Bulletins sent through my Iona year

January 22^nd 2006

Dear Friends,

IONA BULLETIN NO. 1

Where to start?!  Perhaps like this: two conversations just over a week ago sum up, between them, my mixed feelings about being here.  On the Friday evening, the owner of the hotel in Oban where Rachel, Charlie and I stayed the night asked how long I was going to Iona for.  My tone of voice and facial expression when I replied, “Ten months” led her to remark, “It sounds like a prison sentence!” Once we had made the two ferry crossings, with the car ride across Mull in the middle, we were met, and warmly welcomed, by several members of the Iona Community.  Later in the day, one of them said to me, “You have to let your soul catch up with your body”.  I immediately replied, “I think my soul was here first!”  And so, on the one hand, I came reluctantly, conscious of leaving family and close friends behind and feeling that a Scottish island in Winter would not naturally be my first choice of destination and yet, on the other hand, I immediately felt at home and at peace here, with the interesting thought that my body had come to catch up with my soul.

I am living in ‘Shuna’ – a cottage with a history on the island, a story which I will save for another time. Its advantages include being in the village street amongst other ordinary residences, being a few minutes walk away from the Abbey, thus helping fitness levels as well as creating home/work distance, and having a bedroom with the best view (looking over the Sound to Mull) in the Community.  Amazingly, the bedroom has been allocated to myself and I love hearing, and watching the sea, and telling the time by the hourly ferry coming over from Fionnphort.  The other three residents are also in their 40’s (well, one is nearly) and we live alongside each other very well.

 

In years previous, new staff have arrived and gone straight into staff training.  A year or two ago, it was decided to allow a settling in (to home, work, the community and the island) period of a fortnight before the training began.  I, for one, am grateful!  My room is now sorted and tidied, my bank knows I have moved, I know where the Post Office is and when the post goes, I have begun to explore the island with its 3 mile length and 1 mile width.  Perhaps, most importantly, I am adjusting to the regular and daily times of worship and have begun to learn the bread and butter of my job as Sacristan – where the Communion wine is kept, how to collect the votive candle money, the importance of replacing the 7 day candles.  From tomorrow, Monday, I will be responsible for setting up the Michael Chapel for morning worship and calling the Community to prayer with the Abbey bell.  The Winter pattern is to have Morning Prayer at 9.30am Monday to Saturday and to use the service for prayers for Healing at 7.30pm on Tuesday evening and a Communion Service on Friday evening.  On Sunday, we are invited to join with other islanders, of all denominations, for worship at 11am at the Church of Scotland Parish Church and for an intimate ‘Quiet Time’ at 7.30pm which takes a turn at the Episcopal Chapel in the ‘Bishop’s House’ retreat centre, in the Roman Catholic ‘House of Prayer’ and in the Abbey’s Michael Chapel.  When the guest season begins, in the middle of March, our own worship will be in the Abbey and will follow the times and seasons appropriate to the weekly guest cycle.  Again, more of this in due course.

My space is running out and I have made no real mention of the Community – some 25 members strong: some old, some young (some in the middle); some new, some long-standing (some in the middle); some men, some women; some from the UK, some from beyond; some quiet, some noisy, some laid-back, some less laid-back, some extrovert, some introvert… in fact, a mixture of people like you get in churches, or in rural or urban communities or, in fact, anywhere…  The current people are probably the main reason why I feel comfortable on the island and have not, as yet, felt homesick – they have been very welcoming and inclusive and I already feel that I have many friends here and that I have begun several friendships that will be significant for the rest of my life.  Having read the last sentence I realise that, after a week, that is not bad going!

Iona has obviously been a special place for, probably hundreds if not thousands, people in the past and it will continue to be in the future.  For me, for this year, it is going to be very special indeed, and I thank God every day both for the gift of time to be here and for the amazing privilege of living and working on Iona.

Jacky

 

Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues,

Having left my family, my friends, my previous self and my past, and having been seduced into living on a remote Scottish island, having settled into both the idea and the actual reality of the same, I, along with the rest of the resident group was yanked back to the mainland just over a week ago.  I went reluctantly to the first part of our staff training in Glasgow because it felt like taking several steps backwards.  It was also very bewildering at first with a strong sense of being overwhelmed by noise, traffic, people, buildings…

Once I got over the culture shock, I enjoyed the time immensely!  Our four days consisted of a mixture of imbibing the historical and spiritual roots of the Iona Community, learning something of the present work of the Community in its offices in Sauchiehall Street, participating in training sessions on youthwork and child protection (new ‘rezzys’ only), meeting the Iona Committee (sub-section of the Community’s Council) in a fairly lengthy committee meeting and enjoying some time off including, for me, attending a piano recital by a former Abbey musician in St Mary’s R.C. Cathedral and going to a performance of Noel Coward’s ‘Private Lives’ at one of Glasgow’s many theatres.  Two things in particular stood out for me: Firstly, the pilgrimage on the Sunday afternoon which Kathy Galloway (present Leader of the Community) ably led and which introduced us to important religious, secular and Ionian sites in the heart of Glasgow and which culminated in experiencing the monthly worship event (called ‘Holy City’) of the Wild Goose Resource Group (WGRG) .  Secondly, listening to Anne, the Community’s oral historian, talking about the ‘hidden’ history, in particular, the stories of the ministers’ wives whose husbands formed the beginnings of the Community under the leadership of Rev. George MacLeod and the stories of the original crofters on the island who had to cope with the misunderstandings and tensions that go hand in hand with incomers settling alongside an existing native community.

It was stimulating and instructive to learn about the scope of the Iona Community’s presence and work, both past and present.  I feel about the Community much the same way as I feel about Scotland: I didn’t realise there was so much to it in terms of structure, history and experience; everything seems on the one hand familiar and comfortable and yet, on the other, unfamiliar and uncomfortable; the people who belong are very welcoming and hospitable and yet I am inevitably on the outside, an interested and curious observer. I am happy to be a temporary resident of both the Community and the country and will represent both, whilst I am here, to the extent to which I am able.

For those of my recipients who are as ignorant of the nature of the Iona Community as I was before this point, it seems to operate out of four equally important dimensions.  There is the work on Iona (at the moment only Richard, the Warden, is actually a community member though one or other members of the resident group are associates), there is the work in Glasgow (where the leadership and offices are based), there is the publishing and equipping dimension which includes the materials and activities of the Wild Goose Worship Group (also based in Glasgow) and last, but by no means least, is the life and Christian discipleship of the 250+ community members who live throughout the UK and the world and who are organised into Family Groups for mutual support and accountability.  In addition, there are somewhere in the region of 1,500 Associate Members and a similar number of Friends (who pay £27/concession £15-50 and receive the magazine ‘Coracle’ – details on the website.) I have joined the ranks of the last named! 

On a totally different note to end with, I have only just begun to appreciate one aspect of my job that I didn’t know existed before I arrived.  Prayer requests come in regularly – left in St Oran’s Chapel or the south aisle of the Abbey, phoned in or emailed – and it is my job to collect these, put them into some sort of sensible order and framework so that they can be used in the weekly Service of Healing on a Tuesday evening.  The importance and privileged nature of this was demonstrated to me by a request that came in just before we left for Glasgow, asking the Community to pray for a 3 year old in Somerset who was just undergoing a 9 hour brain operation.  We prayed for the little girl and candles were lit for her in the Abbey.  I asked the informant to keep me in text contact, which she was pleased to do.  B- is still fighting for life 10 days later.  Please say a prayer for her if you are able.

Our training period now continues back on the island.  Culture shock all over again!

With love and prayers,

Jacky

 

 

Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues,

I have been here well over a month now but it feels like several!  A job advert recently sent out says that being part of the staff is ‘not just a job but a way of life.’  This is very true – the job is one’s life and the life is one’s job.

We are three quarters of the way through the staff training period (induction into the Iona Community; resident life; health & safety; orientation to the abbey site, other religious sites and the island in general; welcome & hospitality; worship; pilgrimage all completed so far) but, for now, will record some impressions of my daily life on Iona.

The Weather

Very changeable!  It can be idyllic one minute and hailing the next – well, it feels like it sometimes!  This particular week, it has been beautiful, with blue skies, not much wind and Spring flowers coming through.  The worst weather for me is rain – the road fills up with puddles, the sloping path at the back of Shuna becomes a river, the 7 minute walk to the Abbey is sufficient to soak jeans if the all important over-trousers are not present.

