The Community of Aidan and Hilda

Canada

Land of the Maple

Land of the Trinity

Land with Roots in the Celtic Tradition

You can find the latest Community of Aidan and Hilda news about Canada here

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Ray Simpson's Summer 2010 Visit

You can download Ray's itinery here.

2011: Ray Simpson is invited back to Sorrento Retreat Centre, BC the first week of May.  If you wish to set up events in BC (or over the US border) before or after that please contact him.

British Columbia

Sorrento Anglican Retreat and Conference Centre

A Scandinavian name and he thinks the Vikings must have given Lindisfarne its name.

On the long plane flight I read the book Scott Brennan suggested 'Why Men don't go to church'. Scott wonders if he and I might collaborate to write about Celtic and modern examples of men who build, struggle, adventure to create God's kingdom on earth - which is true church. Here at Sorrento I meet men who are competitive in sport but compassionate and inclusive in the way they encourage youngsters.

The new Director of the Centre is Chris Lind. His is a Scandinavian name, derived from the Linden tree, and he believes this is the origin of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne’s name. Chris is a theologian, and we had some invaluable conversations.  He has invited me back to lead  the Associates of Sorrento Week the first week of May 2011, with the hope that other events might be arranged in Vancouver or even Seattle USA.

I drove to Kirk and Karen Pidcock for an Ascension Day gathering at their landholding - along with what he calls their Celtic chickens. I drove six hours between snow-capped mountains, on deer-frequented roads which require cars to have snow chains between October and April, over the 1,200m Monashee Pass, across Arrow Lake on a ferry, to the small town of Kaslo, where Karen and Dirk Pidcock were my generous hosts. Dirk has Voyager vows with our Community. Someone at Sorrento Centre told me they had Celtic chickens. I found out what this meant. Two chickens had been named after Celtic saints – Brigid and Hilda – but a bear had attacked the chicken house and they are no more. Never mind – there is still a rooster named Cuthbert.

The Pidcocks had invited folk from local churches to an Ascension Day gathering at their church of St. Mark. Following a 10.0 am service, at which I preached on Christ and creation, nearly thirty people gathered round large tables for a teaching day. Dirk asked me to give people a sense of who I am, what the Community of Aidan and Hilda is, what Lindisfarne is about, and four key things about Celtic Christianity that we can take hold of today.

The church has made a labyrinth in its grounds, which walkers on the riverside trail sometimes use. We had a lunch break beside it. For the final session Dirk invited people to say what they would like to know more about. A brief outline of early Celtic church history, how to make a pilgrimage to Lindisfarne, and how Kaslo church could develop as a village of God were three requests.

Dirk is the Community contact person for British Columbia:

Toronto

I came to Tyndale University College and Seminary, to give four 85 minutes lectures on themes such as 'How Pagan Ireland became a land of saints and scholars', 'How the Irish birthed an English church', ''Celtic Monastic churches and the emerging church today', and 'Celtic Spirituality in the 21st Century'. These were followed by talks with students, who seem electrified by these themes. I gave a taster of our new course 'Igniting the Flame' and they queued with lap-top stick to make copies. No more of these. Orders please to our office. The written work forms credits towards students’ yqualifications.

Tyndale has mushroomed from a small evangelical Bible College to an expanding enterprise that embraces 20 Christian denominations and many cultures. Chinese is the second language after English. The college has purchased the large St Joseph's Convent nearby, sponsors a spiritual direction network and training courses of Christian leaders. It also uses the Jesuit Manresa Centre where I will led a teaching retreat  on how Celtic spirituality helps us re-connect with holistic rhythms. Three professors who have visited the Open Gate and two wives shared a meal: Arthur and Lorna de Boers, Paul and Marlene Bramer, and David Sherbinho. Arthur gave me a copy of his new book 'The Rhythm of God's grace'. Anne Crosthwaite of Contemplative Fire took me out. On Victoria Day staff in the Doctorate of Ministry department hosted a holiday meal when I spoke of the new monasticism and of my recent book High Street Monasteries.

Last time I led a retreat in Canada (at Pembroke) I invited retreatants, who had visited 'thin places' such as Iona and Lindisfarne in another country, to make a list of Canada's thin places, where the gap between earth and heaven is thin. They mentioned a few Indian sacred places, and one place in Quebec where people felt they had been visited by the Virgin Mary's mother. That was all. No one imagined fast and fashionable Toronto as a thin place.

