints

Recently visitors who came to a God in Nature retreat made a day visit to the Scottish seabird centre at North Berwick. The growth in pilgrimage includes both those who want to pray in a holy place, and those who want to find peace in a place of natural beauty. This visit combined both types. This amazing centre has permanent cameras on three bird sanctuary islands in the Firth of Forth, which the visitor can control from the centre. You can zoom in on every detail of a bird or a rock. Bass Rock, one of these islands, was the home of Saint Baldred, who the Lindisfarne monks sent to be a hermit there, and an ancient pilgrims chapel fronts the centre?s Saints and Seabirds exhibition. Their web site is www.seabird.org.

Submitted: 18:29:18 on 22nd June 2008

Topic: BURMA

Ben Rogers of Christian Solidarity Worldw-de and his Burmese friends Victor and Cheerie spoke at our Annual Week-end at Red Hill Centre neart Stratford, UK. Their news was dire. The troops order peoploe to return to non-existent villages. They shoot them if they do not go. We prayed for the 400,000 soldiers, many of who have a heart; also for the fortune tellers who tells the senior general what to do, that the Holy Spirit would fill the teller with loving insight.

We also heard from our member Therese, who is starting a medical centre in The Democratic Republic of Congo, for the poorest and most needy. We ended with a Eucharist for Justice by the lakeside.

Submitted: 18:26:23 on 17th June 2008

Topic: EX-ATHEISTS, GREAT SCOT !

This week I have encountered a young and an old ex atheist. The young ex is Scott Brennan, who spoke at our 'Heart for Scotland' conference at Scottish Churches House, Dunblane. Five years ago he started The Lighthouse church movement in theb Lothians. Now there are thirteen cells and a youth bus. But when Scott was at school he wrote an essay entitled 'Why There Is No God.' It won a national award. He received a prize. It was a Bible! It seems he has never looked back.

The second ex atheist is Antony Flew. For fifty years he was one of the world?s most influential atheists. He changed his mind in 2004, and wrote a book entitled 'There is a God.' He faced up to the fact that modern science spotlights three dimensions of nature that point to God. The first is that nature obeys laws; how did these laws come to be? The second is that there are intelligently organized and purpose-driven beings; how could they originate from non-life? The third is the existence of nature; how did it come into existence? He came to the conclusion that it is more unrealistic to account for these by chance than by God.

In his book 'There is a God' Flew quotes Professor Stephen Hawkins: ?You still have the question: why does the universe bother to exist? If you like, you can define God to be the answer to that question?. He quotes Einstein: ?We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws?A little child entering a huge library knows someone must have written these books. It does not know how?. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.? He quotes Charles Darwin: ?I feel compelled to look for a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.?.He quotes Paul Davies: ?Atheists claim that the laws (of nature) exist reasonlessly and that the universe is ultimately absurd. As a scientist I find this hard to accept. There must be an unchanging rational ground in which the logical, orderly nature of the universe is rooted.?

Submitted: 15:54:54 on 8th June 2008

Topic: CANADA\'S FORESIGHT GROUP, THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE CHURCH

At last I have time to catch up and I find some notes of my address last year to the Foresight Group that meets in Canada's Parliament. Representatives of science, business and Parliament met for the first time to consider future trends in religion. Evidently I said: 'There is a growing conviction among people most passionate to conserve the environment that we cannot swing it without a grassroots spirituality that motivates and sustains the changed programmes andhabits that are necessary....

The second millennium church in the West allowed itelf, however, to become disconnected from the soil. It identified its call to mission, allied with the work ethic, as a mandate to treat the earth as an inert commodity. Many therefore turned to Buddhism or New Age spiritualities. The international Community of Aidan and Hilda is an example of emerging Christian movements who enable church and other people to become friends of the earth in their values, religious observances and practical habits. This includes the habit of honouring the land and those who have lived on it in each place'. I then told the audience about some of our members: Lars the Deep Ecology Outdoor trainer in Norway, and Manfred, and his project to create eco lodges in Brazil's rain forests that encourage the indigenous people not to be bought out by the multi-national tree-slayers. The Deimels, and their rituals for seasons and blessing the earth...

God help us.

Submitted: 19:15:24 on 21st May 2008

Topic: TRANSFORMING CHURCH IN THE HEART OF ENGLAND

I went to Shakespeare country - Stratford -Upon-Avon - during the May Bank Holiday to launch the new series on 'The Transforming Church'. This consists of seven books: A leaders course guide, log books for adults, young people and children, little prayer books for adults and for children, and a little meditation book on the eleven themes of the course. These may be ordered from the resources section on this web site.

Submitted: 18:58:02 on 21st May 2008

Topic: CABBAGE AND KORU

In Christchurch, New Zealand, after a packed meeting at Theology House, the Celtic group presented me with a bunch of large cabbage leaves. They see these as a sign of God?s grace dancing in the leaves. The cabbage tree is unbreakable fibre, an enduring sign of the land and of God?s creation, of musicality, resilience, and of comfort. Maori use it for clothes and baskets, and on hill tops as way-marks.

That morning I had purchased a booklet by Mike Cole entitled ?Koru Christianity? which begins ?The centre of the Koru (a fern) is the Heart of God. From this place, life flows in all its forms. All creation came from this Heart that is Love?. God spoke to me. Mike, an Anglican Vicar, his RC brother Paul, and his Baptist colleague Alistair Mackenzie and wife Alison, who are all charismatic friends, took me out to a pub to talk through how new, young groups with kids can sustain a daily rhythm of prayer. Thank God for Koru people.

Submitted: 06:44:20 on 17th May 2008

Topic: A BAPTIST MONASTERY?

We visited the Norlane church where Brent is now two days a week pastor. Since my last visit, the old Sunday congregation has gone and the premises, owned by the Baptist Union, have been designated for a new ?Seeds Church?, sponsored by Urban Seed as an expression of new monasticism. Accommodation units for singles and family are being built ? these may be for volunteers or people with a housing need. Brent and Belinda hope to move next door, and use part of the grounds as a church community garden. A prayer space and an eating space have been created. Brent calls it ?Seedy Abbey? or just ?The Monastery?.

Submitted: 02:11:08 on 21st April 2008

Topic: EMERGING DOWN UNDER

The Launch of Brent and my book 'Emerging Down Under' is going well. It scratches where people itch and sells well. We met people at theAustralia Forge Festival who sense the time has come to set up combined studies of the Aussies Celtic faith hertitage with the reviving studies of the Aboriginal heritage.