The Wildlife

Those who know me well, know that I get a real buzz from digital photography.  Having captured the Ionian heron, I am now enjoying taking oystercatchers, cormorants, curlews, sheep, cattle (highland and otherwise), and ponies.  I am on the constant lookout for seals and otters.  I was not one of the fortunate people who saw a school of dolphins (30 or 40 of them) off the north end of the island the other week but, as one of those who did fell into a rock pool in his excitement taking his new camera with him, this is probably just as well.

The Food

The Abbey food is generally excellent, mainly vegetarian and very healthy.  Occasional puds but lots of fruit and yoghurt.  The meals at the week-ends at the moment are DIY and I tend to sign out for one or two other meals as well.  When feeding ourselves, we can take whatever we want from the Abbey kitchen.

The Lifestyle

The Iona Community has strong policies on using ethical and fairly traded consumables and on living a responsible corporate lifestyle.  The motto is: REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE.  I was very impacted recently when our new Domestic Co-ordinator was giving a presentation and ended by saying that we as members of resident staff should be modelling an appropriate lifestyle in our individual lives.  I decided, on the spot, that I should give up coca-cola (for reasons outlined in my email).  I gathered from Ali later that she had been affected by one of the Community members with whom she had stayed in Glasgow, who had told her that the intention is that resident staff should take on, and adhere to, the Community Rule, during the time of their employment. This involves a commitment to daily prayer and Bible reading, accounting for the use of money, accounting for the use of time, acting for justice and peace in society and meeting with others in the Iona Community family.

Island People

I love getting to know some of the other residents of the island.  There is the small group who attend the Sunday evening quiet times in the different religious locations: Joyce (an Episcopal Lay Reader), Sister Jean (who runs the Roman Catholic House of Prayer), Crawford (retired postmaster).  There are other members of the parish church congregation: Harold (who plays the organ), Joan (who moved here about 18 months ago), Liz (who works in the Finlay Ross shop).  Then there is Crawford’s daughter, Hilary, who now runs the Post Office, Mary who runs the Heritage Centre, and others I have yet to meet…

Thank you if you said a prayer for B-, the little girl whom I mentioned last time.  After her brain tumour and long operation, she is now being helped to stand and to walk and is making slow progress.  Her parents are having to come to terms with what has happened to their lively 3 year old and to face a difficult future.  However, the family is extremely appreciative of all the prayer that has been generated here at the Abbey and by the Iona Prayer Circle (an important dimension of the life of the wider Iona Community).  On a different pastoral note, I attended my first wedding here last Saturday.  The Michael Chapel hosted the minister, the couple, the bride’s young son, two of the Historic Scotland employees as witnesses, and myself watching the door. 

With love and prayers,

Jacky

March 13^th 2006                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Dear Friends,

I could start this bulletin in at least four different ways:

1.  If you had told me twelve months ago that, in a year’s time, I would be working on a fairly remote Scottish island subject to gales, lashing rain and power cuts (on a bad day!), living in community with a mixed bunch of people (mixed in gender, age, personality and country of origin), ringing the bell in an internationally known Abbey on an ancient Christian site calling people to worship, thinking that a day out on another Scottish island (Mull) is an exciting adventure into civilisation and going to sleep at night listening to the sound of sea on the rocks – I would NOT have believed you!

2.  We have been saying for 2 months now, ‘when the vollies come…’, ‘when the season starts…’, ‘when the guests are here…’ and now its upon us!  The vollies (sorry – volunteers) arrive on the 2.30 ferry tomorrow afternoon, the work week guests come on Saturday and the first proper guests the week after.  As usual, I am in a quandary over how I approach this: on the one hand it is exciting to think of everything starting up properly, it will be good to have new people around and, after all, the season is what we are here for; on the other hand, our winter routine is going to be thoroughly disturbed, lots of people are going to be ‘invading’ the island and I am going to have to get up earlier in the mornings!

3.  Well, staff training is over.  We covered community building (with Simon Villette who helped us communicate meaningfully with each other), worship (with Alison Adam whose personality made it for us), hospitality (practice easier than the theory), first aid (with Red Cross trainers who told us everything except how to deal with a broken ankle – three on the pilgrimage last year), orientation of the island, Abbey and religious sites (with a quiz at the end to check up on us – Zoe, Bec & Catherine won), the Pilgrimage (both on-road and off-road, both theory and practice), the weekly ceilidh (monthly teams have to cover demonstrating the dances – not me! – providing juice, operating the sound system and being the MC), health and safety (what you do if there’s a fire etc), ethical policies for kitchen, shop and personal lifestyle (hence my decision to give up coca cola), the weekly cycle, daily pattern and working with volunteers, and getting to know each other (the four weekly storytelling sessions were generally excellent but suffered because doing it in small groups meant that we heard some people’s stories twice and others not at all). 

4.  When I gave you the list of island people in my last bulletin, I missed out some important folk!  Like David who runs the boat to Staffa and his wife Carol, Jane who lives ‘north’, Louise who works at the Argyll hotel, John and Michelle who run the hostel at the north end, Christine and Freda who both live near Shuna, Alison who has lived here a long time. But then, we hadn’t had our Abbey social then and I hadn’t actually met them…

I had met the minister of the local Church of Scotland parish, Syd, and should have mentioned him and his wife, Edna.  Syd has pastoral responsibility for churches on Mull and Iona and comes over here every Saturday evening ready for the service on Sunday morning, travelling back to Bunessan in the afternoon.  His sermons are excellent!  Biblically based, grounded in real life, shot through with sincere faith and flavoured with humour.  I have really appreciated attending the parish church worship and am very sad that us Abbey folk will no longer be able to go because of our own main service on Sunday mornings.

I also want you to know about people special to me in the Community.  I live with Gillian, Ali and Paul (all in our 40’s though I am the oldest) – we live with, and alongside each other, very comfortably.  Each person is assigned a ‘buddy’ to provide friendship and support.  I am very fortunate in my buddy, Biddy.  Richard, her husband, is the Warden of the Community on the island and, like me, is a Methodist Minister so we can occasionally discuss things such as synods and stationing!  I am increasingly fond of their three girls Annie, Mary and Eve (8, 7 and 5½) for whom I babysat for the first time this week.  My companion for both days out and games of scrabble is Bec (really Rebecca, in her early 20’s, from Australia, visa runs out in September).  Pat (who filled me in on the community when I met her in Suffolk before I came) is very helpful and supportive; Rowena and Simon are great fun; Martin is my line manager and his wife, Nelleke (they are from the Netherlands) sympathises with me when I lose my glasses (a frequent occurrence).

No room for anything else!  Love, Jacky

April 5^th 2006                                                                                                                                                 

Dear Friends,

There have been two or three times in my 48 years when I have known in advance that my life is going to change at an exact time on a specific day.  For example, I knew that from the moment I stepped into the dining room at Wesley House in Cambridge for the opening tea of my theological training, things would never be the same again – and I was right!  I felt something of this experience on Tuesday 14^th March.  I knew, in advance, that when the ferry from Fionnphort arrived at the Iona jetty at 2.25pm, bringing with it most of the new volunteer staff, life as part of the Iona Community resident staff would change dramatically – and so it has proved.  It has not just been that our resident community has doubled (although that was change enough!), but worship switched to the Abbey from the Michael Chapel, morning services began at 9am, evening services became part of the pattern of everyday, the domestic routine of the season proper began in earnest and meetings and happenings that I knew of as part of the Community language and culture (the ‘library meeting’, ‘Centre meetings’, being ‘Abbey attached’ or ‘Mac attached’) became a concrete, experienced reality.  It did not take long for the first guests to arrive, day visitors to the Abbey to increase dramatically, and, most recently, for Historic Scotland to increase their opening hours and begin their regular tours for visitors.

Speaking of times in one’s life, I have also had experience of some places that are very special in that they seem to operate as catalysts for challenge, change and renewal – equipping people for serving God elsewhere in the world.  My example here is that of the 5 denominational ecumenical church my family used to be part of in Cambridgeshire.  Bar Hill Church seems to be a place where many people come for a time, are challenged, changed and renewed, and are then enabled and equipped to take what they have learnt into churches and Christian communities in other parts of the country.  I have come to believe that Iona is another such place.  I am not saying anything new because, for centuries, people have found the island to be a special place – an environment that impacts visitors spiritually, challenges and changes them and then sends them back to deal more effectively with their everyday lives.  It intrigues me as to whether this is because of the spiritual history of the island (Columba, Benedictines, George MacLeod and the Iona Community) or whether the island is a special place in itself and has thus attracted those wanting to develop a spiritual life in community.  Whatever is the case, the present residents of the Abbey seek to focus and to facilitate the spiritual searching that people bring with them, whether they come for a day visit, as longer stay visitors elsewhere on the island, as guests participating in the Abbey programme or as volunteers or as resident staff employed for 1, 2 or 3 years.  I know that I have experienced this challenge, change and renewal personally and am already a different person.  And I still have 7 months to go!

