Monk in the Marketplace

Bowthorpe Church

Ray Simpson, and the Community of St Aidan and St Hilda, of which he was one of the founders, have become one of the obvious places to look these days when considering what we can learn from and experience with Celtic spirituality. Ray has written widely and his recently published autobiography, Monk in the Marketplace, is a fascinating account of his life and ministry, but with many insights from Celtic spirituality. Though by no means the only places he has worked, a lot of the book focusses on his ministry in Bowthorpe, Norwich, and the founding of a ground-breaking ecumenical partnership there, and his subsequent ministry in and from Holy Island (Lindsifarne).

I was particularly interested in the Bowthorpe reflections, as that was part of my ‘patch’ as Moderator of the Eastern Synod of the URC, and I have preached there a few times. We also once had a great holiday on Holy Island, so reading something of the spiritual perspective of Ray and his colleagues was fascinating.

He reflects perceptively on what we need to do to be church today in a relevant way. “In a twenty-four-hour society, people relate better to seven days a week churches. In a multi-choice society people look to churches that offer facilities for a range of temperaments, cultures and ages. In the cafe society churches are eating places as well as praying places. In a visual, sound-byte age people resort to churches that use different media – poetry as well as pulpits, storytelling as well as sermons. In an age of mass travel, when people look for B&Bs and hostels that they can relate to, churches provide accommodation – in their grounds, or on their websites. They once again link up with hostel and guest house movements. In a multi-ethnic society people expect to find within the wider church services that are culturally Muslim or Sikh in style. In an orphaned society, when mentors, life coaches and growth buddies are in demand in the worlds of business, fitness and AIDS care, people seek out spiritual homes where they can find soul friends and mentors. In a packaged, pressured society, suffering from data overload and stressful bureaucracy, people make a bee line for churches where they can chill out, be themselves, have space. In a world where equality of regard is written into statutes few people under forty any longer wish to be defined by a protest movement of 450 years ago called the Reformation, but are drawn to churches that are transcending the Protestant or Catholic label.”

He is clear that we need to find space for God, and so we do. “If we never get off the treadmill of life we may become prisoners of the treadmill. Generally, I have felt drawn to pilgrim places where nobodies became somebodies because they lived for God and loved people.”

One final point of note for me was his connection with Ash Barker and Winson Green. I was minister of Winson Green URC for four years in the nineties and am fascinated by the interesting work that Ash is doing, including the church in a yurt to which Ray refers – “I also maintained contacts with Ash Barker and friends who, following years living in Bangkok slums, developed in his revolutionary new ministry at Newbigin House, Birmingham, near the prison. He leads a Fresh Expression of Church in a yurt in the garden. His wife Anji heads up the multiple activities of Newbigin Community Trust, and they oversee the School for Urban Leadership. He invited me back to give a Celtic blessing on the yurt. This was it: May each person who enters this yurt Receive from You a big spurt To fight for right and overcome wrong To laugh and dance and sing your song.”

Lesslie Newbigin, left, me, centre, and others signing an agreement between the Church of England and the United Reformed Church at Winson Green