1970s
“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” Deuteronomy 4:9
We are a dispersed Christian Community scattered across the world yet united in our commitment to a daily rhythm of prayer and a common Rule of Life in saying Yes to Availability to God and others and Yes to intentional Vulnerability before God and others. Shaped on the anvil of cultural change, with more questions than answers, the Community’s origins can be traced to relationships formed in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s initially with John and Linda Skinner and Andy Raine in North Northumberland. Here God planted the seeds of vision and vocation in their hearts that bore fruit in the ideas, images, metaphors and concepts that were foundational to the ethos and spirituality of what was to become the Northumbria Community. These were often birthed and grown in the context of an Annual Easter workshop where relationship and teaching were explored. The workshops were to be “small schools of creativity… a place for sharing vision… a time of sharing and joining together as one”. This pattern (begun in 1980) has become an annual high point, underlined by the renewal of Community vows on Holy Island on Easter Sunday.
1980s
In the mid 1980’s the Nether Springs Trust was formed to release John into a ministry of spiritual direction in the context of a contemplative calling. In 1989 an apostolic group called Northumbria Ministries, committed to mission in the ancient kingdom of Northumbria, led by Roy Searle, met with the group that represented Nether Springs and explored a coming together as one. It soon became clear that a union of the two was in the purpose of God and this merger led in 1990 to “The Nether Springs Trust, Home of Northumbria Ministries”, a prelude to what would later be named the Northumbria Community.
As these founders pioneered and explored, a Community emerged around them, unplanned, spontaneous. Foundational questions, like those asked in exile, ‘Who is it that you seek?’, ‘How then shall we live?’ and ‘How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’, began to shape the thinking and understanding of God’s call on our lives alone and together.
1990s
In discovering the history and heritage of Celtic Northumbria; the strong links to the saints and scholars of Ireland, the wisdom tradition of the Desert Fathers, the ‘mixed life’ of the Franciscans, there was a blending of cell and coracle, of monastery and mission, from which the language and ethos of the Community was born and is still sustained. These core vocational values were to become a means of handing on the tradition now being formed.
The emphasis upon the cell (the contemplative place of prayer and solitude, of withdrawal and being alone before God) and the image of the coracle (with its emphasis upon the apostolic, the missional, the going out and engaging and serving the world) are key elements within the Community’s life and work.
As early pioneers in the ‘new monastic’ movement, the Community has intentionally explored the meaning of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s prophetic words: “The renewal of the church will come from a new type of monasticism, which only has in common with the old an uncompromising allegiance to the Sermon on the Mount. It is high time people banded together to do this.”
1992 – Hetton Years
The foundational lecture series entitled ‘Internal Émigrés’ held in Old Bewick church over the winter months of 1991-92 purposefully articulated the Monastic spirituality of Northumbria and our own calling to identify with the monastic tradition. Our desire was to explore ‘a new inner monasticism of the heart’ by drawing from the ancient wisdom of ‘old’ monasticism; respecting and consulting with traditional monastic values in order to live those insights outside of the cloister.
In 1992 many significant things came together. The priority of finding a place for “the Nether Springs, a residential monastic centre, and home of Northumbria Ministries” was realised, as Hetton Hall in Northumberland became the Mother House of the emerging Community. John and Linda Skinner moved from Glanton to Hetton Hall, initially living in one room while extensive building work was completed. Roy and Shirley Searle left their ministry in Sunderland and moved to nearby Wooler to work exclusively with the Community. Andy Raine moved to Holy Island as his permanent residence and a base from which to go and return for his itinerant ministry.
1994 – Hetton Years
This is when the growth explosion began as the relationship between those who had been around from the beginning, the founders and the few, provided the context for the earliest attempts to articulate vision and vocation. The publication of our in-house Northumbrian Office as Celtic Daily Prayer in 1994 made the Community known to a much wider audience and Mission Teams became a regular feature of Community life. In January 1994 Kevin and Ellen Grimley of the Vine Community in Barwell came to Hetton Hall as ‘Wardens’ for almost one year and made a significant contribution to the life of the Mother House.
1994 was also the time when Trevor and Freda Miller left their ministry in Scotland, to explore their vocation as Priors at the Nether Springs. This period of learning and training coincided with Trevor being appointed to the leadership of the Community, initially alongside John and Roy, and at the end of 1997 succeeding John as Abbot to partner Roy Searle in overall Community leadership.
1994-1996 – Hetton Years
In 1994, the name Northumbria Community was officially adopted to differentiate between the newly formed Northumbria Community Trading and Northumbria Community Trust. In 1995, the now considerable growth of people wanting to connect resulted in a fresh ‘Call to Community’. This was a significant process, devised to move the almost overwhelming responsibilities from the original founders to a wider group. At Easter 1996 this fresh call realised a YES to Community from 260 people and over the next couple of years this process went through various evolutions including the setting up of a Community Council representing the wider growing Community.
1998 – Hetton Years
In January 1998 at Bradford Cathedral John and Linda formally relinquished the responsibility they shared for the Community in order to concentrate on pioneering the European vision of the Celtic arc, a spiritual connection from Turkey to Ireland. This became an original and distinct foundation tasked with taking the spirituality that formed and established Northumbria Community into Europe as John and Linda, together with Kevin and Ellen Grimley travelled extensively throughout Europe researching this Celtic arc vision of Christian renewal in Europe.