On a less philosophical and more practical level, I have led my first Justice and Peace service, preached my first sermon in the Abbey and presided at Communion for the first time in the same; I have had my first social occasions in the Argyll Hotel; I have had my first medical crisis (a broken tooth that had to be repaired by a very nice dentist in Oban); I have answered my first question about where the former Labour Leader, John Smith, is buried (alongside the wall at the back of St Oran’s Chapel); I have been a backmarker for the first time on the Pilgrimage; I have had my first upset with another community member and made my first blunders in arrangements in the Abbey; I have had a first experience of meeting, welcoming and settling in a new resident (Lotte, who has come to be the Abbey Programme Worker after Easter); I have welcomed my first assistant.  The last mentioned is John, who has been a volunteer here before, notably at the same time last year so he knows what he is doing.  He is very good at re-filling the many candle shells with the necessary candle oil and I am very happy to encourage this!

I have also had my first surprises: at the fact that daffodils grow on Iona like everywhere else; at the way lambs play together and can race round a field as if it is an athletics track; at the importance to myself of keeping up participation in island churchianity (by attending the Lent Group and beginning to discover a small weekly prayer group); at my appointment as half a staff rep (Gillian and I are doing a job share); at the immense pleasure involved in inviting others to light or extinguish candles or to ring the Abbey bell; at the losses that came with the changes I began this letter with – I grieved with tears when we moved out of the Michael Chapel and I still feel sad when my friends in the Resident Group who are ‘Mac attached’ are eating in the MacLeod Centre and not in the Abbey with me.

With love and prayers as we enter Holy Week and Easter – I think, and pray, for you all.   Jacky

 

April 26^th 2006                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Dear Friends,

I am continually intrigued by the dynamics of Christian worship and the ingredients that make up worship that is ‘effective’.  In one sense, we cannot judge the ‘effectiveness’ of worship because it is essentially an offering of ourselves to God and we cannot know how he receives, or judges, a particular offering on a particular occasion.  We can, however, get a sense of what works and what doesn’t in terms of the way in which we create the conditions to allow people to engage with God, to offer their worship to him and to receive from him.  These conditions include the environment of the worship, the way it is led, the quality and appropriateness of the music, the input of the talk, reflection or sermon, the community that is created (or not) by the people present, the language and form of the liturgy (whether written in a book or created in unwritten ways).

 

There is a healthy tension in the worship of the Iona Community between tradition and the specific context and leadership of the people present on any particular occasion.  There are some things that are ‘set in stone’ (an appropriate metaphor in the abbey!) and others that offer opportunity for creativity and flexibility.  The trouble comes when it is not clear which is which, and when different people have different ideas of which is which!!  These tensions and dynamics were very much focussed for me in the worship of Holy Week, which nonetheless was very ‘effective’ in the sense that it enabled participants to experience the Easter events in a powerful and meaningful way.

Those who had come as guests for the ten days of ‘Experiencing Holy Week’ were welcomed with a service on the Saturday evening which I had co-ordinated with the help of three volunteers.  Palm Sunday morning saw us handing out palm crosses that a group of people had laboured over the making of the day before.  On the Monday guests focussed on the theme of ‘Provocation’ as Mark’s Gospel describes the ‘cleansing of the temple’ as taking place on that day.  Tuesday’s theme was ‘Barrenness and Healing’ and I was glad to take a small part in the programme by leading one of the reflective workshops.  Wednesday focussed on ‘Women’ and the evening service led by Alison Adam included a vivid acting out of the story of the woman anointing Jesus and an opportunity for everyone to receive anointing on either their palm or their forehead.  On Thursday evening the last Supper was re-enacted in the community room at the MacLeod Centre and then people followed the story of Jesus’ arrest in the cloisters before coming in to the Abbey where a reciting of a Psalm was accompanied by a gradual process of extinguishing all the lights and candles, stripping the church of ornamentation and covering important items with black cloths.  On Friday, people through the village, stopping for the stations of the cross until, in the Abbey Church, the nails were heard being knocked into the cross.  Later words from the cross were heard and reflected on over an hour and a half period, and then a penitential rite in which people queued to burn their personal confession at the foot of the cross was completed with the announcement that Jesus had died and with an absolution.  A representation of Jesus’ body was carried out into St Oran’s Chapel from where, on Easter Sunday morning, the resurrection was proclaimed as the tomb was found to be empty.  In between, worship on Friday evening was dispersed over the Abbey site just as the disciples were dispersed, Saturday’s theme was ‘Waiting’ and the Easter Vigil service on Saturday evening sounded the bell at midnight, brought the light back into the abbey and welcomed in Easter Day. There was the opportunity for a dawn communion outside before the main Service in which the Abbey was full to capacity.

The whole experience was a mixture of Iona Community tradition blended with the experience and creativity of the leaders for the week (Kathy Galloway, John Bell, and Alison Adam) and the offerings of the current resident group.  I think I have discovered that the use of a particular tradition works and is appropriate, if it is owned by those on the receiving end and, if it is given new life and vitality in the contemporary situation.  It was a good Easter!        

Jacky

 

May 27^th 2006                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Dear Friends,

A day in the life of the Sacristan at Iona Abbey

My alarm goes off at 7am – well, unless I have sneaked it on a little!  I try and leave ‘Shuna’ by ten past 8 in order to be at the Abbey soon after quarter past.  If I go the road way, I get more exercise, but it takes longer; if I go across the field at the end of the village street, I risk getting muddy but can be there in 5 minutes.  The first thing to do is to get the main lights on and then check round to make sure books are tidy and everything in order.  When my assistant arrives, she will check the Quiet Chapel, empty the used votive candles and re-stock candles and matches.  The person leading Morning Worship, and any people helping them, may arrive in good time to get ready, practise with the microphones and not look flurried; on the other hand, they may arrive after the point at which I have started to think about what I am going to do if they don’t turn up!  We light the candles by 8.40am and ring the bell at 8.50: 7 X 7 X 7.  Then it’s a case of standing at the doors and in the crossing; welcoming people, directing them if necessary.   We are on duty throughout the worship, being on hand if there is a problem with the microphones, if people come in late, if someone needs help of any kind. At the end of the morning service, my assistant gets to put the candles out and to put everything back in order, I go straight to the ‘Library Meeting’, where the resident staff and representatives of departments check in about the day and get to speak to anyone else they need to. 

After the Library Meeting, I may go back to the Sacristy or I may go to the office which I share with 4 or 5 (it keeps increasing!) other people to do some work on the Justice and Peace displays in the North Transept, I may have a meeting about a service or I may do some ordering of candles or other items.  If its Monday, I have a meeting with Historic Scotland (Jane or Shona) to share diary entries and to liaise about the coming week; if its Tuesday, I may be taking my turn as a back-marker on the off road pilgrimage, or leading the on road one; if its Wednesday, I’m not there because its my day off!; if its Friday, the guests have all left and we have our ‘Centre Meeting’ (one at the Abbey and one at the MacLeod Centre) followed by bed stripping, followed by the Resident’s Meeting, which it may or may not be my turn to chair.

I make sure my assistant goes to the coffee break in the Refectory at 10.30am but I usually keep doing things and have a coffee on the run.  I may nip back to Shuna to collect something I have forgotten and have the milky coffee drink I like there.  Lunch is at 1 o’clock and this means soup and homemade bread, lots of talking to guests and, a couple of times a week, ‘chairing’ the meal: saying grace, announcing the courses, making the announcements.  Now, we are well into the season, there is a short service of prayers for Peace and Justice at 2pm aimed at the many day visitors who are in and out of the Abbey.  Either myself or my assistant staffs this, being in the Church by 1.40, putting out notices, announcing to people in the Abbey and Cloisters that the service is happening, ringing the bell (3 X 3 X 3 this time) and making sure the person leading the service is there and knows what they are doing.  At any of the services, if the worship leader fails to appear, the Sacristan is No. 1 stand in.  The service lasts 10 – 15 minutes and then, if it is a good day, I get some time off!  I will go back to ‘Shuna’, perhaps catch up with some sleep, perhaps go to the Spar Shop or the Post Office, perhaps walk by the beach, and probably take some photos!

