About
As spiritual visitors you might want to know more about the Community of Aidan & Hilda. You might want to know how it got started in the UK, what the Community looks like, and some of its core values.
Introducing
the Community of Aidan and Hilda
A world-wide people who journey with God, reconnecting with the Spirit and the Scriptures, the Saints and the Streets, the Seasons and the Soil
We are a dispersed body of Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and other Christians who seek to cradle a holistic Christian spirituality for today that renews the church and heals the lands. We welcome people of all backgrounds and countries who wish to be wholly available to the Holy Trinity, and to the way of Jesus as revealed to us in the Bible. In the earthing of that
commitment members draw inspiration from Celtic saints such as Aidan (Irish) and Hilda (English) and God-guided indigenous personalities.
Members follow a Way of Life, with a Soul Friend, based on a rhythm of prayer and study, simplicity, care for creation and mission; and they seek to weave together the separated strands of Christianity. The work of the Community is the work of each member. There is no ready-made community on one's doorstep. Co-unity with other members is rooted in the knowledge that they follow the Community’s Way and that this reflects their deepest calling.
The Community embraces men, women and children from all walks of life who have differing levels of commitment:
Friends
Friends are people who wish, to support the Community but do not feel able at this time to follow our Way of Life. They may have an interest in Celtic or Desert spirituality and wish to encourage the Community by their prayers and support. Friends receive the Community magazine and are welcome to join public events and retreats organised by the Community.
A person can become a Friend of the Community and receive the quarterly magazine.
Explorers
Explorers are people who are prayerfully exploring whether the Community and its Way of Life is an appropriate place for them to belong. Explorers test their vocation by living the Community Way of Life with the help of a Soul Friend. Explorers are encouraged to join in Community activities whenever possible. See pages 17-19.
Voyagers
After at least a year of living the Way of Life as an Explorer you may prayerfully apply to become a Member. In doing this you make a commitment to the Community's Way of Life by taking the First Voyage of the Coracle (first vows). Further information for Explorers wanting to become Voyagers is found in the Community Handbook.
Soul Friends
The term Soul Friend reflects the ancient Irish term for Spiritual Guide, Mentor or Anamchara. Each member is responsible for selecting their own soul friend who must be approved by the Community. Community Soul Friends range from a friend of an Explorer who is a mature Christian and good listener for whom this is a new ministry, to a trained spiritual director or ordained confessor.
The Guardians
The Guardians safeguard the spirit and ethos of the Community and are its spiritual leaders. The present Guardians are Penny Warren, Graham Booth and Simon Reed (based in UK), Tim Bonney and Dave Lundhol (USA) and Torbjorg Kloster (Norway) who work with leaders and co-ordinators in other countries.
The Secretary of the Australian Caim Council is Sue Hicks.
As well the community seeks to facilitate locally and abroad:
Link Households
Apply the Way of Life as a household. More information about becoming a Community House can be
found in the Handbook.
Link Churches
Link Churches are churches who as a body adopt the Community's values and resources. More information about becoming a Link Church can be found in the Handbook.
Regional Groups
Various regional groups with regional guardians are developing and meeting throughout the UK and in some other countries. If you would like to know of the nearest group to you please contact the office at:
www.aidanandhilda.org
the Community of Aidan and Hilda
A world-wide people who journey with God, reconnecting with the Spirit and the Scriptures, the Saints and the Streets, the Seasons and the Soil
We are a dispersed body of Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and other Christians who seek to cradle a holistic Christian spirituality for today that renews the church and heals the lands. We welcome people of all backgrounds and countries who wish to be wholly available to the Holy Trinity, and to the way of Jesus as revealed to us in the Bible. In the earthing of that
commitment members draw inspiration from Celtic saints such as Aidan (Irish) and Hilda (English) and God-guided indigenous personalities.
Members follow a Way of Life, with a Soul Friend, based on a rhythm of prayer and study, simplicity, care for creation and mission; and they seek to weave together the separated strands of Christianity. The work of the Community is the work of each member. There is no ready-made community on one's doorstep. Co-unity with other members is rooted in the knowledge that they follow the Community’s Way and that this reflects their deepest calling.
