About Ray

Ray describes himself as a Celtic New Monastic for Tomorrow's World.

He is the Founding Guardian of 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 through a Way of Life, a Rhythm of Prayer and a Network of Soul Friends. See www.aidanandhilda.org.uk; ...

He has been the principal tutor of its studies programmes,  its principal liturgist, and has travelled to over thirty countries.

He is the author of some forty books on Celtic and general spirituality, fresh expressions of church, prayer and society.  Some of these have a prophetic edge and have been translated into other languages.

Born in Aylesbury, UK,  he left the sixth form of Woking Grammar School for Boys to gain work experience  in the seaside resort of  Bognor Regis where he taught in a school, nursed in a convalescent home, sold newspapers, worked in  a factory and a Butlins holiday camp,  and managed his father's Burlington Lounge restaurant . He then studied theology at London, and philosophy at London University. He was ordained at Lichfield Cathedral (founded by St. Chad of Lindisfarne in the 7th century) into the world-wide Episcopal/Anglican Communion.  Following curacies in the industrial Potteries and in multi-racial Tooting Bec, London, where their aim was 'to build the peace of the world in the streets of London'  he worked  for the Bible Society for seven years with churches of all denominations in East Anglia, seeking to communicate the Bible to Britain's sub-cultures (including prisons)  and turn 126 overseas fund-raising auxiliaries into fit-for-purpose action groups.

Perhaps as a result of this he was invited by the churches of Norfolk to 'establish one family of Christians for one neighbourhood' at Bowthorpe, on the outskirts of Norwich, which remains one of only three UK developments which unites all socio-economic groups (except the super-rich) in one eco-friendly, holistic community. The Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Quaker, Roman Catholic and United Reformed churches commissioned him and after some years signed a Shared Church Building Agreement. He established Bowthorpe Community Trust as an even more inclusive instrument for building  God's kingdom there. To learn more about this unique 'village of God' download  his Bowthorpe_a Community's_Beginnings.pdf or visit www.bowthorpechurch.co.uk/

See also chapter 7 of his Church of the Isles: a prophetic strategy for renewal. An extract is available by clicking here.

In 1994 he was made the embryo Community of Aidan and Hilda's honorary Founding Guardian. With the discernment and blessing of three bishops he renounced stipendiary ministry and with a reduced early pension went to live on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne as a new monastic. Over two decades he established the Community's retreat, library and prayer facilities there, moving to nearby Berwick -Upon-Tweed before New Year 2018, from where he continues to inter-act with the Community's ministry of retreats, training, prayer and study, but increasingly focuses on world-wide on-line communication,

Ray has visited over forty countries in five continents and has formed deep bonds of love with a number of them.  

He has family in Norwich and Cork, Ireland.

He offers spiritual direction to guests and pilgrims to Holy Ireland.

If you would like to support  his ministry by donating a gift, then please click on the link here

To find out more read his auto-biography Monk In the Marketplace - and the Simpsons (DLT)

If you would like to visit him, tby arrangement, the B&B across the road in Church Street, Berwick Upon Tweed is www.paradeschoolguesthouse.com