Visions and Aims
The Community of Aidan and Hilda is an ecumenical world-wide fellowship whose members seek to live out Christianity as a complete way of life, within their own contexts. We try to make ourselves wholly available to the Holy Spirit and to the way of Jesus as revealed to us in the Bible. In particular, we seek to:
- Develop an holistic Christian spirituality for today
- Raise up a renewed people who journey with God
- Develop resources for emerging and existing churches
- Heal broken people and fragmented communities
To fulfil this vision we aim to:
- Restore an holistic Christian spirituality reconnecting with the Spirit and the Scriptures, the saints and the streets, the seasons and the soil, weaving together the separated strands of Christianity and healing the land.
- Research the first Celtic mission and related movements throughout history which embody this, and draw out their application for today.
- Resource the emerging and existing church through worship and prayer resources, teaching and training materials, soul friendship and spiritual guidance, retreats, courses and conferences, and exploring new expressions of Christian community.
We draw our inspiration particularly from the Celtic Saints, but also from many of the other great Christian spiritual teachers that the Lord has raised up over the ages. We organise retreats, workshops and meetings:
- All around the UK, often at our regional centres.
- Internationally, in countries with existing members of the Community and those where an interest in the Community has been expressed.
Ray Simpson's book 'A Pilgrim's Way', deals extensively with the Community's history, its Way of Life and its aims, and Simon Reed's book 'Creating Community' looks at how how lessons from the Celtic churches might be applies to our churches and Christian fellowships today.
We offer online Daily Meditations on the Christian life, many of which draw on the stories of the celtic saints. These come from Ray Simpson's Book Celtic Daily Light. Examples of simple Celtic style liturgy from Ray's book Liturgies from Lindisfarne are also available.
Ecumenical Links
The Community is open to Christians of all denominations and walks of life. It is truly ecumenical and brings together people from highly traditional backgrounds such as Roman Catholic and Anglo-Catholic, right through to Evangelical Charismatics and Pentecostal.
While we have no formal links with other Celtic communities such as the Northumbria Community and the Iona Community, there is a lot of common ground and our leaders and a number of our members have made visits, arranged events, etc. with these sister organisations.