This week-end I encountered places in Toronto that are starting to thin. I met a group who call themselves 'The Carrying Place', after the trail of this name, starting by the river Humber, that links different regions and was used by the Indian, British and French peoples. The name comes from the Mohawk term toron-ten, meaning 'the place where the trees grow over the water', an important landmark on Lake Simcoe through which the trail passed. The Carrying Place group seek to re-hallow ancient sites.

One of these is Toronto island. On Saturday we took a ferry to this island whose different parts include residents, tourist facilities, nature, and the Lakeside church. There we had a retreat . This included stories of how Ireland was transformed from a place beholden to idols in to a land of saints, scholars and 'desert' places of prayer.The vision is to make, with permission, this little-used church a place of regular retreat and prayer.

My hosts were Deborah and Duke Vipperman. He is pastor of Resurrection Church. Following an evening event at St. Olave's church I preached at the morning service at Resurrection church. Ten years ago this was at a low ebb. Now it is vibrant with multi-cultural expressions of Christ. One example especially appeals to me. A member named Chris is a musician who grew up in India. He holds public events such as Yeshua Satsang, where, with Indian instruments like sitar tabla and harmonium they offer their hearts in praise of the Sat Guru (the True Teacher) with bhajans and kirtans in Indian style. Skeptics and believers are welcomed.

I also spoke to Norm Allen’s business network, Touchstone and spent time with Barb and Bob Hudspith at their Farne Retreat House.

Barb is a spiritual director and a contact for the Community in her region

Ottawa

A day conference and an informal Celtic Eucharist celebrated at the open air altar of Saint Mary’s Church, where Randy Goodfellow worships, were highlights of this visit.

Publishing in Canada

I spoke with a number of people about their frustration that our publications are not easily accessible in Canada (apart from Celtic Blessings and A Holy Island Prayer Book) and we discussed possible publishers, agents, and even a film-maker for a blockbuster on Saint Aidan.  Pray for this and watch this space.

 

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Some Past Events

In the 1990’s Rob O’Gorman of Almonte, Ontario launched the Celtic Horizons web site, began wilderness training and Celtic workshops and visited the Community’s Retreat House on Britain’s Holy Island of Lindisfarne.  In 2002 he invited the CA&H international Guardian Ray Simpson to lead a retreat in the Anglican Retreat House on the Quebec/Ottawa border.

One of those who attended said ‘this new monasticism is exactly what the world needs, please take this forward’. Another, Randal Goodfellow, founded a Canada-wide organisation, BioProducts Canada to help Canada transition its economy to one focused on it sustainable biological resources feedstock versus non-renewable fossil derived feedstock.

In following years Dirk Pidcock, of Kalso, British Columbia, became a CA&H Voyager.  He seeks to connect with the seasons.  Norm Allen, of Toronto, became an Explorer.  He connects with the streets and works with business people. His soul friend, Ron Nikkel, of Dingwall, Nova Scotia, is another Explorer.

In 2007 Ray Simpson and Rob O’Gorman co-led a retreat at the  Catholic Sisters Marguerite Centre, Pembroke, Ontario www.margueritecentre.com.   At this retreat interest was shown  in the Community’s e-studies courses.  Its Director, Paul Schwartzentruber has a vision for this to be a multi-faceted, inclusive centre for spiritual renewal that includes eco-theology, meditation and spiritual direction. 

Tyndale College Toronto are exploring possible links with the Community, including an invitation to Ray Simpson to lecture there in May 2010.

Explorer Barbara Hudspith and her husband Bob welcome visitors to their retreat house, The Farne, near Durham, Southern Ontario, www.farne.ca Barbara offers spiritual direction and silent retreats.