We met with John McIntyre, Bishop of Gippsland, and his Diocese's new Anam Cara Community which fosters contemplative prayer. They have a loss-making centre on Raymond Island. They have resisted calls to sell it and aim to turn it in a centre of spirituality, ecology and pilgrimage with an ethos which Anam cara and contemplative residents will help to sustain. They wanted to learn from our mistakes and successes at The Open Gate.

Submitted: 23:40:48 on 13rd April 2008

Topic: COMEDY OF ERRORS DOWN UNDER

The start of my teaching and pastoral tour Down Under was a Comedy of Errors.The Edinburgh plane was delayed so I took an earlier one. My luggage was not transferred and six days later is still not here in New South Wales despite hours at baggage counters and on the phone. The Travel Agency listred me as staying at Empire Hotel Kowloon but they told me I was booked in at The Empire Hotel Hong Hong, so after several hours travel etc I was ensconced there. I was met at Sidney Airport by the recent leader of the Iona Community's sister Australia Community - Wellsrping - Neil Holm, and stayed with him and his wife Margaret. They put me on a two hour train to Newcastle. Matt was not there - he had told them I should get off at the previous station. I looked up our supposedly updated list of members and took a taxi. This was in fact the previous home of the Lamonts - they left it six months ago. Eventually, with more taxis, I got to them. This morning I queued and paid 105 dollars to get a month's supply of eye drops - I was advised by the doctor to live without the prostate tablets since I am now doing well - un less the problem returns - since they will be very expensive. I Matt and I have just gone to a 'high place' and had a good long talk, and he wishes to take The First Voyage. Tomorrow I lead the first seminar. Maybe God wants me to learn from the Aboriginals and be content with my skin, health, food, roof and friends. Tomorrow the first seminar begins. God Bless

Submitted: 16:07:54 on 22nd March 2008

Topic: IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH

I had a very nasty urinary infection. There is no way I could have gone ahead with the imminent tour of Australasia. Anti-biotics cured the infection. Three days before the planned departure energy returned. One day before departure the phone rang. Jean (the first warden of our Open Gate Retreat House) had gone to a church to hear her husband, Ross, preach and had been invited to share thoughts. These about healing. Afterwards Sonia and Rob who run a gym nearby, made friends with them. I had been a member of a gym ex marine Rob once ran in Berwick. Since meeting Sonia he had become convinced of the value of holistic healing. 'Did you know Ray wrote a book about spiritual gym'? Jean told them. 'I'd like to read it. We plan to set up a well-being centre here' they told Jean. So a copy of my book 'The Joy of Spiritual Fitness' (Zondervan UK) is on its way.

With a new sense of wellp-being I fly off Down Under. The main public events are on the News Flash on the web site. A garbled more detailed list follows soon on the blog.

Submitted: 09:35:29 on 9th March 2008

Topic: A VISITOR TELLS OF SLAVE TRADE HEALING

After seven week-ends on the job elsewhere, I succumbed to a nasty urinary infection which does not allow me to leave home until the anti-biotics do their job. But thank God for one visitor whose story I now relate.

David Pott walked from Hexham to Lindisfarne. He is the leader of the Lifeline Expedition, a Christian response to the legacy of the Atlantic slave trade. In recent years he has walked with a team along the meridian from Greenwich to the heart of Africa, in chains, to symbolise their recognition of the slavery their forebears promoted among Africans, and wearing T shirts which say ?Sorry?. The Vice-:President of Gambia was so moved to meet them that she personally took the chains from them and forgave them. Scenes like that, as those of England?s two Anglican Archbishops (one white, one black) leading the team in a procession of penance and healing in a former slave port city, have hit the headlines. But David told me stories of individuals of African descent who have experienced healing of false self image during their travels together.

My visitor brought more good news still. He told of the diary he has written about his aged parents? recent deaths, for they were good deaths indeed, and worthy to be treasured and learned from. David believes that if a child and a dying parent can talk about death openly, with no skeletons in the cupboard, they become free to grow ? in heaven and on earth. His parents did not cling on to life, nor were their children saying ?Don?t leave us? ? instead they recalled or did things the parents enjoyed, had a wedding anniversary party shortly before mother?s death which included a letter from the Queen, and shared Scriptures, prayers and plans that built one another up.

Northumbria Community has published David?s notes as a booklet entitled Journeying Home: thoughts on dying well (www.cloistersonline.com). It includes this paraphrase of George MacDonald:

Come now, live in us. Let us stay in You, since if we be all in You we cannot be far from one another, though some may be in heaven and some may be on earth.

Then I heard that my dear friend Hazel had died at Bowthorpe, and I made this our prayer for her.

Submitted: 19:26:04 on 24th February 2008

Topic: DESERT SPIRITUALITY IN LONDON AND PARIS??

Can contemplation thrive in the city? Can the inner victories wrought ?in the desert? shine out in the streets of London and Paris? The Bishop of Woolwich (south London) Christopher Chessun, who once said to me ?Help us bring the desert into the city? joined a small group at the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine, in the heart of London?s renascent dockland, to explore this in retreat.

He told how had taken his staff to the Jerusalem Community in Paris. The mission of the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem is to live in the heart of the city, in the heart of God. The essence of their vocation lies in Jesus? words ?Father, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one? (John 17:15). Since human beings are created as the most beautiful likeness of God, the monks and nuns want to meet God in the city, among its inhabitants. Through a life of community and contemplation, revealing God?s presence in the heart of this world, they want to serve and to reach out to all those who seek God. The Bishop outlined the five characteristics of their vocation. This is described in The Jerusalem Community Rule of Life see www.jerusaloem.cef.fr He felt that in contrast to many new and old expressions of ?mission-shaped church?, this faith community never pounced on people. Rather, they lived a life and invited others to enter into it. Their liturgies (which are preceded by 30 minutes of silent prayer) and some meals are open to others. Lay groups of similar age or interest relate to them.

The retreat examined the Sayings, Struggles and Soul Friendships of fifth century hermits in the Egyptian desert, and ways to put their principles into practice in the city; for example by turning city hold-ups into sacred spaces, city frustrations into the arena for spiritual struggles. We tried to meditate in the fast lane. We learned how Francis de Sales taught the practice of the presence of God in busy Geneva, and how John of Kronstadt learned the rhythm of total giving by day and total receiving by night in his hard-pressed Russia sea port. ?Takeaway Food? was the title of the last session ? ten tips on how to experience desert spirituality in busy places.

