Ray's Blog
New Year Message From Ray Simpson
The fourth industrial revolution threatens to reduce humans to robot-users, and to reduce communities to dormitories. Western democracies are sleep-walking into a new tyranny – the untramelled power of tech giants and social media disinformation. The infra-structure of democracy hangs by a thread.
Posted at 12:48pm on 28th December 2018
Puppets - A New Chapter In A Story Of Love
When Jane Colman found the strength to relaunch a popular Christian puppet ministry that had been originally created in Bowthorpe, Norwich, by her paraplegic late husband David, it marked a new chapter in an unfolding love story, reports Good News for Norwich & Norfolk in its winter edition.
The Ecumenical Patriarch
Seven Community of Aidan and Hilda members and one friend - Anglican, Lutheran, Orthodox and an inter-faith minister- came from Norway, UK and USA to spend a week in pilgrimage in Istanbul during Advent, culminating in an hour’s audience with his All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, leader of the...
Advents, Brexits And The God Of Surprises
Advent recalls Jesus’ warnings - fault lines beneath what’s false in our personal and international set-ups will be exposed and they will collapse. That’s the bad news. The good news is that this collapse can make space for Reality to step into centre stage. The reality...
The Lost Kingdom
This week I received two communications about Saint Hilda. The first alerted me to the new Netflix series THE LOST KINGDOM. It contained just two terse words: Brexit? Hilda?
The second were these notes from a talk to a Community of Aidan and Hilda area group:
Members spent a half day learning...
Villages Of God Amid Globalisation
A pioneer minister has contacted me about Villages of God. He is writing a dissertation on this topic. He hopes to start a pioneering think tank for the Church. The end goal is a growing number of people in different areas working out how Villages of God might work.
Posted at 14:43pm on 23rd November 2018
Europe's Wound And The Space Age
This week Angela Merkel spoke of 'Europe's wound' and UK's Parliament imploded over Brexit.
This week I read Stephen Hawkin's last book: Brief Answers to the Big Questions. He thinks we are now entering a new phase of human history; that either a nuclear confrontation or environmental catastrophe will cripple the...
The War To End All Wars: Will We Ever Learn?
The Northumberland (UK) members of The Community of Aidan and Hilda met overnight at Holy Island's Open Gate to renew their vows, share their life pilgrimage stories, and break bread together. Seven members joined with the three staff for a meaningful nineteen hours. One member, Maureen, is making many poppies...
For All The Saints
The world's churches procaim 'we believe in the communion of saints' in their common creed. They believe that all Christians are called to be be saints, though some are more saintly than others.The Bible calls them 'the cloud of witnesses' (Hebrews 12:1). Celtic Christians knows them as 'the holy and...
Iona
IONA
After six hours driving and two ferries I am on Saint Columba’s ‘Iona of my love.’ . ‘A thin place where only tissue paper separates the material from the spiritual’ said George McLeod. ‘That man is little to...