 

On Tuesdays, I have to be back at the Abbey by 4.30 or 5pm to collect the requests for Healing prayers and then collate, categorise and type them.  On Thursdays, I have to be in the Church at 5.15 to work with guests to set up tables and benches for the evening informal Communion.  Otherwise, I go to Supper at 6pm and then, if there is no meeting or worship leading preparation, I prepare the Church for the evening service which is at 9pm.  Clearing up afterwards can take a while particularly if it is Monday (lots of props for the symbolic action in the Peace and Justice Service) or Tuesday (re-arrangement of chairs after Healing Service and people staying in the Abbey for a long time) or Thursday (Communion). If it is Monday, I go down to the weekly ceilidh that the Community holds for guests and visitors in the village hall, very occasionally I go with others to the pub or watch a DVD in the staff accommodation.  Usually, I just return to Shuna and get to bed as soon as I can!

Sundays are very very busy in the morning: before, during and after the Communion Service.  I have from mid-afternoon off, eat tea at home and, sometimes, have a game of Scrabble with my friend Bec.  Wednesdays, I have completely off, and may just chill out, may attend the small island prayer group, may go to Oban, may catch up with correspondence and admin, 9 times out of 10 have a lie in!                Jacky

A day in the life of the Sacristan at Iona Abbey: Postscript

As Sacristan, I am part of the wider Programme Team and so, on alternate Fridays, there is a Programme Meeting looking at what is happening for the next 2 weeks.  Last Friday, we had an extended get-together at the Columba Hotel in order both to get to know each other better and to make an attempt at clarifying our different roles on the team.  Being part of the Programme Team at the Abbey, I may be called on to support, or substitute for, the Abbey Programme Worker and to offer occasional sessions for the guests.  I have been extending and consolidating my knowledge of the island’s history and of the make-up of the Abbey site and now feel well equipped to talk to people about either.  A couple of weeks ago, I did some teenage friendly tours for 11 – 14 year olds staying at the MacLeod Centre and this week (tomorrow!) I am doing an Abbey exploration with the children of parents attending the Greenbelt week. 

Another part of my life here, is that I am half a staff representative (Gillian is the other half).  This means attending Management Team meetings on behalf of the resident staff and Gillian and I alternate on Thursday afternoons.  It also means occasional attendance for one of us at off-island meetings and, the week after next, I am attending the Iona Committee in Glasgow and the Iona Community Council in Edinburgh. 

The third thing I would have liked to have included in my original script is that Friday evenings are an opportunity for staff to do things together as it is a guest free night.  A few weeks ago we were treated to a boat trip round the island and we have a cheese & wine party and a quiz evening coming up.  Another staff only happening is that, often in a programmed week, there is a staff session led by the leaders of the programme for that week.  This allows us to get a flavour of what the guests are talking about because it is not often that there is the time or inclination to sit in on the normal sessions.

Enough!  Life is busy and full as you will have gathered by now!

July 12^th 2006                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Dear Friends,

Life on Iona as part of the Iona Community is a complex experience – a theme to be explored in my next bulletin!  But, here is my latest attempt to retain memories and to find order and meaning in the complexity:

Early Summer

Returning to the mainland in early June for a holiday in southern Scotland, I was suddenly surprised by colour -  vivid bushes and flowers and trees in blossom.  Iona does not really have trees and certainly none that blossom.  Nor does it have strikingly colourful Spring and early Summer flowers.  However, the island has other things that I have not experienced before – corncrakes (noisy but elusive), wading birds here for the Summer months, swallows swooping in and out of ancient buildings, amazingly clear sea water, and the rare ‘frog orchid’. The latter was seen on a Sunday afternoon wildflower walk with local knowledgeable amateur Joyce.  I have had the joy of seeing and photographing puffins on Staffa, dolphins in the Iona Sound and seals off the coast of Mull.

Visitors

The weather here continues (as it always has done!) to be changeable and unpredictable.  Bright sunshine can give way to heavy showers and vice versa.  Unfortunately, visitors have to just hope they hit one of the good patches.  When Naomi (my younger daughter) and her friend Sarah came for the week-end, we could hardly see Mull for the cloud and mist and sustained drizzly rain was the order of the day.  However, we had a wonderful time on Staffa entering Fingal’s Cave and watching puffins fly in to their cliff top nests at our feet.  The rain ceased for the exact duration of our time on the island.  When my parents came a week later, Iona looked idyllic – with blue skies, sunshine and the Sound shimmering with blue, turquoise and emerald hues.  I then welcomed Rachel (my older daughter) and Charlie (her fiancé) who were able to stay for a whole week.  They re-visited old haunts (veterans of two previous ‘student weeks’) and we were able to share in the off-road pilgrimage, other walks, worship and a superb meal at the Argyll hotel.

Mid-Season reflection

Jan Sutch-Pickard (Methodist/former Warden here) led two sessions in which we reflected on life here and the season so far.  There was under-stated emotion in the honest sharing, and not enough time to de-brief.

My job

Half way through, I feel as though I finally have a handle on what I am doing! 

My Assistants

John (older than me, had been before, cheerful and willing) was followed by Abbie (25, extrovert, lovable, we had lots of laughs) and now Lucy (22, very hard-working, responsible, amazing smile).  Each has been different, each bringing their own personality, gifts and skills to the job. 

Sacrifices

Although this 10 months is a wonderful experience, it is often challenging, difficult and exhausting!  It also demands sacrifice.  The sacrifices of sufficient sleep, time to fit in everything one needs to do, the ability to communicate sufficiently often with one’s nearest and dearest, the ability to earn decent sums of money – to  name but a few!!  There is also the sacrifice of not being able to be with important people at important times – on the day that I am writing, Rachel is receiving her 1^st class M eng degree in Computer Science and I can only think of her, Charlie, Peter and Naomi as they share this significant occasion.

Satisfactions

I have now led several programme sessions (including participative Bible Study and introducing the session on prayers for healing); I am selling lots of photo cards in the Abbey and the Community shop (for the ‘Growing Hope’ appeal); I have created a booklet with photos of the on-road pilgrimage; I am able to speak knowledgeably about the history of the Abbey; I have been able to present a 4 voice drama called ‘Women at the Riverside’ (written by Jan Sutch-Pickard and in Kathy Galloway’s book ‘Pattern of our Days’) in the Abbey with Kathy present; I am able to worship on Sunday mornings by attending the Eucharist at Bishop’s House (the Episcopalian Retreat House) before being on duty at the service at the Abbey; I hear people saying that I am far more relaxed than when I came; I have changed my half day to Saturday morning so that I can have two days in the week when I can stay in bed later than 7 am; I have kept off coca cola – all these things are satisfying and good!                                                                                      Love Jacky
 

A July day in the life of an Iona fly                                                                         IONA BULLETIN EXTRA

8.15am            Woken by the rising bell for the guests in the Abbey.  No children this week thank goodness.

8.50am            This year’s female Sacristan is letting a guest ring the bell (badly) again!

9.00am            The Abbey is nearly full for morning prayers.  I am on the lookout for Tiger and Lily (two cats who love to come to worship) but all seems clear.  Very straight down the line today, no suggestion that people who had coffee for breakfast should read alternate verses of the psalm.

9.30am            Try to get a look in at the ‘Library Meeting’ (the only point in the day when all the staff on duty are together) but they will insist on keeping the door shut with a ‘Meeting in Progress’ sign.  Most unwelcoming.

9.30am            Now have to look out for guests doing their chores too well – best to keep out of the way.

10.30am          I buzz off to the MacLeod Centre to see if the programme session is more interesting there than in the Chapter House, this can vary. 

11.30am          I have a lovely time annoying the housekeepers or the cooks (Abbey or MacLeod variety, either will do), then decide to try the assistants in the Community Shop instead – the Manager has a double-day off, so may wander upstairs and see if anything interesting is happening in either the Bursar’s or Staffing Offices.

12.00noon       The Bookings’ Secretaries have their heads together about something, can’t tell what.

12.30am          Guests are setting up lunch, for some strange reason they are referred to as ‘puffins’.