Submitted: 09:33:04 on 17th February 2008

Topic: COPT MEETS CELT IN NORWAY

As part of Coptic Bishop Thomas? preaching tour of Norway about fifty people met in the Church House at Grimstadt to meet him. These included members of The Community of Aidan and Hilda (Anamcara) who had gone on pilgrimages to Egypt. Bishop Thomas explained that, in contrast to western churches which often cut short times of prayer to fit the pressures of the clock, the Copts often continue until they have fully entered in an aspect of worship until they are ready ?from the inside? to emerge into a next phase. They also can teach us to enter into seasons of spiritual discipline or experiment. For example, Bishop Thomas felt he should spend forty days closely observing people in the city, and write down what he thought Jesus? feelings would be as he observed these people.

?We think there is a connection between Copt and Celt which we, too, need to connect with?, said the host, Tom Martin Berntsen, ? and tonight we have Copt and Celt with us?. He asked me to speak. After outlining the early Irish and British connections with Christian Egypt, I said that the western church had later become far removed from the purity of the desert traditions. But now, after all these years, a new interest in the desert is evident among people who are sick of the flabbiness of western Christian society. The British TV programme ?Extreme Pilgrim? had just featured an Anglican priest who was floundering in his faith, but who rediscovered it on a visit to the hermitage of Saint Antony of Egypt. Andthe Bishop of Liverpool had just suggested on radio that the account of Jesus? desert temptations should be required reading for the USA?s presidential candidates. I informed them that the Bishop of Woolwich (south London) had said ?Help us bring the desert into the city?. ?How do we do that?? I asked.

Bishop Thomas said that we have to create a desert space inside ourselves, for we are temples of God, and then go into the city with this space in our hearts. In the physical desert we bring the people to God in prayer. In the city we bring God?s love to the people.

Submitted: 15:32:08 on 11st February 2008

Topic: LENT AND ATHLETES OF THE SPIRIT

Muslims from an inter-faith women?s group in Nottingham were staying at Marygate House on Ash Wednesday, the start of the Christian season of Lent. Some came as friendly observers to the end of the morning service. I explained to one lady some of our Lent practices. She said, ?The Prophet Muhammed, blessed be he, taught us to have water in one third of our stomachs, food in one third, and to keep an empty space in the other third.? ?What a brilliant idea? I said. ?Yes?, she continued, ?but with fast food and additives that make you want to eat more, it is easy to give in to temptation?.

That, perhaps, is why the early Christians of the Egyptian desert were called ?athletes of the Spirit?. They knew they had to flee or overcome temptation. From 13-15 February I lead a retreat in London on the them ?Desert in the City?.You can book in through our office. I wonder how many will come?

Submitted: 18:03:08 on 6th February 2008

Topic: VOYAGERS AND THE DESERT

Last week representatives from Ireland, Germany and Norway joined UK Community of Aidan and Hilda Voyagers for our annual retreat, house-party and meeting. There was a Teaching Day, a Quiet Day and a Meeting Day.

David Runcorn led the Teaching Day on the theme of the desert. ?It took one year for ancient Israel to get out of Egypt?, he said, ?but it took forty years to get Egypt out of Israel? The desert is the primary scriptural symbol of the absence of human aid and comfort, and the priority of God. Those desert ?athletes of the Spirit? have much to teach us today. Tom Martin Berntsen, of Norway, informed us that a modern Desert Father, the Coptic Bishop Thomas, will meet with us next week when I join the Norway members of the community.

. On the Quiet Day Manfred Jahn of Germany led us into contemplation and deep silence; Stella Durand of Ireland gave a paper on Praying with Ikons. The Meeting Day included our Annual Meeting (like a Chapter of a traditional Order) in the morning, walking the moors of Sheffield in the afternoon and having a party in the evening. Our Episcopally endorsed Community Soul Friend, Godfrey Butland, led our final Communion service on Friday and reflected back to us what he felt God might be saying, which he summed up under the headings of stability, visibility, continuity. Following this the Caim Council, which aims to encircle all the expressions of the world-wide community, met for six hours.

Submitted: 11:25:15 on 5th February 2008

Topic: THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND RE-CONNECTING

Three CA&H Voyagers have just led a week-end for some hundred Readers (licensed but unpaid church workers and preachers) in the Church of England Diocese of Portsmouth. It was styled as ?A week-end of seminars and workshops to help us re-connect with the Spirit and the Scriptures, the saints and the streets, the seasons, the soil and silence.?

You may already have spotted that this echoes the Community?s headliner that is now printed on our literature. Brenda Lofthouse led sessions on how we can re-connect with the streets (e.g. the street angels of Bradford where she lives), and with silence. Ryk Parkinson helped lead sessions on how we can re-connect with the soil and with the seasons. I explored how we may re-connect with the Spirit, the Scriptures and the saints.

On Sunday morning we explored how existing and fresh expressions of church can make transforming connections. Ten groups came up with a vibrant and fascinating list of examples. These will be put on the Diocese?s web site. (do a google search for Portsmouth Diocese/Readers). I gave tasters from the multi-dimensional course soon to be published by Kevin Mayhew Ltd ?The Transforming Church?.

I began my homily at the final Eucharist by quoting child psychologist Oliver James, author of Britain on the Couch, who diagnoses our national condition as ?affluenza?, whose symptoms are ?hysteria that reflect feelings of low status, insignificance, powerlessness ? while part of us longs to be the best?. The church is the divine agency to heal and transform this sick society, to be the soul of the body politic. Sadly, however, the church has to overcome some built-in hindrances if it is to fulfil this historic calling. As Dr Wendy Savage, researcher in psychology and religion at the University of Cambridge impolitely put it in her comment on the 2006 report The Future of the Parish System: Shaping the Church of England for the 21st5 Century:

?One difficulty is how to motivate the ?settled blancmange? of the softly acquiescent majority ? social loafers who are just bums on pews. Christian ?niceness? is ubiquitous. This can tie churches up in knots??. She says that the hangover of feudal patterns elicits bad behaviour such as status seeking, fawning, bullying, passivity, blaming others and gossiping.?

This week-end explored how to spread a vision that takes people beyond all that, and how to motivate and equip leaders to raise up a new people who journey with God, and transform, in God?s way and time, every aspect of our society.

The Transforming Church course will be published the Spring.