The Community embraces men, women and children from all walks of life who have differing levels of commitment:
Friends
Friends are people who wish, to support the Community but do not feel able at this time to follow our Way of Life. They may have an interest in Celtic or Desert spirituality and wish to encourage the Community by their prayers and support. Friends receive the Community magazine and are welcome to join public events and retreats organised by the Community.
A person can become a Friend of the Community and receive the quarterly magazine.
Explorers
Explorers are people who are prayerfully exploring whether the Community and its Way of Life is an appropriate place for them to belong. Explorers test their vocation by living the Community Way of Life with the help of a Soul Friend. Explorers are encouraged to join in Community activities whenever possible. See pages 17-19.
Voyagers
After at least a year of living the Way of Life as an Explorer you may prayerfully apply to become a Member. In doing this you make a commitment to the Community's Way of Life by taking the First Voyage of the Coracle (first vows). Further information for Explorers wanting to become Voyagers is found in the Community Handbook.
Soul Friends
The term Soul Friend reflects the ancient Irish term for Spiritual Guide, Mentor or Anamchara. Each member is responsible for selecting their own soul friend who must be approved by the Community. Community Soul Friends range from a friend of an Explorer who is a mature Christian and good listener for whom this is a new ministry, to a trained spiritual director or ordained confessor.
The Guardians
The Guardians safeguard the spirit and ethos of the Community and are its spiritual leaders. The present Guardians are Penny Warren, Graham Booth and Simon Reed (based in UK), Tim Bonney and Dave Lundhol (USA) and Torbjorg Kloster (Norway) who work with leaders and co-ordinators in other countries.
The Secretary of the Australian Caim Council is Sue Hicks.
As well the community seeks to facilitate locally and abroad:
Link Households
Apply the Way of Life as a household. More information about becoming a Community House can be
found in the Handbook.
Link Churches
Link Churches are churches who as a body adopt the Community's values and resources. More information about becoming a Link Church can be found in the Handbook.
Regional Groups
Various regional groups with regional guardians are developing and meeting throughout the UK and in some other countries. If you would like to know of the nearest group to you please contact the office at:
www.aidanandhilda.org
This is what Ray Simpson the original Guardian and Founder of
the Community of Aidan & Hilda had to say about a visit to Canada.
CANADA, LAND OF THE MAPLE LEAF, LAND OF THE TRINITY
(A message based on a sermon preached at the outdoors altar of St. Mary’s Church, one March, in Ottawa on a Trinity Sunday)
Greetings from Lindisfarne, the Cradle of Christianity to English-speakers, to you in
the land of the Maple leaf, the land of the Trinity.
Moses advised his people to make an altar of earth, so that they would not become
pompous and disconnected from creation. May Canada re-connect with creation and
the Trinity.
I speak to you on this Trinity Sunday as founding guardian of an international
movement of Christians who seek to rediscover Christianity as a way that is life-
giving for our time, a way of life which flows out of the Trinity and restores our
fellowship with creation. The Maple Leaf, Canada’s national symbol, can become a
perpetual sacrament of this truth.
In John 16:12-15 Jesus says that all that is of God the Father is also of himself. Jesus
will no longer continue on earth in human form, but the Spirit will speak to them and
guide them. The Spirit will not be an independent source, but will communicate
whatever the Father and Jesus give to the Spirit.
At the heart of our Community of Aidan and Hilda’s way of life, which is also the
heart of Jesus’ call to the human family through his Beatitudes, are three Life-giving
principles that reflect the Trinity: Simplicity, Purity, and Obedience.
Simplicity
Being yourself, not acquiring, controlling, defending, boasting. In this simplicity we
reflect the nature of God, who is the source of our being. Moses’ god was cast in the
image of one race, he was the ‘god of our side, not theirs’, and we humans fall into
this trap across the world today. It was revealed to Moses that a truer name for the
Deity was Yahweh – Being. I Am. Is. Centuries later, when a crowd came to arrest
Jesus, he neither fled nor fought. He said ‘Here I am – Yahweh.’ Peter reacted with a
cocktail of confusion, he tried to cut off someone’s ear: Jesus, secure in his identity,
remained just as he was – I Am. Because of this, in the perception of the people, he
grew vastly in stature. They fell to their knees in awe before him. The security chief
asked him ‘Are you the person we’ve come for?’ ‘I am’ -‘Yahweh’ said Jesus. Jesus
revealed himself in the Trinity. Simplicity revealed God. When we live that simplicity
we reflect God.