1.00pm            Delicious soup smells waft from the Refectory, I float in a sensuous haze…

1.30pm            If its Monday at the MacLeod Centre or Wednesday at the Abbey, there are guests making their way down for the boat trip to Staffa.  I’m not attracted either by Fingal’s Cave or the real-life birds with colourful beaks. 

1.50pm            The Sacristan’s Assistant is announcing the afternoon Justice & Peace service, the Historic Scotland tour is only just finished in the Cloisters and a choir who have arrived to give a concert are frustrated that they have to wait to get prepared…

2.30pm            It’s a beautiful day so most guests have gone for a walk but the Craft Room has got one or two occupants – not more celtic knots?  I come back to the Abbey just in time to see vollies (volunteers – ed) off duty going off for a swim at Port Ban.

3.00pm            Several members of the general public are taking advantage of the provision of afternoon teas in the Refectory.  For some reason, my presence is again unwanted but, fortunately, the General Assistants don’t have time to deal with me.  The sponge cake is delicious.

3.30pm            The Front Office is buzzing (and that’s without my contribution) with people wanting photocopying, information, stationery, the telephone answered – all at the same time. 

4.30pm            The Musician is hoping that there will be some people whose desire to experience the range of music at Iona is greater than the desire to make the most of the island in the good weather and – ah – she does seem to have a good crowd for the ‘Wee Sing’.  I’ve heard the songs before so fly outside to where the Warden is playing football with his children. 

5.30pm            The puffins have gone, now the seals are on duty for dinner.  If it’s a Tuesday, I follow the Sacristan round collecting the requests for the Healing Service, she is a bit harassed because she has left it a bit late despite last week’s resolution to start earlier…

6.00pm            Dinner at last, but the person chairing (introducing and saying Grace to the rest of us) has forgotten so the hunt is on for someone to stand in. 

7.30pm            I give the evening programme a miss and look for the popular General Assistant who does the gardening. He may be turning up something tasty.  If it’s Wednesday, I go to the concert – guests making fools of themselves and doing ‘Cinderella’ AGAIN!

8.15pm            The leader of the evening worship has left one or two things to the last minute and is trying to get things sorted out.  The Sacristan is remaining calm – this always helps – and is producing bowls of water, candles on small tables and 200 slips of paper.  The microphones are set up for the singers and instrumentalists, and the readers are coming early to practice.

9.00pm            Hope this is not a long evening service, I’m feeling a bit tired after my busy day.  And I may have to go down to the pub afterwards if I want to keep up with the vollie and resident gossip. If it’s a Monday, the ceilidh keeps both me and the dancers on our toes.

9.45pm            Split between the pub, the North End Beach where some crazy vollies are planning to spend the night, the Abbey Common Room where guests are discussing life, the universe and everything, and the Refectory where two visitors to the island are using the after service teas to find out everything they can about the Iona Community.

11.00pm          Its finally getting dark, the sea is lapping contentedly, the moon is lighting up the area behind the Abbey where I’m determined to see a corncrake, but my eyes won’t stay open…zzzz…zzz..

August 7th 2006           

Dear Friends,

I know of no other place where – in one day – I could experience the following:

• attending a high church Eucharist in an Episcopalean Retreat House 8am
• organising arrangements for Sunday morning worship in a well-known abbey, including rehearsing & overseeing guests in a not uncomplicated (I need the double negative!) Communion distribution process 10.30 – 12
• clearing up (with others) the church, chalices, left over bread etc 12 – 1.10pm
• introducing and saying grace at a lunch for 50 or more people 1.15pm
• going on a ferry, driving across an island (Mull – 35 miles but it takes an hour) to deliver two friends to a bigger ferry (no bus on Sunday afternoons) then repeating the journey back again  2.15 – 6.30pm
• attending an introductory session of a programmed week on sexuality 7.30 – 8.40 pm
• leading a Quiet Service in an ancient abbey  9.00 – 9.25pm
• attending a leaving ritual for 4 volunteers in the grounds of a ruined nunnery  9.30ish – 10.20ish
• finishing with a leaving party in a flat for one resident group member  10.30ish
• braving the journey home in the dark avoiding the frequent frogs on the path!  11.30pm

Although this amount of activity in one day is unusual even for Iona, it is nevertheless the case that one can have more intense experiences in a week here than in a month of normal life.  Well, it sometimes seems that way!  Being part of the resident Iona Community involves both intensity and complexity – I am going to separate out the main strands of life here that weave together to make a rich tapestry of existence:

The Job

I have written about my job before – each person’s role takes up a good part of each day, we give thanks for one whole day and one half day off a week.

The Resident Group

Anyone joining the Resident Group on Iona has to commit to the ‘common life’ as well as the ‘common task’ of running the centres.  This means taking turns on ceilidh and concert teams, pilgrimage and worship leadership, a commitment to attending most meals and worship, a willingness to help out with bed-stripping, toilet cleaning, washing up, whatever is necessary at any one time.  The Group manages its business in a fortnightly meeting and, on the alternate weeks, relaxes together in some organised way.  Of course, friendships are built up within this ongoing community but there are also other sub-groups including, for me, the small community living in Shuna cottage, the Management Team on which I have a job share as a staff representative and the Programme Team which I am part of as the Sacristan.

The Volunteers

The ‘vollies’ have their own life and relationships, but it has been great to see a good deal of integration between residents and vollies this year and happy socialising between the two.  Because the vollies are here for much shorter periods of time, they tend to live Iona at a much faster pace and residents (especially older ones like me!!) have to decide how much to try and keep up with them!  The other exhausting thing about this category is that 2, 3 or perhaps 4 vollies leave every week and there are consequent leaving services, pub last nights and waving & tears at the jetty. 

The Guests

This is a subject for another occasion but, suffice to say here, that involvement with guests over a period of 6 days (they come on a Saturday afternoon and leave on the next Friday morning) is not inconsequential.

The Islanders

This is a level of involvement I have chosen to enter into myself.  I really appreciate going to the small island prayer group most Wednesday mornings and the monthly Bible Study that I am taking the occasional turn in leading.  I now feel that my friendships on the island include Joyce (Anglican Lay Reader and part of the local craft co-operative), Joan (Roman Catholic who came to live on the island a couple of years ago with her dog Pippa) and Erica (warden of Bishop’s House). 

The wider Iona Community

Each morning and evening in worship, the person leading says that they “live and work here on behalf of the Iona Community”.  This is a big responsibility!  It also involves tensions because we are being asked to present, represent and live out the values and principles of a large group of people (around 250 members) who are dispersed, who are not on Iona (except for Richard, the Warden) and with whom we are not otherwise committed (although one or two people are Associates).  The Iona Community in its fullness has become much more real for me since attending the Iona Committee and Iona Council in June and experiencing Community Week on Iona last week (when Community members filled both centres and much of the other accommodation on the island).

Making time for, and keeping in touch with, those I love most who are outside all this I find very difficult and only hope that they can continue to forgive me and bear with me as I approach the last 3 months of this unique experience.

Jacky
 

September 3rd 2006                                                                                                                             

Dear Friends,

Last time, I promised something about guests.  I am reflecting on the fact that the season has been running for 6 months now but I have not yet written about the weekly guests or the programme for which they come.  I think this must be because, in many ways, they are incidental to my particular job and do not impact on me in the same way that the worship in the Abbey, the community life and the experience of the island does.  However, the moment has come, and not too soon! 

The Iona Community Centres Programme

When I was a child, I loved a series of Enid Blyton books about a magic faraway tree.  Each time the children climbed the tree and put their heads up the hole at the top, there was a different magical land to be experienced – and to be enjoyed or endured.  Coming back to Iona in the middle of a week after a break (which I have done twice recently) is like putting my head up a similar hole and asking “What land is it this week?”  Family Holiday Week, Gay/Lesbian Week, Youth Festival, ‘Confronting Global Conflict’, Wild Goose Worship, Gaelic language & culture: each week is different, each week is memorable, each week is self-contained and yet carries the pattern and structure that runs through every week in the season. 

Usually, the leaders of the programme are ferried in from wider parts but, sometimes, and in open weeks, the programme is led in-house.  An introductory session is held on Sunday evening and then the leaders have two sessions on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings to develop their theme.  Afternoons contain free time, ‘big’ or ‘wee’ sings, an optional trip to Staffa, drop-in craft sessions.  Evenings include in-house sessions on ‘What is the Iona Community?’, preparation for the Healing Service, a reflection session at the end of the week.  Tuesday is pilgrimage day and guests can opt for the ‘on-road’, the more adventurous ‘off-road’ or, more recently, the ‘virtual’ (see accompanying email!). 