Coach to Churches

Ed Leidel is author of Awakening Grassroots Spirituality A Celtic Guide for Nurturing and Maturing the Soul He sometimes available to act as a coach to churches, see www.smallchurchcoach.com/Introducingeml.aspx

 

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Snippets from 2007

There have been visits to political and business leaders who care for the planet's future and are open to a spirituality that can sustain development work

In October 2007 Randal Goodfellow (RG), President of Goodfellow Agricola Consultants Inc, invited Ray Simpson (RS) to meet some key innovators and leaders. Snippets from their encounters follow:

Tuesday October 2nd:  They met with Richard Kluska (RK)and Tim (T), an investment advisor and a technology business executive:

RK: I am successful, but my life-style is helping to ruin the planet.  I was a devout catholic, but when I found that the Diocese’s boardroom was about power and wealth, and when I saw the treasures in the Vatican museum whose wealth could be used for the blessing of the planet, I became disillusioned.  Yet I want to change my ways.

RS: A movement is growing of new monasticism – Christians who eschew wealth and power and live simply that others may simply live.

RK: Define simplicity. 

RS: The USA Shakers speak of ‘elegant simplicity’. Our Community Way of Life says that ‘a simple life style means setting everything in the beauty of creation. Our belongings, activities and relationships are ordered in a way that liberates the spirit; we cut out those things that overload or clutter the spirit…’

RK: I get the point that each person has to start with themselves.  But in practice good intentions get crowded out.

RS: We commit to create a daily rhythm of prayer, work, re-creation – spaces that maintain a good work-life-stewardship balance, and we review this with a soul friend.

T (who also teaches business strategy):  The accepted definition of business is an organisation whose purpose is to make maximum profit.

RS:  Who says?  Could not the purpose of a business be to meet a need - in a way that provides income for employers, employees and shareholders and well-being for customers?

T:  We need to cost every product that sells in shops, etc. on the basis of its cost to the environment.

RS:  Could you begin to do this?  Start a web site that does this?

T:  It’s complex.  So people give up trying (but none-the-less Tim is in the process of doing this).

RS:  If we start with a spirituality that listens to and connects with creation, and that births a sense of wonder,  people naturally treat the world more thoughtfully.

All:   There is value in buying locally grown food, but apart from farmers’ markets, no one knows where they can buy this. 

RS:  Could you start an allotment?  Put on a web site where locally grown food can be purchased?

Evening with Dave Gerwing (Dave), President of Menova Energy www.power-spar.com and Jac Van Beek (JVP) Canada Foundation for Innovation www.innovation.ca and Marylin Van Beek, studying eco-theology.

Dave  wants to write a book entitled ‘The Sun and the Son’. ‘The Son created the sun so that we can all have plenty of energy.  All it needs is to get those photons into the right places’. Dave has developed a host of inventions, especially solar energy equipment that maximises heat and light generation. (I also believe that he is also considering titling the book “The Sun of God” – part of his vision is that solar energy can be liberating for the people of the world, particularly for the less economically fortunate so that they can produce electricity themselves where they live and not have to depend on centrally produced electricity which can be used by less than benevolent governments to control their populations)

RS: Saint Patrick of Ireland described Christ as the True Sun.  Every time we look at the sun we embrace the Son; every time we look at the Son we embrace all that the sun shines upon.

What is the soul of Canada?

Jac:    The Province of Saskatchewan is the soul of Canada. People of different origins and income levels help one another, much of Canada’s most significant social policy has its origins in that province. There is not as a significant gulf, as in USA, between the haves and the have-nots. Canada can offer an economic approach like this. Jac described various Government and Business funded research projects.

Dave: These will not be intelligently harnessed, or they will be harnessed for the agenda of their financial sponsors unless they are harnessed to the needs of the world based on an agreed set of values and priorities.

RK:   We get back to the need for principles based on religion.

RS:   One of our CA&H principles is Purity. There is a place for pure research that is allowed to go wherever it will.

Jac:  A company is a-moral.

RS:  In a holistic world view a company is a moral body.  Its shareholders, employers and employees covenant to act for the well-being of the area in which they operate and of the people from whom they receive materials or to whom they sell.

Dave: Our priests repeat the Bible, but they do not make connections between the Bible and the world’s needs today.

RS:  Could you offer suggestions and feed-back to your priests’ sermons?

Dave: I could.

All:   We need a grassroots embracing of simplicity through a fresh expression of mainstream religion.

Wednesday October 3rd

Visit with Martin, General Manager of a Waste Management Company

This is a fine example of a moral private company. It runs a large area of waste disposal. Its values are unselfishness, care for the local community, the environment and staff.  It does not put rubbish (as so often is done in UK) in any piece of land where there is a large hole (the water soaks through and pollutes the earth beneath and around); it digs out pits which have a clay base, puts rubbish on a bed of shredded car tyres, and channels the drainage water into a purifying process.  This is then used to create wetlands and salmon ponds and even for drinking.  Earth is purified and re-used to grow crops.