Purity
Longing for God is the perfect example of purity. In Rublev’s ikon of the Trinity each
longs for the other. This is pure longing. In this longing is their oneness. Their
affections were not divided. Each longs for and loves the other. This is not an in-
turned love – only two. It is an out-turned love – three – and there is a space between
them, symbolised by the altar table. The nature of their love is to make room for the
other. You and I are being invited in. Purity leads us to live in the generous flow
Three Loves in God’s inmost being
Obedience
Listening with the heart is the perfect example of authentic obedience. There is no
subservience, just attentive listening and yielding to the other with an open heart,
knowing that the other is true, trustworthy.
Spiritual discipline, whereby we put our shouting, noisy bodies to one side, cleaning
out the rubbish, heeding that which is of God in each person, enables us to embrace
these three qualities of the Trinity
God’s humble heart
The Trinity reveals the humble heart of God. The Maple Leaf allows itself to fall to
the ground. The theologian Bonaventure concluded that the incarnation of God in
Jesus could not have happened unless God’s nature was to give oneself away, so to
speak. A woman cannot conceive and have a child without giving herself away to the
father and giving herself away in the baby. So, concludes Bonaventure, God can’t be
an isolationist Deity; God is Relationship. We believe in the Triune God.
This is not a formula to be taught like mathematics it s a wonderful mystery that alone
makes sense of our common life. Sadly, some people in the western half of the church
made the Trinity seem like a formula. The Prophet Mohammed taught that God did
not beget. We agree that God did not beget a human being being for thirty years There
was a time when a baby was not. The church teaches there was never a time when the
divine Christ was not. Within the one God is an eternal begetting and responding.
Experience the Trinity
How may the Trinity be for us not just a doctrine, but a transforming experience?
We practise becoming still. Become aware that deeper in us than the clamour of our
egos is God, communing – the Father loving the Son and the Son responding in love.
We become aware that here, and here alone, is that intimacy for which we crave.
Become aware that the Spirit arises within the Trinity through the breathing of the
Father and the Son. They breathe through our bodies, through our breathing. They
breathe through creation. Creation flows from the heart of God. We reflect the Trinity
as we become open to the Spirit, the divine breathing, the inspiration that transcends
the confining patterns of human control.
Orthodox members of our inter-denominational community know that this is called
God’s Dance (Perichoresis). And, we, as mortals made in God’s likeness, are called to
join the dance, to catch the rhythm. Sometimes people outside the church catch
something of this rhythm better than we do. In the words of the musical
Sweet Charity:
And the rhythm of life is a powerful beat
Puts a tingle in your fingers and a tingle in your feet.
Rhythm in your bedroom, Rhythm in the street
Yes, the Rhythm of Life is a powerful beat.
Catch the breathing of The Three.
Pray the Trinity
Bishop Irenaeus taught us to visualise the Trinity as a person with their hands
stretched out. Let the maple leaf also remind us of this. The body symbolises the
Father. The right arm symbolises the Saviour. The left arm symbolises the Spirit, Let
us stand now and stretch out our arms. Invite the Trinity to be flowing through you,
embracing the world in love…
Certain of us are called to be parents and to have a baby. Introduce that baby to the
Trinity from the start. In the Scottish highlands they used to have a bowl of water and
pour three drops of water on the newborn:
A little drop of your Creator on your forehead, precious one
A little drop of your Saviour on your forehead, precious one
A little drop of your Guardian Spirit on your forehead, precious one.
Strive for a society that reflects the Trinity
The world faces not only the collapse of falsely based financial systems, but the
collapse of sustainable human life on much of Planet Earth. A. I. and social media
feed our addictive prejudices and create polarisation. But Canada, whose economic
model is based on co-operation as much as competition, can model society on the
Fourth R – relationship – the ultimate nature of reality that the Trinity points to.