As a member of the wider Programme Team, I occasionally lead sessions of various sorts but this is not a regular occurrence.  Staff are very lucky if they can fit in attendance at a session, I have been able to do this a few times.  What is great is that there is usually a staff session put on each week so that all staff can receive an overview of the week’s programme from that week’s leaders.  This is usually excellent.

The Guests who come for the Programme and to experience Community – Iona style

Guests are…

• people who arrive on a Saturday afternoon and leave (hopefully) on Friday morning
• split between the Abbey and the Macleod Centre – there are often different programmes in each and the latter is more geared for children, teenagers and families
• usually delightful, often interesting, sometimes annoying and, very very occasionally, difficult
• generally very satisfied with their experience (they appreciate the island, love the food, think the staff work hard, come to love their chore teams)
• hard to get to know well because there are 30 or 40 of them in your centre and you probably end up sitting next to someone different at each mealtime (unless, of course, you engineer it otherwise!)
• surprised when staff sometimes don’t join in worship, meals, ceilidhs, concerts…  (it’s a bit different being here months or years rather than just one week!)
• shocked if they meet you on the mainland, “What are you doing here?  We thought you live on Iona!”

One of the most surprising things for me about the Iona Community experience is that I can feel a combination of sadness at seeing guests go at 9 o’clock on a Friday morning (they get waved off by as many staff as possible at the jetty) and relief that there is a day’s break before the next influx, but then manage to feel a surge of energy on Saturday evening when I sit down to dinner with a whole new set of people!   It reminds me of another experience from earlier in life: you are glad to get off the roller-coaster when it has whizzed round and tired you physically and emotionally but, when your children persuade you to have another go, you somehow find the energy to appreciate it all over again…

I have now been here nearly 8 months so 2 months and 11 days to go – that’s seven more weeks of guests, followed by one work week, then eleven or twelve days to unwind, de-brief, write handover notes and pack!

Love and Prayers, Jacky

September 24^th 2006                                                                                                                                  

Dear Friends,

Some people have lived on Iona all their lives.  Some people live on Iona now, having moved here in the recent or distant past.  For the rest of us who place our home somewhere in the rest of the world, Iona is a place to come and to go, to experience and then to leave behind, a place of transience and a place for transformative time out before returning to ‘normal’ life – wherever and whatever that is.  At the Bishop’s House Eucharist this morning, the visiting presiding minister was talking about the journey, or pilgrimage, to Iona that most of the congregation had made in the last week.  He talked about returning and the fact that everyone has to leave the same way that they came: a 10 minute ferry trip, an hour and more bus or car journey, a longer ferry crossing.  Unless someone has access to their own boat or helicopter, the journey in and the journey out is very similar.  What happens in the middle is up to each individual person and the reason that they have come to the island.  Day visitors have an hour or two to let Iona change them; people staying at one of the two hotels or the many B & Bs have perhaps 2 or 3 days; guests of the Iona Community or those staying at the Episcopalian Bishop’s House or the Roman Catholic House of Prayer have a week; volunteers working at the Abbey or MacLeod Centre have anywhere between 6 and 15 weeks; resident staff have a minimum of 10 months, some 1, 2 or 3 years.  Each person will come and be and go in different ways and with different degrees of success.  I have become convinced that there is a right time to arrive and a right time to depart for each person and if someone overstays their time it becomes obvious and unhelpful.  So the arriving and the departing is an integral part of being on Iona –  making a ‘good’ arrival and a ‘good’ ending is just as important as having a good experience in the middle.

My friend and companion for days out and games of Scrabble left last week and she ended very well.  She planned her departure (caused by the fact that her working visa is expiring and she has to return to Australia after some final travelling) well in advance and said her goodbyes in the right way with the right people at the right time.  She left in style, on the sailing boat Freya (hired specially for the occasion) with three of us who also had to be off the island for a time.  Then this week I said goodbye to my fourth assistant who had completed 7 weeks and who was returning to Denmark.  The comings and the goings happen all the time, but it was hard to lose Marie who has been an excellent assistant and a major bereavement to say goodbye to Bec whose home is on the other side of the world.

However, I now have a reason to visit Australia!  Being part of such an intense and international community (including staff, volunteers and guests) results in future possibilities of visiting several other countries and continents.  I have received invitations to visit Australia, Sweden (a guest was insistent that I should use her holiday home and I have since made other Swedish contacts who want me to get in touch with them in Sweden!), Canada, South Africa and Germany.  I know I could also visit people in Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands.  As I don’t even have a passport at the moment and have not been abroad since I was 20, this all opens up rather challenging horizons!

One of the reasons for going to Sweden would be to visit a pilgrimage centre which is not too far from Helena’s holiday home.  Pilgrimage is a big thing in Scandinavia and we had a very interesting week on this topic in the Abbey the week before last (including, as guests, some Scandinavian ‘Pilgrim Pastors’).  Ian Bradley, the leader of the week, is a clergyperson in St Andrew’s and, amongst other projects, he is trying to establish a ‘St Columba’s Way’ which would run from Columba’s birthplace in Ireland to the place of his ministry and death on Iona.  I was made to think that we should be making much more of the pilgrimage theme here on Iona and, indeed, in British Christianity.

The Community does have its own weekly pilgrimage around the island – more of this (and of my ‘virtual’ version) next time.  The editions of future bulletins from me on Iona are numbered, I have only seven weeks to go!  I am already preparing for my own departure, both practically and mentally, wanting my own Iona ending to be all that it can and should be. 

Jacky

October 12^th 2006                                                                                                                                                    
Dear Friends,

“The times they are a changin’”.   The afternoon Justice & Peace Service has come to an end, Historic Scotland has reverted to Winter opening hours, the Spa shop is closing 45 minutes earlier in the afternoon, I am using my heavier mac for the Autumnal rain rather than the light Summer one, the oystercatchers are once more in evidence (did they ever leave?), the swallows have deserted their nest in St Oran’s Chapel and the rasp of the corncrake is a distant memory.  The number of day visitors is declining although the ferry can still disgorge a fair number of trippers who traipse up to the Abbey before visiting the gift shops and the restaurant and make the return crossing 2 or 3 hours later.

On the subject of those who make their way to Iona:  Ian Bradley, who led the programme on Pilgrimage a few weeks ago, did a rough survey of visitors, guests and volunteers.  The former were most likely to describe themselves as tourists or holidaymakers; the guests and volunteers were more likely to describe themselves as ‘pilgrims’.  However, I know from my encounters in the Abbey that there is a significant proportion of the people who come to the island for 2 or 3 hours or for 1 or 2 nights (in the hotels, B & Bs or the hostel) who, whether they would describe it so or not, have made their journey into a pilgrimage.  My personal definition of a pilgrimage is a ‘journey with meaning’ and people come because they recognise Iona as a place of spirituality and significance; because they have promised themselves for years that they will come; because they want to remember, and pray for, a loved one; because they are seeking meaning and purpose for their lives.  I was amazed to find, when I was on holiday near Glasgow in June, that an exhibition about pilgrimage which had displays on Lourdes, Santiago de Compostela and Rome had a presentation on Iona as an equal contender.  It was not until then that I appreciated that I was living and working in a world pilgrimage site.  I continue to be amazed that Christian travellers are so often from Scandinavia, Canada or Australia and that Iona has such a high standing and reputation in these far off places.

The weekly pilgrimage that the Community organises around the island attracts people in all conditions and weathers.  I feel as though I have participated in all conditions and weathers recently!  On an off-road pilgrimage ( 6 – 7 miles of “what is sometimes boggy and difficult terrain”) recently, it rained the whole time and three bedraggled leaders amended the route to avoid the worst parts.  All the same, I had to lead one elderly lady by the hand all the way back from Columba’s Bay to stop her slipping and falling over.  I was reminded of a very wet on-road pilgrimage ( 2 – 3 miles mainly on road with a short section on track and beach) that Bec and I did earlier in the season.  As we got to the Machair it was literally hailing and the few people who had stayed with us had to huddle in hollows in the sand to try and eat our sandwiches.  On that occasion we set out with 32 pilgrims and returned with just 8!  Three or four weeks ago, Gillian and I were rotared to lead the off-road pilgrimage and the weather forecast the day before was for storms including the arrival of a certain hurricane Gordon.  After fervent discussions with guests, and issuing warnings that we might not go, we woke to blue skies and bright sunshine and it turned out to be one of the best pilgrimages I have been on.  Gordon was delayed until later in the week! The weather was also lovely last week when Frances and I were on the on-road.  The group was large and slow but receptive. Joyce, a Community member, said it was the nicest pilgrimage she had been on in 30 years!

