Lockdown project becomes book

A casual interest that began as a lockdown diversion for a Church of Scotland session clerk ended up being turned into a book.

Timothy Pitt’s book Echoes of Celtic Christianity tells of his own journey into the world of the early Christians and what they can still teach us today. With photography by Graeme Clark, it was published by Handsel Press this year, and Timothy is offering it for sale through any church that wishes to buy a box, and keep the profits for their own funds.

Timothy, who is session clerk at St Stephen’s Comely Bank Church in Edinburgh, said it all started when an appeal went out for articles for the church’s newsletter during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

He said: “We needed to keep the church family together and to remind them that we were still together, despite all the traumas of lockdown. So we sent out a weekly email newsletter, and there was a call for articles.

“I’ve always been interested in history, but never really researched all that much about the Celts. But I did one article about Celtic Christianity and it got great feedback.

“So my lockdown sanity salvation was getting book after book and absolutely immersing myself in Celtic Christianity. I was dragged more and more into their culture and their landscape, and what it was like for them being early Christians. There are so many lessons that we can learn and apply from them, and I find it fascinating how we can change thousands of years, introduce modern inventions, modern ways of life – but deep down we are all the same people. “And in the end I had so much and it seemed to me there was a book in it.”

A friend put him in touch with the Rev Jock Stein, editor of Handsel Press, who offered to publish it with some changes. Timothy says: “Instead of being a third person history, it’s become more of a personal story, about how I got into Celtic Christianity and what it means to me. So it’s quite different to the original articles. “Jock said it needed some photographs and he introduced me to his friend Graeme, and I was astonished by the quality of his photographs.”

Timothy, who works as a lawyer for an offshore windfarm developer, has been an elder at St Stephen’s for 20 years and session clerk for three years, as well as co-leading the church’s holiday club and occasionally preaching.

He says it was ‘such a great moment’ when he was told the book had been allocated its ISBN number, meaning a copy has to go to the British library.

When the boxes of books arrived, he decided to sell it through the church with profits going to church funds, and then expanded the offer to the rest of the parish grouping. “I am not in this for the money,” he says. “I think it’s a great story of who the Celtic Christians were and how they relate to us today. It’s not my story – it’s a Jesus story.” The book is available in some Edinburgh bookshops, from the Handsel Press website or contact Timothy on timothypitt@me.com