Norfolk priest, visionary, pioneer and writer 

Ray Simpson, former Norfolk priest, pastor, guardian, visionary, pioneer, writer, Celtic liturgist, contemplative, spiritual guide, has died and the world is the poorer for his passing, writes Rev Liz Cannon.

Ray died on September 23, but he has left a mighty legacy and impact on the countless lives he touched through his long ministry and extensive writing of some 40 books.
 
Born in Aylesbury, in March 1940 just as war broke out, Ray grew up in Woking, the middle child, with an older brother, Tony, and younger sister, Sally.
 
Responding to the call of God on his life, Ray trained for the Anglican priesthood at the London College of Divinity. He was ordained deacon in Lichfield Cathedral at Michaelmas 1964 and a year later was ordained priest.
 
It was during this time that he encountered Initiatives of Change (IofC), then known as MRA, and visited their International Conference Centre in Caux, Switzerland. He claimed that Caux opened his eyes to how the rest of the world saw the sins of British colonialism, and how it was possible to have a sense of sin, not only for oneself, but for one's country or culture.
 
Ray served curacies in Stoke on Trent and Tooting and then went to work for the Bible Society in East Anglia, a job which was about having one foot in the church and one foot outside it, Ray loved the networking, the challenge and the ecumenical nature of this work, but as time went on he felt an increasing call to become a pastor too.
 
It was then that the invitation came to go to the new neighbourhood of Bowthorpe being built on the outskirts of Norwich. He was licensed as a minister 'to establish one family of Christians for one neighbourhood'. In January 1978 during the week of Prayer for Christian unity, Ray was commissioned by the Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, Quakers and United Reformed Churches, with the Salvation Army, the Pentecostal and Community churches all represented too.
 
The six denominations later signed a Shared Church Building Agreement and became a single congregation. The Catholics and Quakers did not sign, but had close ties with the congregation and used the same building. It was a unique experiment which Ray was ideally equipped to lead, and he gave himself to this vision of a neighbourhood with the church at the heart of the community in unstinting service, vision and commitment.
 
It was here in Bowthorpe, that I first met Ray. Moving there in 1983, I discovered a Church with no building apart from a drop-in The Open Door, provided by the Diocese, which Ray and his sister lived above, as by this time Sally had moved to be with him and support him in his calling.

The Church met on Sundays in the Village Hall of the first village of Clover Hill and once a month in St Michael's school, in the second village of Chapel Break. But this was no breakaway house church; under Ray's oversight and leadership, and with his deep respect and love for the different strands and riches that the supporting denominations brought to the Christian faith and worship, this was a church embedded in what had gone before but with a flexibility and vision to go where the Holy Spirit was leading.
 
The Church was very much of the community and neighbourhood in which it served, and Ray had a real gift for listening. He took seriously the insights, dreams and convictions of those who can often get ignored when decisions are made about the direction to be taken by a church or community. Ray believed that in order for the Church to grow, Community had to be nurtured - the 'R factor'. Relationship, was always at the heart of his thinking. He also believed that work and worship go hand in hand and so the Bowthorpe Community Trust was born, comprising a Sheltered Workshop, a Retreat House and Counselling Service.
 
From his student days, Ray had discovered a gift with words and a love of writing, and had written articles for Parish magazines and pamphlets together with contributions to resources, but it was in Bowthorpe that he wrote his first book. He felt there was the need for the community to know its past and so he set about researching and writing a history of Bowthorpe. At this time he also wrote an account of establishing the church in Bowthorpe, in the Grove Booklet entitled 'How we grew an Ecumenical Project'.
 
Ray served as priest in Bowthorpe for 19 years. His was a remarkable ministry in terms of church growth and response to the call of the Spirit to adapt and change, whilst strengthening foundational traditions, which enabled the church there to stay rooted in the local community and also in the wider Christian Church. Towards the end of his time there, the conviction grew that the Celtic strand of Christianity which had such a strong influence and pull on his understanding, thinking and writing was calling him to leave his beloved Bowthorpe and move to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne and also, along with others, to develop and offer a Way or Rule of life for the Third Millennium. And thus the dispersed community of pilgrims and searchers who became the Community of St Aidan and Hilda began, and now has members across the world.
 
Ray claimed that Caux, the International Conference Centre in Switzerland, taught him: 'As I am, so is my nation, as my family is, so is the world'. Ray loved people from every part of the world and loved travelling. He visited most countries in Europe, and some in every continent except South America. As a speaker he had a special love for Australia, Norway and Ireland, most of all.
 
Ray lived on Lindisfarne until 2017 and then went to live close by on the mainland, in Berwick. There as an Anglican priest, he took services in the churches of the area wherever the need arose, and got involved with local groups, and continued to write and network internationally.
 
This last year as he grew more frail, he took the decision to move to the college of St Barnabas near East Grinstead, sheltered housing for retired clergy and church workers. In his short time there he proved to be a loving and reconciling influence, bringing his humour and generosity of spirit.
 
Ray ended his autobiography 'Monk in the Market Place' with the words: 'If some part of the way of life has sunk into the soil of humanity and added to the soul of the cosmos, I shall joyfully traverse this crossing place into the way that lasts for ever.”

In conclusion: Go joyfully Ray, I am sure your work has been planted deeply. There are many who will respond with a ‘yes’ to that.

Written by Rev Liz Cannon – friend and former colleague
 
Read our previous story about Ray.

Read Ray's own blog.
 
 Pictured above is Ray Simpson at Lindisfarne.