Submitted: 21:25:31 on 27th January 2008

Topic: BOWTHORPE - A NEW MOVE OF THE SPIRIT

Last week-end a glorious thirtieth anniversary celebration of the planting of The Christia n Church in Bowthorpe, Norwich too k place, hosted by its current leader Simon Stokes, who returned with me from a retreat on Holy Island. Here are some extracts from my talk, which followed a reading about John the Baptist and Jesus from John?s Gospel Sunday 1:29-42

John the Baptist started something good. Thirty years ago I, and a few others, started something here. And it was good. John came to realise, however, that he had to make way for a fresh move of God. How did he know who to make way for, and when? He knew when he sensed the anointing of God?s Spirit on someone, who up till then, had looked like anyone else. We?ve also had to let go, to let God move things on.

I?d like to share with you a few ways in which I have been led since then, and since I left you, that illustrate what this story of John and Jesus teaches us.

Thirty years ago I was commissioned by representatives of more churches, said the Bishop, than this country had ever known, to ?establish one family of Christians for one neighbourhood.? Today?s Gospel reveals Jesus? first steps in creating a spiritual family ? he invites Andrew and his friend into his home.

I?ve learned a few things about what is, and what is not, true family in the last few years. When I won?t let the other person be their true selves, but am more concerned that they meet my needs, and fit into my way of doing things - I have lost the essence of family. If I try to control, or fear to lovingly confront another ? I have lost the essence of family. If I am unwilling to let my spiritual children multiply, and do different things - I have lost the essence of family. Even thirty years ago and later we envisaged something of that family flexibility here: the church focus was a shop in the first village, a school in the second, a home in the third. The seeds were there ? but now perhaps they can come to flower as the Spirit moves upon you now.

Thirty years ago two of us climbed up to pray on a large haystack where the heritage garden now is and did prayer visualisation over this land of promise named Bowthorpe. Jesus did this sort of thing. He went UP mountains to seek his Divine Father?s agenda as a prelude to MOVING mountains in the valley of needy people below. Jesus built this practice into his life-style. He lived a rhythm of prayer and action. We stumblingly did do when we started twice daily prayer here, but at the time God was moving me on He led some of us in different parts of the lan to build a rhythm of prayer and work into our way of life: publicly pledged and shared with a spiritual companion. We believe God is raising up a world-wide movement of people who journey with God in this way, and those in the Community of Aidan and Hilda, which I now serve, make daily prayer spaces and yearly retreats. Many Evangelical Christians nowadays are looking for churches that live by such a way of life.

Thirty years ago we had to hammer out whether we would be a closed or an open church .Isn?t it amazing that the Son of God began his world-changing three year mission by doing nothing except be around in the right place at the right time. Two of John the Baptist?s followers noticed this, asked him where he lived. Jesus was open to them, and invited them to his home. He had open house. Our Clover Hill Centre became The Open Door. Later, at this place of worship, we decided the doors would be open for some period every day. Even more important, we decided that we would open our hearts to every person in Bowthorpe because each is a loved child of God, and God longs to draw them to Himself.

After leaving Bowthorpe I learned what it is like not to be welcomed ? but also how to reach out to each person in the way Christ would. Our Vicar, Brother Damian onceasked us once ?If you saw a visitor for just half a minute, how could you touch them as Christ would with a word, a touch, a look, a gesture?? He asked each organisation on the island ?How can we support you?? And he found a slot for people like me so that we formed a team. He keeps us informed of why he does things and what is going on so we feel included, and understand, even when we don?t agree. In such ways I have learned to keep reaching out in love rather than nursing my hurts in private. God bless you as you seek to be open, like Christ, to every one of his children in Bowthorpe.

Thirty years ago we were a fairly mono-ethnic community; there was hardly a Muslim to be seen. John the Baptist was mono ethnic: he only worked with his own people. Jesus, however, begins to recruit a team of Twelve. After his resurrection some of these reached out to other races: Peter in Italy, Andrew in Greece, Thomas, so tradition says, in India, and John in what is today?s Muslim Turkey.

It was a Muslim at the old Bell School of Languages, across th road, who challenged me about corporate daily prayer. He said he had seen no Christians in Bowthorpe ? and that was because he had seen or heard no call to public prayer. Since I left Bowthorpe the number of Muslims in England who pray regularly in the mosque has overtaken the number of Christians who pray regularly in the Church of England. Are Muslims a kind of John the Baptist movement to shame the people of this land and shake them from their godless ways? And how does God want us to work with them? Jesus enlisted John?s followers in his mission before they understood who he was.

Since I left a couple who follow the Aidan and Hilda Way of Life turned their house, in a 90% Muslim area of Birmingham, into an Aidan and Hilda House. Their Muslim neighbours called: ?We have heard that Christians are hospitable ? can you give us accommodation??. A German student lodger walked their lawn each morning praying aloud. The devout Muslim neighbours were impressed. The German prayed in the streets and Muslims accepted his invitation to pray for their healing.

After leaving I wrote a book about the future of the church in Britain. It starts with a dream. A visitor from Mars finds worshippers taking off their shoes, and prostrating themselves in prayer on carpets ? but they are Asian Christians, who worship the Triune God in a way that is natural to their culture.

I am told 20% of St. Michael?s school pupils are now Muslim. In many areas Muslims, like most people, prefer faith schools, because they know that if pupils respect the Source of all, they respect people, learning, parents, streets, shops, their own body, planet earth. Let?s rebuff the delusion that Christianity is not central to education ? without it, education can be manipulated and not truly serve the common good.

Thirty years ago Bowthorpe was advertised as a dream village ? or three linked villages which would converge at the Main Centre with its shops, health centre and church. I remember going on Radio Norfolk with Bowthorpe Project Manager Jack Haggar. Jack said: ?This was a dream village ? until people moved in?. Over thirty years you, like people everywhere, have learned that when people are out of harmony with God dreams can become nightmares. Constant struggle is needed to overcome evil with good, to combat violence with love, disintegration with wholeness.

Since I left you we?ve had an archbishop of Canterbury calling on the inherited church to invest in fresh expressions of church, and we in Aidan and Hilda have explored with churches how they can become villages of God. In November I met with the leaders of a 600 strong church in Norway until 1.0 in the morning, who were all passionate to explore how their church could network with the nearby social services, shops, police, scouts and sports groups to become a village of God. They are so excited by this vision that I return in three weeks to lead a week-end on how they can equip fifty people to be soul friends or mentors to their young people.

It is true, as Lawrence Singlehurst, former head of YWAM, which has sought to extend God?s work through cell and other expressions of church has said, that: ?they always swerve to rot? (not to the right, but to rot ) In other words, what starts as a movment ends up as a monument. We are tempted to keep in our comfort zones. Of course, we do all need our nurture base. That?s why in CA&H we ask both how we may receive nurture and how we may reach out.But I believe that your growing and renewing vision is part of a rustling of the trees, a moving of God?s Spirit in different places that helps to carry us along and beyond these comfort zone tendencies.