Canada has eschewed models based on greed. It espouses ‘Peace. Order and good
Government’. Build on that. Grow in the life of the Three: love, honour, trust, co-
operation – a way of life you will live and offer to the world.
The Way of Life of the Community of Aidan and Hilda helps us to do this. It sustains
Roots, Rhythms and Relationships. To journey with a soul friend, checking out its ten
waymarks, lays the ground work. Life-long learning, care for creation, healing what is
broken, weaving together the God-given strands that have become separated, standing
among the poor and for justice through regular practices.
Long ago Saint Patrick introduced the Trinity to Ireland through the shamrock- three
leaves, one shamrock - and that land fell in love with God. Today, let us immerse
Canada in the Trinity inspired by the maple leaf. Let a million maple leaves fall upon
the people. Let Canada lead the world in healing creation and modelling co-operative
community, Let Canada become the land of the Trinity.
To find out more read my New Celtic Monasticism for Everyday People (KM Publishing) or Simon Reed’s Followers of the Way (BRF).
Find resources on my web site
www.raysimpson.org
Link up or become an Explorer with the international community at:
www.aidanandhilda.org
the Community of Aidan & Hilda had to say about a visit to Canada.
CANADA, LAND OF THE MAPLE LEAF, LAND OF THE TRINITY
(A message based on a sermon preached at the outdoors altar of St. Mary’s Church, one March, in Ottawa on a Trinity Sunday)
Greetings from Lindisfarne, the Cradle of Christianity to English-speakers, to you in
the land of the Maple leaf, the land of the Trinity.
Moses advised his people to make an altar of earth, so that they would not become
pompous and disconnected from creation. May Canada re-connect with creation and
the Trinity.
I speak to you on this Trinity Sunday as founding guardian of an international
movement of Christians who seek to rediscover Christianity as a way that is life-
giving for our time, a way of life which flows out of the Trinity and restores our
fellowship with creation. The Maple Leaf, Canada’s national symbol, can become a
perpetual sacrament of this truth.
In John 16:12-15 Jesus says that all that is of God the Father is also of himself. Jesus
will no longer continue on earth in human form, but the Spirit will speak to them and
guide them. The Spirit will not be an independent source, but will communicate
whatever the Father and Jesus give to the Spirit.
At the heart of our Community of Aidan and Hilda’s way of life, which is also the
heart of Jesus’ call to the human family through his Beatitudes, are three Life-giving
principles that reflect the Trinity: Simplicity, Purity, and Obedience.
Simplicity
Being yourself, not acquiring, controlling, defending, boasting. In this simplicity we
reflect the nature of God, who is the source of our being. Moses’ god was cast in the
image of one race, he was the ‘god of our side, not theirs’, and we humans fall into
this trap across the world today. It was revealed to Moses that a truer name for the
Deity was Yahweh – Being. I Am. Is. Centuries later, when a crowd came to arrest
Jesus, he neither fled nor fought. He said ‘Here I am – Yahweh.’ Peter reacted with a
cocktail of confusion, he tried to cut off someone’s ear: Jesus, secure in his identity,
remained just as he was – I Am. Because of this, in the perception of the people, he
grew vastly in stature. They fell to their knees in awe before him. The security chief
asked him ‘Are you the person we’ve come for?’ ‘I am’ -‘Yahweh’ said Jesus. Jesus
revealed himself in the Trinity. Simplicity revealed God. When we live that simplicity
we reflect God.
Purity
Longing for God is the perfect example of purity. In Rublev’s ikon of the Trinity each
longs for the other. This is pure longing. In this longing is their oneness. Their
affections were not divided. Each longs for and loves the other. This is not an in-
turned love – only two. It is an out-turned love – three – and there is a space between
them, symbolised by the altar table. The nature of their love is to make room for the
other. You and I are being invited in. Purity leads us to live in the generous flow
Three Loves in God’s inmost being
Obedience
Listening with the heart is the perfect example of authentic obedience. There is no
subservience, just attentive listening and yielding to the other with an open heart,
knowing that the other is true, trustworthy.
