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 Dear Friends,
I had one of my dreams come true when I went to be part of the Iona Community for a week in June. I have used their resources for many years, and always planned to go, but never quite got to it. The impetus finally came when my friend from Canada, Marg, asked me to go with her. So it was that on 5 June, we boarded the train for Glasgow at Euston, arriving in Oban later that evening. On Saturday we went by ferry to Mull, where we boarded a bus to take us to Fionnphort. A small ferry took us over to Iona, where we were met by a van which carried our luggage to Iona Abbey where we were staying (we had to walk!). It was lovely to see people wending their way toward the Abbey along the road.
First things first: no sooner had we arrived than we were directed to the refectory for a cup of tea and shortbread, followed by a brief introduction to the week and a tour. We drew the short straw regarding rooms, as there were four of us in our tiny room, while the other rooms had only two. According to one, three of us snored!
Part of the discipline of the week was to share in the household duties. This included setting tables and clearing up after meals, chopping vegetables, cleaning toilets etc. To quote from the Iona Community website: "Staying on Iona is like making a journey with the people you meet. Our programme starts with a Welcome service, and ends with a Leaving service, and the time in between is about building community with both staff and guests."
There were two services each day, at 9 am and 9 pm. These usually lasted 15 minutes, and were attended not only by those living in the Abbey that week, but also by visitors on the island. There were plenty of good musicians there so the singing was good.
The ‘theme’ of the week was Celtic and Saxon spirituality, so we heard about St. Columba and other early Christians from Iona’s history. Learning was not just about listening to someone speak; learning also happened through readings and singing. The lifestyle in monasteries of this time was rigorous: monks would lead a penitential life, and they lived much closer to the natural world than do we. Much was also made of the humour and playfulness that appears in writings dating back to this time.(7th,8th and 9th centuries...).
We were also helped to understand a little of what the drawings in illuminated Bibles meant (i.e., The Book of Kells, the Lindisfarne Gospels). I found this particularly interesting. Again, it was pointed out to us that the monks who did these used scenes from everyday life as illustrations, and were not above making a little mischief in their work. My take on this is that we can take the Bible too seriously, and that those monks thought we needed to laugh more.
There was a healing service one evening in the Abbey, prefaced earlier in the afternoon with a talk by one of the Iona community leaders about their understanding of healing, and what they meant by a healing service.
On Tuesday of the week we had the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage around the island, when important religious spots would be pointed out. There were stops for prayers at certain points along the way. The Iona Community feeds both the spirit and the mind and it does not neglect the body: part way through the pilgrimage the van from the Abbey met us with tea and flapjacks!
On Wednesday afternoon we were offered the opportunity of a boat trip to Staffa, to see Fingal’s Cave and the puffins. Both were extraordinary. I had never seen puffins before, and was surprised at how small they are. Some of the musicians in our group played and sang in the cave, and I could understand how Mendelssohn was so inspired there.
Celtic and Saxon spirituality has at its centre all of God’s creation. The Iona Community tries to carry this forward into the world today, and describes itself as a dispersed community working for peace and social justice, rebuilding of community and the renewal of worship. Going to Iona for a week and spending time in community with a very diverse group of about 60 people was wonderful, but challenging, especially for introverts! I don’t think I have made my last trip to Iona.
Pat
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