1 : Mitton, Michael, Restoring the Woven Cord, Darton Longman and Todd 1995 p2  

2 : Bakke Ray and Roberts, Samuel K, The Expanded Mission of 'Old First' Churches, Judson Press, Valley Forge, PA, 1986, see chapter 1, Using History to Recover Vision.  

3 : Quoted by Bradley, Ian, Columba: Pilgrim and Penitent, Wild Goose Publications, 1996 p65  

4 : Ibid p67  

5 : Meek, Donald, Surveying the Saints: Reflections on Recent Writings on 'Celtic Christianity' Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology Vol. 15, No 1, Spring 1997 p50, 54  

6 : Ibid p74: "I wish to explore the distinctives of the Columban Church in terms of a devotional base built on prayer, psalms and poetry, a theology of praise, protection and presence, and an ecclesiology (not a word Columba and his followers would ever have dreamed of using) of penitence, provisionality and pilgrimage."  

7 : Bradley, Ian, The Celtic Way, DLT 1993 p32 "In his book, Paths in Spirituality, Professor John Macquarrie identifies the key feature of Celtic spirituality as an 'intense sense of presence'. He goes on to observe that 'the Celt was very much a God-intoxicated man, whose life was embraced on all sides by the Divine being'".  

8 : Finney, John, Recovering the Past: The Celtic and Roman Mission, DLT 1996 p6 "Their spirituality was that of those on the edge. They were groupings of Christians clinging onto faith at the edge of the known world. It is a spirituality and theology of the insecure - and we know that sounds different from that produced by the successful." Finney makes the general observation that our inherited Roman/Reformed models of church are designed as settled churches for settled communities, while the Celtic church was designed for people on the move.  

9 : Bradley p72 "An ascetic discipline prevailed and three forms of martyrdom were commended. Red Martyrdom involved enduring persecution for Christ's sake, White Martyrdom meant abandoning everything one loved for God and Green Martyrdom consisted of freeing oneself from evil desires by fasting, hard labour or physically demanding forms of prayer."  

10 : Ibid p7O  

11 : Finney p29 He tells of Columba's arrival on Iona in 563: "It was already a pagan holy place and many of the standing stones there are pre-Christian megaliths which have been baptised into Christ by having a fish or chi-ro symbol carved on them. Columba built a monastery on the site of the pagan temple."  

12 : Bradley p75 quoting David Adam.  

13 : Finney p100  

14 : Donaldson, Gordon, The Faith of the Scots, B T Batsford Ltd, London, 1990, p16.  

15 : Meek, op cit p56  

16 : Bradley p87 "It has also been interpreted as symbolising the circle of eternity, the position of Jesus as the Alpha and Omega and as the wreath and the crown of Christus Victor"  

17 : Bradley p77  

18 : Bradley pp 53-54  

19 : C.f. The current film City of Angels starring Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan and a spate of literature.  

20 : The phrase arose from comments of people who, discovering the Celtic Way of prayer, church and mission for the first time, have said, "I feel so at home with this way of being a Christian."