Learning from the Celtic Saints (Mission in the Twenty first Century)

The Christian faith came to Britain as the faith of Celtic traders. There had been earlier news of the Gospel of Jesus but the Christian faith did not become embedded until the Celtic Peregrini began to travel. They travelled the sea in order to buy and sell, to listen to news from the land and to find stories of truth. They had always believed in a creator of the world and they were early adoptors to the idea that this God had become known to his creation in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. They did not perceive themselves to be owners nor controllers of that faith but as those as who lived by it and passed it on. As scruffy Christians they were traders in faith not defenders of faith.

This study day will consider the legacy of the Celtic saints as we consider mission today.

Howard Worsley is Tutor in Mission at Trinity College in Bristol and also the Vice Principal. He is a researcher into children’s spirituality and their early perceptions, a contextual theologian and an educationalist who publishes regularly for academic journals. In 2018, he circumnavigated the UK with a charitable organisation called Navigators of Faith (www.navigatorsoffaith.com), attempting to rediscover the story of the Celts who first brought Christian faith to the British Isles.

Howard previously worked as a secondary school teacher, a Scripture Union worker, an Anglican vicar, a university teacher of theology, a director of education (in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham and then in the Diocese of London) and as a chaplain.
Howard has been married to Ruth for 33 years (she is the Bishop of Taunton). They have three sons, Nathanael, Jonathan and Benjamin.