As I left Bowthorpe to journey to Lindisfarne, a wild goose flew overhead ? which in some parts of Britain is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was going before me to Lindisfarne. Now I bring you this quill. It is a symbol of how you can be one family, but each having your individual calling. The main bone is Christ in Bowthorpe. Each of you is one strand. You are different, but one, as you remain connected to Christ.

.

Submitted: 09:56:26 on 21st January 2008

Topic: BALHAM, GATEWAY TO ...

i

I spent last week-end with Balham Community Church, London. This multi-racial congregation has joined Concerned Citizens, a voluntary coalition of groups who ?listen to London?. This listening process has been extensive and inclusive. Any group is welcome to voice its concerns to CC. Muslim communities, for example, felt they were being wrongly stereotyped, and asked that councillors and officials should actually meet them. A list of the ten most commonly shared concerns was drawn up and presented to London?s mayor, who responded in some measure, at least, to each concern.

When communities who are the bottom of the social pile, or who are linked with a religion that is badly mis-represented in the media are not listened to, anger builds up that often explodes in violence. Comunities that are listened to and who feel understood usually find more creative ways of addressing wrongs. This is part of what we mean by ?healing the land?

Submitted: 20:50:38 on 17th January 2008

Topic: STORMS

Holy Island suffered a wild storm. The rushing, mighty wind was so great some people could not walk on the path to church - they held to the wall and crept round. There was a power cut.

Lindisfarne's previous Vicar, David Adam, said it was a good thing God chose Jerusalem, not Holy Island, for the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost like a rushing, mighty wind. 'If it had been here we would not have noticed' he said.

How about your place?

Submitted: 08:38:20 on 11st January 2008

Topic: CELTIC EPIPHANY?

Celtic Epiphany? In one sense there is no such thing. Except insofar as we seek to re-connect with the Wisdom tradition, which weaves naturally into the Epiphany insight of the gradual revealing of the riches of Christ. Luke chapter two tells how the adolsecent Jesus grew in wisdom, and in stature of body-mind-spirit. I have an icon of Wisdom which depicts Jesus as a slender South American boy upholding the globe.

Meditation on this Jesus enables Wisdom to be revealed in us, and through us in the world.

Submitted: 08:01:19 on 11st January 2008

Topic: THE SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS - DIRECTIONS FOR THE COMING YEAR ? MENTORS, MONARCHY AND MEANING FOR OUR

.

December 31 is New Year?s Eve in western and other lands, a long day in which to seek God?s direction for the coming year and usher it in; a day to ring out the old, the false, and ring in the new, unfolding plan of God. Tonight we shall gather in a watch night vigil in The Open Gate Chapel on Holy Island. I share with you some directions that have been put on my heart.

In our global village our various peoples are adrift, aimless, hedonistic - an orphaned generation. That is the seed-bed for disintegration and violence. Each country needs faithful carers who strive for the good of people in every walk of life. The Bible calls these people shepherds ? those who feed and protect their sheep. But most people have never seen a sheep. The prophet Isaiah glimpsed a time when national and local leaders would be like parents to their people, humbly honouring, serving, challenging and mentoring them as they waited on God (Isaiah 49:23).

In the UK the recent TV series on Monarchy by the historian David Starkey showed how monarchy served the people well when it connected with real needs. A century back the UK royal family connected with and supported a) the class that formed the leaders - the aristocracy; b) the poor, through patronage of charities c) the multi-national family of peoples joined together in the British Empire. Now, all these three groups have dissipated: anyone can rise to the top, the Government runs welfare, most Commonwealth countries are republics. But who has taken over the Monarchy?s ?shepherd? role? The State? The State does not love individuals. Businesses ? even the national services such as health and education are run as if they are businesses?. The media, politicians, the professions are in the pocket of people with money. People in hoc to Money cannot be shepherds Starkey thinks that Prince Charles, as King, could redeem charitable care and make it a nation-wide engine of care, art and enterprise without strings. He suggests that there be a publicly acknowledged role for cultivating the things of the spirit ? in the widest sense, and that monarchy could take on this role. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, affirms that Charles could be an excellent defender of all faiths and minority groups who seek the good of the community by virtue of the fact that he would be symbolic Governor (i.e. Protector, not leader) of the Church of England, whose Faith requires respect for all.

This could, indeed, be a needed and inspiring role for monarchy in UK. But every land, and every level of society, needs such people. In Harry Potter?s ?Hogworts? Dementors are those who drag people down by feeding their inner demons. We need the opposite, Mentors. Mentors are leaders who:

Seek the best for each person without fear or favouritism

Come alongside and enable those who who lack encouragement

Foster education, talent, creative art and science, and the things of the spirit.

In ancient Israel such people, whether they were kinown as shepherds, foster parents or prophets, were not appointed but they were recgonised. I believe God is calling into being such people in our lands.. The Community of Aidan and Hilda will, please God, in a most humble way, seek to play a part in fostering this.in 2008.

Submitted: 09:35:03 on 31st December 2007

Topic: THE FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS - A FAMILY FOR EVERYONE

On 30 December churches focus on ?the holy family? and on the value of family life.

Who is Jesus? family? It begins, certainly, with Mary, Joseph and Jesus in that stable. The Gospels later tell of other brothers and sisters ? or cousins. The New Testament describes James as ?the brother of the Lord?. Best-sellers such as The Da Vinci Code and The Grail fantasise that the blood line of descendants of Jesus? family can be traced. These books are fiction. When their pseudo research is investigated it leads nowhere.

Yet Jesus? DNA did seep into the human gene pool. Therefore every human on earth in this sense is related to Him. There is a deeper, more important, more spiritual reality even than this. Jesus bequeathed his beloved friend John to the foster care of his mother; thereby John became, in the early and in the Celtic understanding, the foster brother of Jesus. John and Mary were foster mother and foster brother of Jesus? first spiritual family (the men and women who accompanied him in life, death and resurrection).

In churches the world over Mary and John stand each side of an altar, with hands stretched out as if to welcome us into Jesus' timeless family. This is an eternal truth. We can be part of the holy family.

Submitted: 07:52:49 on 30th December 2007

Topic: THE FOURTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS - VISITORS

We go back now to the first week of Jesus? life in that cave. What kind of people would visit a family in such a situation? The Bible only tells us who were the first visitors ( shepherds from up the hill) and the last (magi from the east). But news soon spreads. No doubt all sorts of people wanted to visit in between times. Who would they be? The curious, the equivalent to today?s paparazzi? Maybe, though they may have preferred VIP?s in expensive inns.

