Could Joseph of Arimathea have founded the Celtic Christian Church?

Could Joseph of Arimathea founded or influenced the Celtic Christian Church? In the History of Christianity, we find that missionaries were first sent to evangelize Britain in the 6th century. The British historian Gildas (AD 516–570) wrote that Christianity was introduced into Britain in AD 38, during the last year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Another source is Geoffrey of Monmouth, who was Bishop Elect of St Asaph in Wales, and he states, "When Augustine came to Britain he found in the province of the Angles seven bishoprics and archbishoprics, all filled with the most devout prelates and also a great number of abbeys." The Bishop of Caesarea and father of ecclesiastical history wrote in Demonstratio Evangelica, "The Apostles passed beyond the ocean to the isles called the Britannic Isles." Saint Hilary of Poitiers (C.E. 300-376) also wrote that the Apostles had built churches and that the Gospel had passed into Britain. This claim is echoed by Saint John Chrysostom (C.E. 347-407), the Patriarch of Constantinople: “The British Isles which are beyond the sea, and which lie in the ocean, have received virtue of the Word. Churches are there found and altars erected... Though thou shouldst go to the ocean, to the British Isles, there though shouldst hear all men everywhere discoursing matters out of the scriptures, with another voice indeed, but not another faith, with a different tongue, but the same judgement.”

The recurrent problem with ancient historic sources is accuracy. The venerable Bede, the monk, is known not to be accurate as a historian, probably because he simply recorded oral histories and traditions which themselves may not have been accurate. There are a number of sources that claim that Joseph of Arimethia did travel to Britain and form a church, so we cannot dismiss the possibility entirely even though many of the details of these stories are historically inaccurate.