Lunch with Professor Heather Eaton who lectures at St Paul’s University. Her focus is to assist religions in responding to the ecological crisis. Also with Chris McKelvey who is Brother Ciaran Hilda in the Franciscan Order of the Celi De in the  Episcopal Church  and Frank Emanuel, pastor of  a Vineyard Emerging Alternative Church www.freedomvinyard.com

Thursday October 4th

Meeting with Andrew Bevan, Chief of Staff for Stephane Dion, Leader of the Official Opposition Party (Liberal) at Parliament Building who clearly did not take the view of the former British PM’s Chief Alistair Campbell that ‘we do not do God’. He listened attentively to RS outline elements of the CA&H story that are about connecting with a resurging ‘artesian basin’ of spirituality.  He said “there’s something there that we (politicians) need to tap into” and asked for a copy of Exploring Celtic Spirituality. He has family roots in Northumberland UK and Ray invited him to stay at The Open Gate if visiting.

A meeting with the leader of the Green Party, Uniting Church Minister Elizabeth May www.elizabethmay.ca  and with Brian Guest, who is working with former PM Paul Martin, who has been asked by Britain’s PM Gordon Brown to head up  a Sustainable Forestry in Africa programme sponsored by  the UK Government, was cancelled because of her slower than anticipated recovery from a hip operation.

Meeting and  Presentation to the Foresight Group

This consists of about 45 Government, Science and Business funded staff who chart trends in many areas. This was hosted by Leah Soroka, Science, Policy and Planning, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and chaired by Jack Smith, Office of the Prime Minister’s National Science Advisory. During the presentation and lengthy inter-actions following RS touched on the clash of civilisations, a third way, the new monasticism, the end of the Enlightenment mind-body split, the increase in emerging and network church alongside the decline of traditional church, the attempt through our Celtic Prayer Book series to feed in the new insights into the prayer patterns of traditional churches, the new cosmology (Thomas Berry), the question of whether ecology is possible without spirituality, how business people value a practical way of living faith and values such as the CA&H Way, whether the USA type divide between science and fundamentalist religion lessens with a more mystical approach; the limits of trend forecasting that is not holistic (e.g. a business plan chops down trees – this leads aggrieved nature lovers to chop down the business people: The business plan did not assess the human, spiritual or long term environmental cost). This was followed by interested feed-back, requests for CA&H info, beer and informal talks. 

Friday October 5th:

Meeting in Ottawa with Dr. David Sherbino, Professor of Pastoral Ministries and Spiritual Formation at Tyndale Seminary, Toronto .  

David is to commence a course in Celtic Christian Studies. He had met Graham Booth at The Open Gate. We made provisional plans for a visit of his students to Ireland, Iona and Lindisfarne in May or June 2009.  We discussed  the emerging needs of soulfriendship/spiritual direction at varying levels. Ray Simpson told him of Gary Hemming’s visit to Larry Crab’s soul friendship course in USA and of the DVD.  He gave him the CA&H Beginners Guide for Soul Friends and we discussed the possibility of networking.

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Reflection and Prophetic Prayer

Ottawa River – Meeting Place

The nation’s capital is situated where the Ottawa, Rideau and Gatineau rivers meet. Long ago these rivers formed part of the principal route for trade and exploration in to the vast interior of Canada. The Indian word Ottawa means ‘place of meeting’ (the word Ottawa actually refers to the occupation of the first nations people who were known as traders, i.e. they were heavily involved in the fur trade often acting as the go between / translators between the Europeans / French and other first nations groups, the site of the city of Ottawa was a meeting place for trade. The word that Canada is derived from Kanata means Village in Huron). Here the Algonquin nation first guided European explorers up the Ottawa River and introduced them to the gateway of the continent.

In no other part of the world have water and the canoe had such an influence on both the original indigenous culture and the development of its history after European contact. … only in Upper North America have indigenous craft been used later by European migrants to create a nation.