Spiritual discipline, whereby we put our shouting, noisy bodies to one side, cleaning
out the rubbish, heeding that which is of God in each person, enables us to embrace
these three qualities of the Trinity
God’s humble heart
The Trinity reveals the humble heart of God. The Maple Leaf allows itself to fall to
the ground. The theologian Bonaventure concluded that the incarnation of God in
Jesus could not have happened unless God’s nature was to give oneself away, so to
speak. A woman cannot conceive and have a child without giving herself away to the
father and giving herself away in the baby. So, concludes Bonaventure, God can’t be
an isolationist Deity; God is Relationship. We believe in the Triune God.
This is not a formula to be taught like mathematics it s a wonderful mystery that alone
makes sense of our common life. Sadly, some people in the western half of the church
made the Trinity seem like a formula. The Prophet Mohammed taught that God did
not beget. We agree that God did not beget a human being being for thirty years There
was a time when a baby was not. The church teaches there was never a time when the
divine Christ was not. Within the one God is an eternal begetting and responding.
Experience the Trinity
How may the Trinity be for us not just a doctrine, but a transforming experience?
We practise becoming still. Become aware that deeper in us than the clamour of our
egos is God, communing – the Father loving the Son and the Son responding in love.
We become aware that here, and here alone, is that intimacy for which we crave.
Become aware that the Spirit arises within the Trinity through the breathing of the
Father and the Son. They breathe through our bodies, through our breathing. They
breathe through creation. Creation flows from the heart of God. We reflect the Trinity
as we become open to the Spirit, the divine breathing, the inspiration that transcends
the confining patterns of human control.
Orthodox members of our inter-denominational community know that this is called
God’s Dance (Perichoresis). And, we, as mortals made in God’s likeness, are called to
join the dance, to catch the rhythm. Sometimes people outside the church catch
something of this rhythm better than we do. In the words of the musical
Sweet Charity:
And the rhythm of life is a powerful beat
Puts a tingle in your fingers and a tingle in your feet.
Rhythm in your bedroom, Rhythm in the street
Yes, the Rhythm of Life is a powerful beat.
Catch the breathing of The Three.
Pray the Trinity
Bishop Irenaeus taught us to visualise the Trinity as a person with their hands
stretched out. Let the maple leaf also remind us of this. The body symbolises the
Father. The right arm symbolises the Saviour. The left arm symbolises the Spirit, Let
us stand now and stretch out our arms. Invite the Trinity to be flowing through you,
embracing the world in love…
Certain of us are called to be parents and to have a baby. Introduce that baby to the
Trinity from the start. In the Scottish highlands they used to have a bowl of water and
pour three drops of water on the newborn:
A little drop of your Creator on your forehead, precious one
A little drop of your Saviour on your forehead, precious one
A little drop of your Guardian Spirit on your forehead, precious one.
Strive for a society that reflects the Trinity
The world faces not only the collapse of falsely based financial systems, but the
collapse of sustainable human life on much of Planet Earth. A. I. and social media
feed our addictive prejudices and create polarisation. But Canada, whose economic
model is based on co-operation as much as competition, can model society on the
Fourth R – relationship – the ultimate nature of reality that the Trinity points to.
Canada has eschewed models based on greed. It espouses ‘Peace. Order and good
Government’. Build on that. Grow in the life of the Three: love, honour, trust, co-
operation – a way of life you will live and offer to the world.
The Way of Life of the Community of Aidan and Hilda helps us to do this. It sustains
Roots, Rhythms and Relationships. To journey with a soul friend, checking out its ten
waymarks, lays the ground work. Life-long learning, care for creation, healing what is
broken, weaving together the God-given strands that have become separated, standing
among the poor and for justice through regular practices.
Long ago Saint Patrick introduced the Trinity to Ireland through the shamrock- three
leaves, one shamrock - and that land fell in love with God. Today, let us immerse
Canada in the Trinity inspired by the maple leaf. Let a million maple leaves fall upon
the people. Let Canada lead the world in healing creation and modelling co-operative
community, Let Canada become the land of the Trinity.
To find out more read my New Celtic Monasticism for Everyday People (KM Publishing) or Simon Reed’s Followers of the Way (BRF).
Find resources on my web site
www.raysimpson.org
Link up or become an Explorer with the international community at:
www.aidanandhilda.org