Impressions of Iona

A week living with the Iona Community in Iona Abbey sounds like an ideal retreat. Romantic, spiritual, surrounded by awesome scenery amid some of the earliest Christian sites in the UK. Well, some of that turned out to be true, but quite a lot of it turned out to be a very different to expectations.
For one thing, the Iona Community does not live on Iona! I know it sounds crazy but it's true. But neither did I arrive and find the Abbey and Community buildings empty. The Abbey is run by resident staff members and volunteers, a number of whom are associate members of the Iona Community. We did however have the benefit of the wisdom of Ron, Iona Community member in residence.
The Iona Community is not an enclosed order, living in the Abbey and singing its songs to themselves. They deliberately live out in the world, mainly in the UK, some in Europe. Their focus is to follow Christ out in the world, resourced by the spiritual centre of Iona and the strong ethos of work for peace and justice that flow from the Community's founder George MacLeod.
I was booked in for one of the recurrent 'Gathering Weeks' which is designed to give guests a taste of community and introduce the spiritual and moral compass of Iona. So far from a retreat, the guests are expected to work. Some, the Otters team, are on the morning shift, setting out breakfast and serving the other guests, then washing up and helping the kitchen staff prepare the day's vegetables. The other teams were Puffins, lunch squad, and Seals, evening meal duty. The latter two teams also provided cleaning and various other maintenance tasks during the week.
However, all work stops for worship. Almost the whole resident 'community' of staff, volunteers and guests adjourn to the Abbey for 9am Morning Worship and 9pm Evening 'space'. These had a core structure which became familiar, but especially the evening services each had a distinctive theme and content which incorporated a call, a challenge, a response from God to our worship. OK, here you are expressing faith in Me, so what are you going to do about it? This is a characteristic of Iona Worship liturgy and songs which makes it stand out from so much of the worship of the rest of the Church. It is an aspect that I for one want to consider how to incorporate into the weekly worship of a local church.
Of course guests are not working the whole time. There are fun times - a ceilidh (Celtic song and dance) night, a guest concert night (deeply embarrassing, but a scream), a trip to Staffa and Fingal's Cave, plus much free time to explore the beauties and heritage of the island. There is additional spiritual input as well, in the form of the regular Pilgrimage taking in various locations of the Island's history and spiritual legacy. Optional talks described the life and purpose of the present day Iona Community.
I enjoyed my week. The accommodation was basic and my room mate snored, but my fellow guests were mainly Christians from all over the world and it was fascinating getting to know them. The meal tables rang with voices from Holland, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and Scots brogue as well as commonplace English. I was also personally challenged to consider how Iona's themes of community, and commitment to justice and peace, can enrich the life of an ordinary local church.