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coracle spring 2013 issue 4/55 FROM THE HOLY CITY: THE UNIFYING THEME OF JUSTICE, PEACE AND THE INTEGRITY OF CREATION Peter Macdonald p1 SPARKS OF THE LIGHT p2 THE IONA COMMUNITY’S 2012 ANNUAL REPORT p3 the magazine of the iona community THE GOOD SHEPHERD: REFLECTION FROM AN IONA ABBEY WELCOME SERVICE coracle Carol Dougall p26 WALK THE TALK BLESSING May God the maker bless you: Annual Repor t God who speaks words of freedom and justice, God who walks what he talks forever. Issue May God bless you, with hope. May Jesus the teacher bless you: Jesus who speaks of Good News for poor people, Jesus who talks and does the business. May Jesus bless you, with truth. May God the Holy Spirit bless you: the Holy Spirit who speaks in fire and stillness, the Holy Spirit who dances what she announces. May the Holy Spirit bless you, with joy. May you walk and talk with God who loves you forever, every step of your journey, every moment of your life. Amen Ruth Burgess, from Like Leaves to the Sun: Prayers from the Iona Community , Wild Goose Publications, 2013 Cover photo: © Martin Johnstone coracle The Iona Community, 4th Floor, Savoy House, 140 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3DH t: 0141 332 6343 f: 0141 332 1090 e: [email protected] w: http://iona.org.uk/media/coracle/ © the iona community 2013/contents © the individual contributors Work and worship, Prayer and politics, Sacred and secular … The Iona Community is: 1 coracle Peter Macdonald My attention was drawn recently to Paul Murray’s book Receptive Neil Paynter spring 2013 • An ecumenical community of men and Ecumenism and the Call to Catholic Learning (OUP), in which he describes information and women from different walks of life and from the holy different traditions in the Christian church ecumenism as ‘ a matter of the heart before it is a matter of the head; a city • Committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and From the holy city: matter of falling in love with the experienced presence and action of God in Sparks of to following where that leads, even into the the people, practices, even structures of another tradition’ . unknown • Engaged together, and with people of goodwill This sentiment lies at the core of our life in community. Many of us have across the world, in acting, reflecting and the Light the unifying found the Community to be more affirming and inclusive than our own praying for justice, peace and the integrity denominations. It has opened our eyes to the failings and false of creation ‘The Iona Community is both a • Convinced that the inclusive community we theme of justice, perspective of our own traditions and to how much we have to learn worldwide movement – with seek must be embodied in the community from one another and indeed from other religions. members and groups everywhere we practise At the Ecumenical Conference of Church Leaders held on Iona in 1984, from Malawi to Michigan, from So we share a common discipline of: Cardinal Thomas Winning advocated ‘a continual series of creative Cumbria to Cuba and from Perth, • Daily prayer and bible study peace and the Scotland to Perth, Australia – and a • Mutual accountability for our use of time experiments born of goodwill and with a vision of the future which we are movement rooted in local realities.’ and money building together’. This is precisely what we are engaged in as a • Spending time together integrity of movement and organisation in worship and protest, through (Kathy Galloway, Coracle ). • Action for justice and peace programmes and projects grounded in the whole of life – a foretaste of I always feel inspired and energised And are, together with our staff, the unity Jesus wills for his Church and for all creation. l when I think about that: Folk responsible for: creation working at what they are called to • Our islands residential centres of Iona Abbey, PRAYER the MacLeod Centre on Iona, and Camas do in their own community – Adventure Centre on the Ross of Mull. Denominational allegiances rarely figure in my conversations with Iona With the eye of a weaver everything from collecting door to And in Glasgow Community members and associate members. Recently, however, you have chosen us – door for Christian Aid to protesting • The administration of the Community conversation and communication have centred round denominational such different threads – non-violently at Faslane. ‘We all • Our work with young people concerns. Anglicans, especially women, have expressed their continuing • Our publishing house, Wild Goose Publications to be gathered into unity have our gifts,’ wrote Saint Paul. ‘We • Our association in the revitalising of worship distress at the outcome of the vote on women bishops. Roman Catholics that the world might believe. are all members of the Body.’ ‘We with the Wild Goose Resource Group have been shocked and saddened by the sexual behaviour and So may we not serve your purpose are all sparks of the Light,’ I once hypocrisy of priests and bishops and cardinals. Presbyterians grow ever The Iona Community was founded in Glasgow in unless we are open to each other; heard an Iona Community member 1938 by George MacLeod, minister, visionary and more apprehensive about possible schism as a consequence of the not care for each other say at a plenary. prophetic witness for peace, in the context of outcome of the debate on same-sex partnerships and ministry at the the poverty and despair of the Depression. Its unless we reflect your love; forthcoming Church of Scotland General Assembly. And so I think of different original task of rebuilding the monastic ruins of nor dare to love like you members, associates and Friends of Iona Abbey became a sign of hopeful rebuilding We are known as Christian sisters and brothers by our pain, a pain that is unless we are glad to accept of community in Scotland and beyond. Today, we the Community and some of their often compounded by our lack of understanding of each other’s are almost 250 Members, mostly in Britain, and the cost and joy of discipleship, work past and present: Israel 1500 Associate Members, with 1400 Friends dilemmas. Many of us struggle to remain faithful and loyal to our own as friends and followers of Jesus, Nelson, a retired substance abuse worldwide. Together and apart, ‘we follow the tradition and to be a critical voice arguing for change from within. in whose name we pray. counsellor in Alaska, campaigning light we have, and pray for more light.’ Perhaps we are suffering the effects of an ‘ecumenical winter’ as our Wild Goose Worship Group, for decent, humane housing for a Coracle is the bi-monthly magazine of the Iona respective denominations huddle in ever-closer circles whilst the vision from Present on Earth: vulnerable friend and his family; Community. Views expressed in it are not of the oikoumene , which inspires the ecumenical movement, fades like necessarily the policy of the Iona Community, but Worship Resources on the Life of Jesus, June Walker working at the the memory of summers past. Here is climate change for which we long. the Community seeks the exchange of thoughts Wild Goose Publications, grassroots, promoting and ideas as a basis for finding common ground. I caught the ecumenical bug through my first contact with the Iona www.ionabooks.com permaculture in Malawi; John Letters are welcome, but may be edited because Community in 1980 and this went viral after attending the World Council Harvey hosting meetings and SPECIAL ECUMENICAL PROGRAMME ON IONA, 2013 of space restrictions. For advertising or of Churches Assembly in 1983 in Vancouver. Lesley was there as a Church enabling folk to participate in the photography specifications, please contact the Poverty Truth Commission; Katy editor. Unsolicited material is welcome (by e- of Scotland Youth delegate and I had observer status representing the As part of the Iona Community’s 2013 Islands Programme, the mail or on disk) but cannot always be included. Student Christian Movement in Britain. It was also our honeymoon. Community is hosting a Special Ecumenical Programme for invited Owen volunteering at a foot clinic groups and others at the Abbey and MacLeod Centre, May 18-24. for the homeless in Glasgow; next copy dates: It was a life-changing experience. We returned inspired by a vision of the Reinhild Traitler working at the please contact the editor ecumenical movement, not as an exercise in ecclesiastical joinery, rather Peter Macdonald is the current Leader of the Iona Community. European Project for Interreligious contact details: as the engagement of the Gospel with the whole of life. We returned C The Iona Community, 4th Floor, Savoy House, St Martin’s Cross © David Coleman Learning in Zurich; Chris and John o deeply moved by our encounters with Christians from every continent n 140 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3DH Polhill welcoming pilgrims to their t and by their stories of faith in the midst of poverty, conflict and i t: 0141 332 6343 f: 0141 332 1090 beautiful and challenging n e: [email protected] oppression. We returned not only with songs from the World Church, u Reflection Gardens in Cannock e w: http://iona.org.uk/media/coracle/ many of which are familiar to us all now, but with an agenda: the d Wood; Ian Fraser still ‘hammering editor Neil Paynter unifying theme of justice, peace and the integrity of creation. o out theology at white heat in the fire n administration Karen Turner template design Wendy Ball, 2ND STOREY Alas, the only ecumenical nurture and growth I have experienced since of experience’ and digging his p a formatting by Neil Paynter then has been as a member of the Community.