Joyce Gunn Cairns, a Community Member and professional artist, was leading a week on art and poetry with Bashabi Fraser, a published author and poet and university lecturer.  Because the programmes in the Abbey and the Macleod Centre had been undersubscribed, all the guests and leaders were staying and eating in the Abbey last week.  This meant that, as well as Joyce and Bashabi, we had David Coleman and Mitchell Bunting (both Community Members) facilitating thinking about the use of computers and technology in churches.  It was practical as well as theoretical and we had computer projections on the walls of the Abbey for evening services.  It felt a real privilege to be able to share in both these programmes and to go to the staff sessions of both.  Only two staff turned up to the creative staff session in the Craft Room but, with Joyce and Bashabi, we created a powerful group poem (taking it in turns to write a line) that seemed to speak to our own different experiences of relationships.  I may send this later but here is another poem of my own about people coming to Iona – as pilgrims or otherwise.

Jacky

PS There was another lovely Pilgrimage day this week (after I had written the above) and I was able to join it for a while to take some final wanted photos for my ‘virtual’ pilgrimage.  Continue to watch this space!

 

November 13^th  2006                                                                                                                  

Dear Friends,

I had a postcard today from Marie, my last but one volunteer assistant.  She writes, “I hope that you are ready to leave Iona but not too ripe” ! It has been difficult to find the space to think about leaving up till now.  The last two weeks have been fairly crazy with lots of end of season things, looking back things, different things, old things again and new things.  Here is a sample!

Last Things

• Work Week was the last week of the season with guests coming at a very reduced rate to clean, build, paint, sew and mend.  They worked extremely hard and there are some great improvements around the place.
• I had the privilege of leading and presiding over the last Thursday evening Communion service in the Abbey.  Richard said a prayer of thanksgiving for the season past, guests and vollies helped us reflect on Iona as a place that changes and transforms, Lotte led people in an opportunity to place a pebble in a bowl of water to represent something each person would be taking away with them.  My pebble was for taking away ‘the ability to let go’.
• We waved the Work Week guests off at 7.10 am on November 3^rd in the dark and rain (this is the only ferry that connects with a bus on Fridays in Winter).  There was a party on Friday evening and the leaving meal for the volunteers on Sunday evening.  On the Saturday evening I set up a wax recycling factory (from hundreds of votive lights) in the common Room and around a dozen vollies, plus myself and one other resident, had a very sociable hour or so comparing techniques, telling jokes and reflecting on life in general.
• The Sunday morning service was the last in the Abbey and the last for me to organise the Communion distribution with willing helpers.  On this occasion, my three little friends, Annie, Mary and Eve Sharples, all helped and all went smoothly.
• The leaving service for the volunteers was also the last service for the season in the Abbey – this was a major occasion with lots of ritual and symbolic action.  I was last to leave the Abbey and last in at the Michael Chapel – how I wanted it to be.
• My last leadership of Morning Worship was on the Tuesday morning, the first one in the Michael Chapel. 

Looking back things

• We had our end of season reflection which included both personal and corporate reflection on the good, the bad and the challenging.  We also spent time thinking about the future of the Iona Community’s work on the island – a task given to all constituent parts of the Community during the Autumn.
• As we waved goodbye to the volunteers on the departing ferry (various members of staff doing cartwheels on the jetty and people on both jetty and boat performing Mexican Waves – other travellers bemused) we were preparing for a new influx – members of the Iona committee.  We were invited to share the business with the Committee for much of Wednesday and Thursday and, for myself and others on the Management Team, we were intensively involved for much of this time.  Gillian and I (Staff Representatives for this season) found ourselves producing four reports about different matters and speaking to them at different times and in different ways.  There was also the opportunity to speak to Committee members on a personal basis, both formally and informally, opportunities that I availed myself of appropriately (I hope!)
• As the Committee time came to an end on Thursday evening, Kathy (Galloway) led a Thanksgiving Service for the work that the staff had put in over the year.  We had the opportunity to recognise the tough things and the sacrifices, as well as the good things and the Michael Chapel resounded with the sound of heartfelt responses and with the singing – it was very moving. 
  
  Different things

• Overlapping with the Committee was the arrival of seven interview candidates who had been shortlisted for two of next season’s jobs.  They had quite long stretches of time free and, with very little open on the island now and no guests in the centres, they integrated much better than previous interviewees who had come in the season.  Between them, they helped me fill candles with oil, ring the bell, light said candles, give out items on the Chapel door and – best of all – recycle the wax in the votive lights that had collected since the last group effort mentioned above.  When I got up to wave four of them off on the early ferry on Saturday morning, my plan to return quickly to bed was thwarted when the gale force winds prevented the ferry from attempting the crossing.  I extended the hospitality of Shuna’s living room and, later in the morning, offered a final Abbey tour to help pass the time.  They eventually got off in the afternoon, to everyone’s relief.

Old things again

• It is really strange worshipping in the Michael Chapel once again, as we did at the beginning of the year.  I feel as though I have jumped into a previous time warp and yet time has moved on – with so much in between – and my Sacristan duties in this much smaller worship space are not for much longer.
• It was also weird being back in the Parish Church on Sunday.  It was Remembrance Sunday and an important occasion for islanders remembering local boys commemorated on the war memorial by Martyrs’ Bay.  Syd was excellent as always, combining serious remembrance with equally serious comments on current warfare and peace-making.
• Sunday evening was the first combined Quiet Service of the Winter, with folk from the different island Christian houses meeting together.  This one was in our own Michael Chapel and I had volunteered to leave it, thus making it the last service I have led on behalf of the Community.  

New things

• It has taken me to the end of my time to discover the story of the life and work of the couple who had Shuna cottage built at the beginning of the last century.  Alexander and Euphemia Ritchie made a unique and significant contribution to the life of the island, to guided tours around the Abbey and Nunnery, and to the revival of Celtic art in the West of Scotland.  I only now appreciate the immense privilege of living in their home of more than 40 years, with its original Ritchie metalwork on the doors, the fireplace carved with designs copied from the Abbey and the mirror frame which has the words carved into it, “Better a gude fame than a fine face”!  The book ‘Iona Celtic Art’ by E Mairi MacArthur which tells the Ritchie story is fascinating and enlightening.*

Life has calmed down a bit now although Paul is leaving tomorrow and there are more interview candidates coming this week.  I have 5 days in which to leave my job (with its handover notes) in a fit state for Aniko who takes over next year, to pack and to say my goodbyes to the people and to the island.  Hopefully, by Saturday, I will be ready to leave and not too ripe!!

Love and Best wishes,

Jacky

* If anyone is interested in finding out more about the Ritchies and their work, there is a website by a dedicated supporter at www.alexander-ritchie.co.uk

 

November 19^th  2006        

Leam Green, Coventry                                                                                                  

Dear Friends,

How does one leave a place where one has given the best part of a year of life, energy and investment?  How does one leave a space which has given the opportunity to discover, to re-assess, to sort priorities?  How does one leave an island which has become part of oneself and people which have a place forever in one’s history, personality and identity?  With a bang or with a whimper?!  I chose the latter and my last week, like the last ten months, was full of meaning and incident.  Here are some of the things that happened:

On Tuesday morning, we waved off Paul from the jetty and then returned to the Abbey for morning worship.  At 9.10am, it occurred to me to wonder who was leading the service.  At 9.15am I discovered that the person whose name was on the rota was away.  At 9.20am, I was asking Simon to ring the bell and choose two songs whilst I looked at the reading and turned up the prayers for the day.  At 9.30am I was telling people that, although I had not had to stand in at the last minute for morning worship all year, I was doing so now – on the day that I technically finished work!  People seemed to appreciate the informality of the service, appropriate to the intimate atmosphere of the Michael Chapel and the fact that all present knew each other.  On Tuesday evening, I had another new experience – I was asked to help read the names for the Intercessions at the Healing Service.  Although I have prepared the prayers every week, it has always been others who have read them.

There were more prospective residents this week and I had been asked to do the ‘informal’ interview for both the one candidate for the post of Musician and the one candidate for the post of Abbey Cook.  This was something else I had not done before, but enjoyed the experience although, as a result of the formal interviews and practical tests, appointments did not result.

Through the week, I was trying to produce photos that I had taken of guests, volunteers and residents (with their permission) in a form suitable for Lotte to use in a display she is creating in the Chapter House.  She has already transformed this important room off the cloisters and it is now a much more inviting space.  The intention is to offer attractive displays about the Community and the Iona experience.  The breakdown of my laptop some weeks ago made this exercise a demanding one but, finally, I got my photos on Lotte’s computer, my printer installed on the same, the A4 pictures printed and laminated.  They look good!

Thursday was an important day for me.  In the afternoon, I attended the Management Team for the last time – just the first part, with Shona from Historic Scotland (deputy manager), to discuss shared business.  Things that HS and I have been able to work on together have included guidelines for the use of the Abbey Church, an explanatory card for visitors to the Abbey setting out the differences between the two organisations and giving information about worship (to cut down on the number of announcements before each service), making sure appropriate information is obtained in advance from those wishing to book their own services in the church and ensuring that outside concerts, weddings and other events have access to sound amplification.   Before the evening meal, I took those residents who were able to come around the Abbey, pointing out things that have fascinated me over the year and telling anecdotes about my year as the Sacristan.  My leaving meal was very memorable.  As usual, every effort was made to make the tables, the food, the drink and the company special and appropriate to the person leaving.   For me, this meant having chicken, pavlova, sparkling grape juice and outside guests from Historic Scotland and the island prayer group that I have attended regularly.  Over coffee, several people contributed to remembering various aspects of my time on Iona and, when I was given the opportunity to make a speech, I opted for going round the room thanking each person for what I had particularly appreciated from them.  I finished with a poem (not very good poetry, but expressive of what I wanted to say!) and Richard asked me to conclude the meal with a prayer, which allowed me to thank God for the occasion and to ask God’s blessing on everyone present and on the future.  After the meal, people were invited back to the coal fire and hospitality of Shuna (hosted for me by Ali and Gillian) and, later, some of us went down to the pub (only open in the Winter on Thursday evenings, and only ever gone to by me on very special occasions!)

On Friday, I waved goodbye at the jetty to Richard, Biddy, Annie, Mary and Eve (Warden and family, now v good friends, going away for the weekend) and found myself a lone figure in the rain as the ferry took them out of sight.  Just as well I was on my own because I was surprised by a sudden burst of grief.  Dinner in the evening was DIY and Gillian, Ali and I shared the second half of a pizza which I had made for the interview candidates in Shuna earlier in the week (when there was no-one else to cook!).  We also consumed a bottle of wine given to me earlier in the season by John Bell!   The evening Communion Service was led by Jana and she had invited me to share the role of presiding.  I used a monologue to tell the story of the Last Supper from the point of view of one of the disciples – the words had been ‘given’ to me as I had walked from the Abbey to Shuna 3 days previously.  I have offered monologues in worship (memorised from my past when leading Iona style worship) on several occasions in the Abbey but this was the first one of my own and its resonances with my own situation made it very moving for me.

Saturday morning came much too quickly.  The light across the Iona Sound and on Ben More (Mull’s highest mountain, covered in snow) was absolutely stunning.  Debbie invited me to do the reading in the morning worship (readings recently have been from the book of Revelation) and so my final words in a service as an Iona Community resident were “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”  After that, it was a flurry of activity:

Receiving cards and presents, meeting Rachel and Charlie off the ferry, doing things I should have done before (clearing my work computer, finishing off signing the staff Christmas cards – volunteers as well as residents: dozens of them! –  taking away to send the petition against the replacement of Trident, now with hundreds of names, hoovering the Sacristy floor (well, Charlie did this!)), throwing my final unpacked possessions into bags and boxes, writing notes for pigeon holes (which I left behind in a carrier bag!), trying to find my mobile phone (unsuccessfully, so this is also left behind), having a DIY sandwich lunch in the refectory (with a green throw for a tablecloth – another first!), throwing all my possessions into the green van and panicking about whether it would all fit into my VW Polo the other side of the water, getting to the jetty with 5 minutes to spare, hugging everyone in the rain (one or two more than once), saying goodbye to HS manager Jane (back from holiday the evening before), boarding the ferry, insisting on going upstairs (to the displeasure of the ferry man issuing tickets!), waving in the rain to staff on the jetty in the rain, Martin and Lotte performing cartwheels in the rain (that’s commitment!), Mexican waves, going out of sight, suddenly noticing other passengers looking rather bemused…

Until my final offering,

Jacqui

P.S.  The stuff did all go into the Polo – once Charlie was in the back and things were put on top of him!

P.P.S.  Thoughts on the car journey travelling south:

• “There are so many buildings!  There must be so many people to inhabit them – and there is no way they can know each other” (on the M8 through Glasgow)
• “Did I really spend the best part of a year working for the Iona Community on Iona?  Or has it been a long dream?  A previous me would never have believed it!” (on the M6)
• “The roads go on and on!  So many junctions and choices!”  (in Coventry)
• “So much time and space to do things!”  (in Leam Green)

December 14^th 2006                                                                                                                  
Ladywell Convent
Godalming

Dear Friends,

I have now been away from Iona for just short of a month and it is 11 months to the day since I arrived on the island on a beautiful blue sky day in January.  I want to write about the strange experience that is leaving the Iona Resident Group and resuming mainland life and, to do so, using three different images and conversations with three different residents.

The first conversation was with someone with whom I was once travelling away from Iona on the ferry.  Why is it, we asked, that when you are on Iona the rest of the world seems like the moon?  But when you are away from Iona, it is Iona that is the moon?!  The second conversation was with a long-standing staff member who has seen many people come and go.  She commented that, as each person goes, water immediately runs over to fill the hole; the community re-groups and finds a new identity; life carries on.  The outgoing person is not forgotten, but is no longer part of the immediate activity and concerns of the ongoing community.  The third conversation was one in which someone reported to me the remarks of a member of the community who had recently left.  The person who had left had been on Iona for 3 years and had gone back to a different part of the country than that which they had left over 3 years before.  Yet, she had told her friend that, in some ways, it was as if she had never been away.  She had picked up mainland life again and the Iona experience was contained in a bubble – something she knew had happened on an intellectual level but a slice of life that was refusing to integrate into everyday experience.

The moon, water rushing to fill a hole, a bubble.  Away from Iona, what is going on within a remote Scottish island can seem distant, irrelevant, even alien.  I have been very conscious that the water will have rushed to fill the gap I created by leaving but, also, that there is other water that has been filling the hole in my own life caused by the absence of Iona.  Is the whole experience contained in a giant bubble?  In some ways, it is but, in other ways, there is a real sense that Iona is not, ultimately, the moon or a bubble or a waterway rushing to fill lots of holes.  Iona has changed me in many ways and has become a real and significant part of my life experience.  I think that I have had an impact (however small) on Iona and on the Community. The contribution I have made, just like the contribution made by each and every person who invests time, energy and gifts in living and working on Iona, has made a difference and will leave a lasting legacy.*  Iona will always be part of the person I now am and I hope that I will always be part of the place that is Iona.

I am writing this on retreat at a Convent in Surrey.  Such a different experience of community!  The Sisters serve their guests but do not eat with them.  There is no table laying or washing up to do.  There is silence rather than noise.  There is plenty of time and space.  Quiet wordless spirituality rather than words and action.  But, I guess, all experiences of community are valid and helpful (albeit in different ways) and we need the best theory and practice of all traditions in our troubled world.  We need silence and noise, prayer and action, worship and work, being and doing, Iona and not Iona.

Jacqui

*After I had written this, I went to the final talk at the Advent Retreat I have been attending.  The speaker has stressed over and over again the infinite worth of each of us as individuals and as beloved of God and, this morning, he said again “Each of you has something to bring to creation that only you can bring and, if you do not bring it, it will not happen!”  I thought to myself, I have just written something along those lines about Iona!

The prayer of the Iona Community, said every Wednesday on the island

O God, our Father, who gave to your servant Columba the gifts of courage, faith and cheerfulness, and sent people forth from Iona to carry the word of your gospel to every creature, grant, we pray, a like spirit to your church, even at the present time. Further in all things the purpose of our Community, that hidden things may be revealed to us, and new ways found to touch the hearts of all.  May we preserve with each other sincere charity and peace, and, if it be your holy will, grant that a place of your abiding be continued still to be a sanctuary and a light.  Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.