John Jennings

Jesus’s baptism in the muddy river Jordan was about the Uncreated God entering into the stream of human life, thus making all creation holy.  Some Canadian native people start the day by standing in a river and allowing this to be a mutual touching - a receiving and giving.
Should not we, who are called to follow Christ’s example, enter into the stream of a particular place’s life and pray that Christ’s life may enter it afresh?  In any event  I took off my shoes and shirt, and stood in Ottawa river.  I prayed for Canada – thanking God for the flow of life through its past and present. Then I made the sign of the cross with water on my forehead, chest and hands, prayed that Christ would transform this great nation and lead it to its destiny. I wrote this:

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Canada’s Calling

What is Canada’s calling in the twenty first century?  A visitor can sometimes see what over-familiarity obscures. Canada has rightly moved away from the framework of its early British, Irish and Breton pioneers, (the folks from central Europe who pioneered much of the prairies but latter in time may feel that they have been over looked) but not in anger. It would be tragic if it became a clone of its geographically smaller but economically more powerful neighbour. The USA model is competition. The Canadian model is co-operation. 

As an oak is hid in an acorn, so a nation’s destiny can be hid in its birthright. Canada’s English and French speaking Celtic Christian roots, married creatively to the best of its First Nation traditions  and to its unique place in the world, could offer a clue to its destiny.

Canada’s first Europeans were settlers, not invaders.  They embraced the indigenous population and the land in a way that countries such as USA and Australia did not. Because many more Scots than English came, Canada never got trapped in a class mentality. The Scots shaped Nova Scotia and spread to other Maritime Provinces sensitive to the land. The USA historian Bernard de Voto said of Orkney settlers ‘they pulled the wilderness round them like a cloak, and wore its beauty like a crest’.

My distant Scottish relative George Simpson became President of the merged Hudson Bay and North West Companies, and thereby governed ten times more territory than had the Roman emperors.  Simpson built alliances of friendship with the Natives and new incomers alike.  Unlike in other places there were no reprisals, no battles. He established a way of dealing that was based on trust.  His stewardship of the Hudson Bay lands formed the core of what became modern Canada.  So Canada has something to contribute to the world in terms of creating a foreign and trade policy based on listening, valuing cultural difference and respect for peoples’ lands.

During a recent visit I asked various people ‘what is the soul of Canada?’ One person replied: Saskatchewan. This melting pot has French-speaking, English-speaking and First Nation Canadians who by and large feel they belong together and help one another (much of Saskatchewan is today populated by people from Central Europe who arrived latter to farm, however the first where first nations, and predominantly French Canadian and Scots fur traders. The hall mark social policy that sprung from Saskatchewan had heavy influence from the central European immigrants experience). There are no ghettos. The fact that many Breton men married First Nation women helped. (they first did this in Quebec, then as fur traders in the Prairies).

This connects with the ‘Kaleidoscope’ approach  to ethnic groups which Canada embraces in contrast to the assimilation approach in other western nations.  In the light of fears of a clash of civilisations, this approach needs to be refined and exported.

The earth needs healing.  Canada, with its gentle embrace of its glorious land, can help. 

In legend Saint Patrick of Ireland used a shamrock to imprint the Christian experience of The Trinity on the Irish imagination.  Canada’s three pronged maple leaf may be used in a similar way. In its doctrine of the Trinity Christianity implies that the nature of Ultimate Reality (God) is Three’Persons’, each giving to and receiving from the other and in so doing being truly themselves.  Living to bring the best out of others, and providing hospitable space for groups and nations in the world family, may be the way Canada can both rise to its greatness and remain truly itself.

Ray Simpson.

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Question: HILDA?

Who was she? Why her? What does she stand for?

• www.sthilda.can gives a brief history of Hilda as well as of that church.
• She pioneered education and Christian spirituality among English-speaking people as early as the seventh century.
• She also had roots in the ‘First Nation’ indigenous Celtic church of the British Isles.
• Today she is emerging as an icon of Wisdom and of the Divine Feminine.
• She and Aidan are universal archetypes of male and female, incomer and native, working together as soul friends for the good of the wider world.
• French-speakers may be interested to know that Hilda had close links with Chelles Monastery, in modern France, which was founded by the Irish monk Columbanus. She is thought to have drawn from its Rule.
• Schools, churches and colleges have been named after her in Canada, for example: St. Hilda’s College and St. Hilda’s Towers Foundation Toronto.