The Irish had a better intuition. They thought that Mary would have needed a mid-wife, someone just like their saint Brigid. Out of her heart poured compassion. She would not hesitate to visit anyone who needed help. Out of her practised hands flowed skill. Out of her mind flowed a shrewd appraisal of the situation Jesus' family was in. And in her heart she knew God was there and that He demanded the best she could give.

Brigid was called the mid-wife who, second only to Patrick, brought pagan Ireland to faith in Christ. It was she who taught that a person who welcomes someone in need really welcomes Christ in the guise of that person.

Today, as we listen to our hearts, we may be shown who we should visit. And we, too, shall be visiting Christ.

Submitted: 09:52:54 on 29th December 2007

Topic: THE THIRD DAY OF CHRISTMAS ? ASSASSINATION

December 28: Mrs Bhutto is assassinated in Pakistan. The threat of a clash of civilisations draws closer. Confusion, anger, fear, violence rage. . What can anyone do?

On this day the Christian church recalls how a ruler assassinated infants in Bethlehem, for fear that one of them might one day usurp his role. . Confusion, anger, fear, violence raged. What could anyone do? Jesus? father listened to God, slipped away in the night, and found asylum in Egypt until that ruler passed away. Jesus inaugurated a way of bringing in good through a grassroots movement in which a thousand flowers bloomed.

The Community of Aidan and Hilda members on Holy Island used A Service After an Act of Terror for their Midday Prayer (from Volume Three ? Healing the Land ? of The Celtic Prayer Book). Each lit a candle for a particular intention. One prayed that a ?goodness bank? would be built up in Pakistan through the acts of many ordinary people that would come to be larger than the ?terrorist bank?. It worked at the time of the first Christmas. It can work again now.

'Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness, life is stronger than death.' Desmond Tutu.

Submitted: 14:16:18 on 28th December 2007

Topic: WITH THE SECOND DAY OF CHRISTMAS COMES THE GIFT OF INTIMACY WITH GOD

Most people in the world know there is a Supreme God. John, Jesus? soul friend, goes further: ?We have heard ? seen ? touched ?? he writes in his First Letter chapter one, which is read in churches today.

In the Celtic tradition John, because he is contemplative, is imagined as having ?the eye of the eagle? ? for the eagle was thought, alone of all birds, to be able to gaze into the face of the sun, and Jesus is pictured as The Eternal Sun whose rays are revealed at Christmas. Bishop Tom Wright, of Durham, UK, likens John to a hawk. A hawk sees the big picture ? so does John, e.g. ?in the beginning was the Word? ? but a hawk also notices the tiniest detail, which enables him to get his daily food. Christ?s gift of loving intimacy enables us to experience God?s love both ?wide, wide as the ocean? and in the little nuances of another person to whom we become truly present.

Submitted: 08:57:06 on 27th December 2007

Topic: THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS

December 26 ? thoughts inspired by Canon Kate Tristram?s words at the 8.0 am Holy Island:

One day after celebrating Christ?s Nativity much of the Church commemorates its first martyr, Stephen. Why? This seems a major, unsuitable switch of gear and does not sit lightly with the glut of booze and buying that characterises today?s western Christmas.

The answer is, first, that martyrdom is a reason to continue, not to cease, celebration. Second, as the early Christian teacher Tertullian wrote: ?The blood of the martyrs is the seed bed of the church?. In other words, the number of people in whom Christ is born greatly multiplies. Third, it roots us in the reality of life. There was no birth without sacrifice. There is no ushering in of God?s society on earth without struggle and opposition from the selfish forces in and around us. There will be no resurrection without death

How different this is from the shallow Christmas that fills our shops and TV screens. Joy and suffering go together. Christianity is holistic. ?The holly bears a berry, and Mary bears sweet Jesus Christ. No berry without the sharp and prickly holly.

Submitted: 09:52:14 on 26th December 2007

Topic: CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR GREETINGS

Greetings to you all, and many thanks for your wishes, gifts or prayers. This Christmas morn I walked towards Cuthbert?s sun-lit beach and recalled these lines of Kathleen Raine:

Aidan and Cuthbert saw God?s feet walking each day towards all who on world?s shores await his coming.

That we too, hand in hand, have received the unending morning.

And this St Aidan?s Prayer from Bradford Cathedral:

Let the rumble of traffic diminish and the song of the birds grow clear and may the Son of God come striding towards you.

**********

On Christmas night Holy Island?s Vicar, Brother Damian, told how an island boy went into the lambing shed of farmer Jimmy Patterson. Adults were busy elsewhere, but this little boy, having time to explore, heard something in the corner, out of sight, hidden by old machinery. It was a lamb that no one had noticed being born. ?I have found Jesus? the little boy excitedly told the adults. 'Jesus is the Lamb of God, who is among us, but over-looked and marginalised', Brother Damian said. ?But supposing we kept in mind all day and every day that Jesus is with us, in this place, wherever we are, what difference would it make??

Why don?t we do this in 2008?

Some weeks before Christmas a troubled man and his wife came to Holy Island. They sought out first this person, then the Vicar, then a Minister, and none were available. Someone said ?Why don?t you knock on that door??. It was the door of The Life Boat House, where Graham and Ruth Booth live. Graham was utterly exhausted after a punishing series of undertakings. He had just sat down to a cup of coffee when the door bell rang.? ?Oh no?, he thought, ?I have nothing to give.? The man began to talk about his dilemmas. Graham realised that he was not listening. However, someone came beside Graham and spoke loudly into his ear. Graham repeated what this person said to him. And, although this kind of thing was not in Graham?s tradition, he knew without a doubt that this person speaking to him was Aidan. He repeated to the troubled man what Aidan said. After each sentence the man clutched his stomach and said ?Oh?. Shortly afterwards the couple left. Before Christmas Graham received a letter. The man explained that every word Graham (and Aidan) had spoken had cut to his heart and he had carried them out. He had resigned from all kinds of things, and now served Jesus among the poor. He was free, more free than he had ever been in his life, and he wanted to thank Graham and Aidan.

The endless rush and consumerism of a western Christmas is absent on Holy Island. But the best Christmas gifts are not made by man.

So I wish you such Christmas gifts as I have described . May your Christmas last for ever.

You are in my thoughts. Much love Ray

Submitted: 13:42:22 on 25th December 2007

Topic: CELTIC ADVENT

The Celtic Advent begins forty days before the Nativity, that is on November 15. This corresponds with the Eastern Orthodox practice.