It was also a time of division, despair, bewilderment and paralysis. George Lings comments that “the Community is notable because it has survived what is still felt by some as a painful split among founders, over divergence of vision and inability to come to common discernment about it.”
1999 – Hetton Years
In 1999, after major re-evaluation and the painful task of putting our house in order, the cry of our heart: ‘Let your tender mercies come to us that we may live again’ became a reality once more. This sustained period of focused prayer led to a greater openness and dependency upon God. This in turn led to further stability and growth as the task of ‘Building the new on foundations of old’ and ‘giving away that which is not ours to keep’ began to influence many as people began connecting through the creation and sale of our resources and publications. This was a time of renewed impetus, ‘a season of mission’ as new initiatives, partnerships, music, dance, liturgy, storytelling, creative arts, and writing began to be expressed at festivals, in groups and gatherings all carrying the DNA of the Community throughout Europe and North America.
2003 – Hetton Years
In 2003 the Community began an ongoing exploratory period of leadership development, described as ‘the most radical thing in the history of the Northumbria Community’. This involved a significant transition from leadership by the first generation to a shared leadership with following generations. This resulted in the appointment of a Senior Leadership group working alongside the Overseers with a broader representation of Community Companions through a quarterly General Chapter.
2004 – Hetton Years
In 2004 the organisation, Building Bridges of Hope (researching fresh expressions of church) asked if we would agree to be accompanied for a two-year period by a researcher. We agreed, and in a wonderful example of serendipity, George Lings of the Sheffield Centre accompanied us. He became a great gift to us and his extensive evaluation in 2005 led the way in the strategic reframing of our values and vocation in a time of ongoing change.
2007-2009 – Hetton Years
In 2007 one of the more significant happenings within the Community was a re-aligning and a re-establishing of a clearer novitiate process. As a new monastic Community, this had always been part of our life but the continued growth and development demanded a deeper understanding of our values and vocational expression for novices.
The reality for us that ‘constant change is here to stay’ was never better demonstrated when in May 2009 we received the news that owing to the economic downturn, after an 18-year tenure, our Hetton Hall lease was not going to be renewed.
2010-2011 – Hetton Years
A liturgy of blessing and thanksgiving was shared as the Lease expired on 30 November 2010. Then we became engulfed in snow, unable to move, which halted the extensive building work needed at Acton and with it, our intention of beginning with a New Year retreat. However, it was worth waiting for as in early February 2011, the new Nether Springs was open to offer heart, home and hospitality to all.
2011 – Transition and Acton Years
As 2011 began the buildings that had so recently been a building site soon became a place of welcome and home as many Companions, Friends, and visitors crossed the threshold of Nether Springs at Acton Home Farm. It was a new place, and yet somehow very familiar, a real sense of continuity, with the same people, same ethos, same heart. The rhythm of the day unfolded to the ringing of the same bell, but its sound filled a different space in what was a new and exciting chapter in our Community’s life.
Pete Askew as Overseer in Residence, exercised specific responsibility for the oversight of the Mother House, as well as directing and managing all aspects of the transition process.
Catherine Askew as Priest and Chaplain in Residence, guided the liturgical life of the Mother House, overseeing the programme of spiritual formation through retreats, mentoring, and training in the ‘new monasticism’ through the Novitiate process.
2012-2013 – Transition and Acton Years
In 2012 a new matrix for the ‘senior leadership’ network was initiated. Jeff Sutheran carried responsibility for Communications, Judith Goodfellow for Resources, with Andy Foster managing Finance and Business Development. Sarah Pillar continued to input into the life of the Community with her insight and presence being an invaluable part of the leadership team.
In 2012 a new ongoing process for our Easter Workshop was introduced, headed by Anita Haigh. This offered fresh themed resources to be used by individuals, groups and gatherings in an annual cycle of exploration, reflection and discernment for our scattered Community.
In July 2013 our new website went live and during this time we also saw a growing interest in the Community from across the world as we explored relationships with individuals and groups as far apart as Belfast and Brisbane, Toronto and Tokyo.
2014-2015 – Transition and Acton Years
In March 2014 the new Chapel opened for use and quickly became a much-loved prayer space.
In July 2014, the Community changed its legal structure to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation – a new way of being a charity developed by the Charity Commission in the UK that provided wider scope and improved safeguarding for Trustees.
In September 2015, after three years of writing, compiling and editing, coordinated by Judith Goodfellow, it was with a sense of relief and thankfulness that our new prayer book ‘Celtic Daily Prayer Book 2: Farther up and Farther In’ was published to much acclaim; an asset that both complements and adds to the riches of ‘Celtic Daily Prayer Book 1: The Journey Begins.’
The Road Ahead
What now? More of the same: always aware that ‘memories must not negate dreams, and dreams must not blot out memories’.
Memory as continuity is to honour and respect those who have gone before; the pioneers, leaders and the many unsung heroes who are all pieces of the jigsaw without which the story of any Community would be incomplete. Past, present, future is one unbroken web of life to a God who is eternal and who ‘has placed eternity in our hearts’. Psalm 102:18 ‘let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord.