Ray Simpson was educated at Woking Grammar School for Boys, London University and London College of Divinity. He was ordained into ‘the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’ at Lichfield Cathedral, founded by Saint Chad of Lindisfarne in 669.

In 1978 he was uniquely commissioned by Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, United Reformed Churches and The Religious Society of Friends, with a Salvation Army band and ‘the right had of fellowship’ from Community and Pentecostal churches to establish ‘one family of Christians for one neighbourhood’ at Bowthorpe, Norwich, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

He is the Founding Guardian of the dispersed, international ecumenical Community of Aidan and Hilda. The CORE of CAH comprises followers of the Way from Catholic, Orthodox, Reformed and Emerging expressions of the world-wide Body of Christ and other faith communities.

He lived on England’s Holy Island of Lindisfarne for over two decades where he established the Celtic Christian Library and the Community’s retreat accommodation for pilgrims.

He has been the Community’s principal liturgist and Celtic Studies tutor, is the author over forty books on prayer, spirituality and new monasticism, and has travelled and lectured widely on three continents.