One way to use these forty days of reflection is to contemplate 'the ancestors of God' - people such as Ruth, the mixed race God-honourer, David the righteous king, Joseph and Mary.

In our advent retreats we will meditate on Luke's story of Elizabeth and Mary meeting, and Saint Fursey's visions of angels, demons, and the judgement of God. Why not do something similar at home?

Submitted: 12:48:13 on 21st November 2007

Topic: The Pope and Saint Oswald

I sometimes contribute to the Lindisfarne.org web site's ezine newsletter. This is what I sublmitted to the editor today.

In recent times the leaders of the three churches and two retreat houses on the island have been meeting most months to see how best to support the island and pilgrims. These are St. Aidan?s, .St. Cuthbert?s Centre, St. Mary?s, Marygate House and The Open Gate. One thing we all thought we could do together is to offer a simple healing service at 11.0 am every Wednesday (except late December and January). This rotates around the three church buildings, and the five of us take it in turns to lead. Sometimes there is quite a queue for the laying on of hands. We never, of course, give away confidences, but I can say that a number of people have come back to give thanks for healings. One person said ?I have become a dry old stick and I want you to pray that I will come to life?. Soon after that I saw her beaming with happiness.

We all supported Sister Tessa when the Papal Nuncio blessed the altar of the renovated St Aidan?s Church in October. It was good to see a number of islanders and other residents also present, and Lady Rose. Bishop Kevin of Hexham gave us some interesting information. He told us that Saint Oswald, who became a model of a good and godly King throughout Europe after stories were written about him in German speaking lands, has many churches dedicated to him in the European Union. Pope Benedict 16 grew up in one of these St Oswald?s churches, and was ordained there. So, said the Bishop, we can all feel connected through our local saints with a much wider world.

Submitted: 15:03:40 on 29th October 2007

Topic: A MODERN KNIGHTHOOD

Members of the Blue Pilgrim Knighthood are on the island. I am asked to wriite a message for their newsletter This is it.

A Message from Wise Guardian to The Blue Pilgrims Knighthood October 2007

Since I shared your retreat at Offchurch a few years * ago we have not been in touch. Life is full of this and that , and our devotion to Divine Simplicity surely means that we must focus on the Present Moment, rather than vainly strive to be in touch with everyone all the time. Nevertheless, you have always remained in my heart. Some might say that your regular recourse to Tennyson and his Arthurian myths makes you dated, or irrelevant. I disagree. I believe, with you, that our emerging society cries out for truths and values that those myths keep alive.

Since I was with you I have written a novel (as yet unpublished) and visited Canada. In the novel Saint Aidan, the Peoples? Saint, is stationed by his Iona monastery at the royal stronghold of Dunadd, where Saint Columba anointed Dal Riata?s first king. That Christian King became a monk and so delegated his leadership of battles to his son Arthur, who won many victories at twelve places between the two Roman walls, and made alliances with Christian Britons thatv reached into the south west. Legends were growing about the late Arthur while Aidan was there, and he broke through the mists of later misconception. He found out, for example, that the Round Table is a knot of rock in front of what is now Stirling Castle. The novel is called ?The Lost Gospel?, for Aidan also takes a Gospel to Syria, and meets a follower of the Prophet Mohammed.

In Canada the Chief of Staff of the main Opposition Party, on hearing of a grass roots movement of people living out noble ideals, said ?We politicians must tap into this.? My host eschewed high office in politics, and has set aside his executive business position, because he wants to enable others to live out their highest ideals, rather than be dragged down by ego-centred agendas he is deputed to deliver. He, and others, have a vision of creating a ?Celtic Christian Village? in woodland. That is, a circle of simple, wooden dwellings where people of faith may gather for a day or a week to seek the ways of Christ for their profession and their land. What could be a greater calling than to see businesses where a person?s word is their bond, and where good, not profit, is the primary goal. To rally the forces of good. To create a ?cabinet of conscience? of the noble and wise from every walk of life. To re-establish courtesy in relationships and honour in love. To appoint Christ as the Leader of the Land?

Now I am down to earth on this little island and you are down to earth where you are. And each thing we do, each greeting we make, is grist in the hands of the Christ who is God come down to earth. This, therefore, is also my Christmas wish for us all.

Wise Guardian.

I came to the retreat under my birth name, Ray Simpson. When Undaunted asked me about adopting a Kinghthood name I explained that on the very day I discoverd that my first name, Raymond, meant Wise Guardian, my Community of Aidan and Hilda asked me to be its Guardian.

Submitted: 19:46:55 on 11st October 2007

Topic: UNLOCK THE SONG IN EVERY HEART

'What is the purpose of the Community of Aidan and Hilda on this earth?' we asked members. 'To unlock the song in every human heart' was one reply.

:In the later 1970's the Venezuelan composer Jose Antonio Abreu started rehearsing with eleven slum kids in a garage. Thirty years later the youth orchestra El Sistema was the flagship of one of the most extraordinary social experiments ever. The young musicians were not just talented: many were brought up in the violent barrios of Caracas, where free lessons in classical music turned them from potential gang recruits into virtuosos. Abrou headed a nationwide programme involving 250,000 deprived children and more than two hundred local orchestras.

Sexual longing and aggression are the emotions that always and everywhere inform the music of the youth, both at its magical best and its mindless worst. What Jose Abreu realised is that this is not enough: that what easily enthrals, easily infantilises. It wasn't just the challenge of learning an instrument and the pride of belonging to a skilful group that redeemed the children of the slums. It was exposure to a range of emotions way beyond the limited horizons of adolescence. It was a chance to grow up.

Extracted from Jeremy O'Grady The Week 1 September 2007

Submitted: 17:20:44 on 24th September 2007

Topic: OLDIES REVOLUTION

Today some churches celebrate Theodore, saint of Tarsus, and the first Archbishop of Canterbury to win the heartfelt allegiance of both Celtic and Roman traditions in the seventh century English church. But I celebrate the fact that he was sixty seven when he began his twenty one years of great work.

He was third choice. The first choice died. The second, the young African monk Hadrian, thought himself too inexperienced and so suggested Theodore instead. Most people in those days died at forty. Yet Theodore travelled far, visited the length and breadth of the English kingdoms, set up dioceses, educated the clergy, established agreed rules and good order, lived the faith, and was loved by the flock.

This makes me want to explore the lives of people who began a great work for God in their old age. Moses was one such person. he began at eighty. Send me details of others: .

You may not have guessed the reason for my interest in this subject. I am sixt yseven.

Submitted: 15:52:59 on 20th September 2007

Topic: N. Ireland Celtic Spirituality Initiative

An edited version of the address by Revd Ray Simpson, Guardian of the International Community of Aidan and Hilda at the commissioning of Rev Grace Clunie as Director of Celtic Spirituality by the Archbishop of Armagh at Armagh Cathedral on

Sunday September 2 2007

I bring greetings from Lindisfarne, Cradle of Christianity to English-speakers, to you, who have been, are and can increasingly become another cradle of Christianity in our changing world. I congratulate you on this inspired move to appoint a Celtic Spirituality Director, with its hope of a retreat house and resource centre to follow.

Some may ask ?Is this British?? Most certainly, yes. As you know, Armagh?s first Bishop, Patrick was a child of the British church. For a thousand years Christendom gave pre-eminence to the British Church because it believed it was founded very early after Christ?s resurrection by Joseph of Arimathea. The bright beams of Christ?s light that melted Britain?s pagan coldness soon reached up to the north west coast where Patrick was born.

Grace, with your help, is seeking to re-kindle that heritage for today. Patrick inspires people of most diverse backgrounds. In our Celtic Christian Studies Library at Lindisfarne we have a book on Patrick published by The Orange Lodge, a book by a Roman Catholic, and a book by George Hunter 111, the USA church growth leader, entitled ?The Celtic Way of Evangelism: how the West can be won ? again.? George Hunter believes that Protestant, as well as Roman Catholic churches, have been too ?top-down, one shape-fits-all? in the second millennium, and that if we are to recruit today?s generation we need to learn lessons from the likes of Patrick about how to swim our way into the imagination of the people, and inspire spontaneous, grassroots networks of faith.

Somebody might ask, ?Why do we need anything new?? Rowan, the first Celtic Archbishop of Canterbury I can recall, calls on the inherited church to cherish its own treasures and also to invest in fresh expressions of those treasures. Each generation needs to do this. When I was a curate in the Church of England my bishop, Hugh Montefiore, discussed parishes of which I might become vicar, but he also listened to what God had put on my heart. ?Ray?, he said, ? the church needs some people who have one foot inside the establishment and one foot outside among the unchurched, I think God may be calling you to be such a person.? That is surely true also of Grace.

People ask ?What is Celtic spirituality?? Look at this Celtic Cross that I wear, the cross with a circle which is so typical of Ireland. The cross speaks of the centrality of Jesus? Word, his Death, his Resurrection. The circle speaks of creation, the whole of life, which is embraced and transformed by Christ. This is inclusive. God loves and reaches out to everyone through us.

Celtic Christianity is about faith as a fire in the heart. You, here, have a heritage of holy fire. As you know, Patrick celebrated Christ?s resurrection by lighting a fire on the hill of Slane, which the High King?s Druid prophesied would never go out. Patrick prophesied, with a British colleague, that a holy man named Colum (the Dove) would be born to the Irish church who would spread the rays of Christ the True Sun far afield.. Columba?s disciple, Aidan was perhaps born about the time that the night sky became a fiery ball the night Columba died on Iona. Could that be why Aidan, whose name means Flame, was so named? Aidan went from Ireland, via Iona, to the largest of the pagan English kingdoms and set up his mission base at Lindisfarne. Explorers of our Way of Life, inspired by Aidan, wear a badge which depicts Aidan?s torch of fire, and which has the words ?Pass on the flame?. Grace ? I give you this badge to mark this occasion. Many people who seek God come as pilgrims to our Retreat House, The Open Gate, at Lindisfarne. I hope many will come in the future to your retreat house, and that we can send them on to each other. Pass on the flame.

Celtic Christianity seeks to restore Christianity as a way of life. When Christianity began, it was a way of life more than an institution. Those who follow our Aidan and Hilda way of life, for example, seek to learn something from scripture, creation or life every day, to share our life journey with a soul friend, to live a rhythm of prayer, work and re-creation, and to cherish the earth.

It sees the church as more like a ship than a house. Lutherans in the state church of Norway, like many of we Protestants, threw out monasteries, pilgrimage and saints at the Reformation. Yet they call their churches ships (as we use the term nave, from which we get our word the navy). Now increasing numbers of them realise that a ship is meant o voyage ? with God. They want to continue to avoid the abuses that flourished at the time of the Reformation, and yet to re-connect with God in the creation ? and how better than to walk and be pilgrims. Pilgrimage is reviving among all Christians, and that is why your provision for pilgrims here could be so timely and such a blessing ? as they use your libraries, the lovely garden, the beautiful daily liturgies in the cathedral and do the Patrick trail.

Celtic Christianity seeks to weave together those God-given strands within Christianity which became separated. That is why this new work will no doubt build on your existing ecumenical partnerships;

This re-connecting with roots that have been neglected can be important for our Episcopal/Anglican Communion. I returned from USA last week, carrying the heart break of members of an Episcopal church which is being torn apart. I would like our American friends to know that this world-wide Communion is not an accident of colonialism, it is a continuation of the church founded by the apostles to Britain and Ireland. I would like to tell them that they can come to Armagh and trace their bishops back to Patrick, or they can come to Lindisfarne and trace them back to Aidan.

There is another reason why your fostering of a Christian tradition that is grass-roots and non-threatening is so important ? power corrupts, even in the church. Here I have a confession to make. I have an addiction to Sister Fidelma novels. Unfortunately the bad man in some of them is Brother Ultan of Armagh ? for he wants to enforce his power upon all the other dioceses for most un-Christ-like motives. We have to admit that not every period in our church?s history has been as inspiring as the first period. There is a need for humility, repentance, reconciliation, healing of the land. That, too, is part of the Celtic Christian way.

Hospitality is at the heart of Celtic spirituality. There is a mother?s heart in the heart of God. I hope you will all offer a smile to the stranger, a space to the seeker, a prayer and a helping hand to Grace as together you develop the centre. Finally, blessing is important, too. Patrick blessed places. His beautiful blessing of Munster has come down to us. May I end by giving you this blessing from us:

Here be the peace of those who do your sacred will. Here be the praise of God by night and day. Here be the place where strong ones serve the weakest Here be a sight of Christ?s most gentle way. Here be the strength of prophets righting greed and wrong Here be the green of land that?s tilled with love. Here be the soil of holy lives maturing Here be a people one with all the saints above. (Celtic Hymn Book: Kevin Mayhew Ltd)

Submitted: 14:28:45 on 9th September 2007

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