coracle summer 2013/issue 4/56 THE GALGAEL TRUST: BEAUTIFUL SIMPLICITY IN AN INCREASINGLY COMPLEX WORLD Neil Harvey p7 FINDING A MEETING PLACE Jan Sutch Pickard p11 EARTHING OUR PRAYER Polly Burns the magazine of the iona community p13 DEBATING SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE coracle John Harvey p17

THEY SAID …

They said I could play in the Cloisters if I was sensible … so when it started raining I went and got my coat. That was sensible. And when the rain kept raining I took my socks off. That was sensible. It was great! It poured and poured and overflowed the gutters, and I danced and played and got very very, and probably unsensibly, wet. But it’s OK. They’re in a meeting – and they’ll be there for ages. I know there’s a drying room somewhere, so in a minute I’m going to find it and sit in it and let the steam rise all around me till I’m very sensibly dry.

Ruth Burgess Photo by David Coleman 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 David Rhodes treating the despised poor with Russell McLarty coracle 2 summer 2013 • An ecumenical community of men and honour and respect. Welcoming summer 2013 information and women from different walks of life and news from the holy different traditions in the Christian church them to the open table fellowship city • Committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and From the holy city: of his love. According them the Chance to Thrive to following where that leads, even into the status of his friendship. You are not Chance to Thrive is a five-year pilot project which unknown the ugly ones, he seems to be • Engaged together, and with people of goodwill The Cinderella Syndrome supports and mentors eight congregations in the saying, you are precious in the sight across the world, in acting, reflecting and poorest parishes of Scotland. Its aim is to help more praying for justice, peace and the integrity Something strange and terrible is happening across the nation. Opinion polls of God. The last shall be first in the local people progress grassroots community of creation reveal that people are increasingly hostile to the poor and vulnerable. Of Kingdom – and the first shall be • Convinced that the inclusive community we last. engagement … seek must be embodied in the community course there have always been folk who, out of prejudice or ignorance, have we practise blamed the poor for their own misfortune. But there’s been a sharp rise in the What was ugly in the eyes of Jesus ‘Nothing about us without us is for us.’ This saying, which was adopted by the number of people with this hostile attitude. Poverty Truth Commission set up by Faith in Community Scotland, is also a So we share a common discipline of: were the thoughts and deeds of core value of Chance to Thrive, a joint initiative of the Ministries Council and • Daily prayer and bible study The highly respected Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that many people’s the rich. We hear Jesus using hard • Mutual accountability for our use of time the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland. Millions of pounds have been attitudes are formed not just by what they experience, but by what they are words to denounce the injustice and money spent on the regeneration of our most disadvantaged communities yet so told. And a lot of people are telling the public that the poor are work-shy inflicted on the poor but, • Spending time together much of this has been provided from the top down and has failed in • Action for justice and peace scroungers who deserve a good kicking. remarkably, he never seems to seek the destruction of the wealthy. Only transforming lives where local people have little sense of ownership. Chance And are, together with our staff, Whether by millionaire politicians or the right-wing media, we are bombarded to Thrive recognises that local people are the real experts about their life responsible for: an end to their tyranny. ‘Sell all that with negative statistics and images of the poor. And no matter how Joseph situation and looks to give them a better chance to take forward their ideas • Our islands residential centres of Iona Abbey, you have and give to the poor,’ he the MacLeod Centre on Iona, and Camas Rowntree and people like Paul Morrison of the Methodist social analysis unit tells the rich young man. But he to make a difference. Adventure Centre on the Ross of Mull. produce accurate statistics, the mud of right-wing propaganda sticks. And in Glasgow says it lovingly. Each of the eight local Chance to Thrive groups has been involved in • The administration of the Community It seems that for the propaganda war by the powerful to succeed, the poor The next time we hear the ugly selecting a volunteer mentor. The mentors are people with various profes - • Our work with young people must be demonised. Portrayed as less than human. How else can the powerful sional and life experience, including a Housing Association Director, an • Our publishing house, Wild Goose Publications words of a wealthy politician justify the increasing transfer of resources from the poor to the already individual with experience in a successful community-run project, a • Our association in the revitalising of worship condemning the poor as worthless, prosperous rich, other than by convincing us that the poor are worthless and with the Wild Goose Resource Group we should recognise the Cinderella community learning and development officer, a community artist, and an undeserving? architect. Each mentor meets with their local group regularly and helps them The Iona Community was founded in Glasgow in Syndrome lived out before us. 1938 by George MacLeod, minister, visionary and Colonialism turned this process into an art form in the racial prejudice that When we read in the press that take ‘time out’ to think in more strategic ways – setting short-, medium- and prophetic witness for peace, in the context of portrayed people of colour as less valuable and less human than the whites. benefits should be hacked back longer-term goals with some ‘quick wins’. Over the past year these have the poverty and despair of the Depression. Its included: original task of rebuilding the monastic ruins of The irony was that the rich needed the poor – as a reservoir of cheap labour. even further, we should remember Iona Abbey became a sign of hopeful rebuilding And the poorer they were, the cheaper they came. In addition to the economic those benefits are one way we love G a ‘Fruit Barra’ in St Mark’s (Raploch) in Stirling, which has 10 volunteers of community in Scotland and beyond. Today, we benefits of poverty, the poor served to give the rich added status. And the our neighbour. When we hear the every Friday morning selling £1 fruit bags (with five pieces of fruit) and £1 are almost 250 Members, mostly in Britain, and same is true today. poor demonised as lazy and skivers soup bags (with vegetables, lentils and a stock cube). Also, the café has 1500 Associate Members, with 1400 Friends by the rich and powerful, we started offering a cuppa and a chat, all of which is building community spirit. worldwide. Together and apart, ‘we follow the For wealth to succeed in bestowing status on the rich, it is essential that the light we have, and pray for more light’. should remember Jesus was poor are visibly poor. There has to be a comparison. Success means not only G Generous hospitality at Tron St Mary’s in Red Road, Glasgow, where the executed for opposing such Coracle is the quarterly magazine of the Iona that the rich win in the economic and social rat race but others must lose – local congregation have opened their doors to asylum seekers, with a drop- Community. Views expressed in it are not injustice. in, English classes, a kids’ club and much more. necessarily the policy of the Iona Community, but and be seen to lose. Wealth and status are relative. When we say our prayers we the Community seeks the exchange of thoughts It’s like a nightmare version of the pantomime Cinderella. The bullying ugly G A brilliant community day event – including spud-planting – in and ideas as a basis for finding common ground. should pray for those we call the sisters (or maybe we should say ugly siblings) not only got to go to the ball, Strutherhill, where the Larkhall Chalmers congregation are creating new links poor – but also for the rich. Letters are welcome, but may be edited because they also enjoyed pouring scorn on Cinderella. Their higher status was with the local community. ‘The Community Day was amazing!’ one participant of space restrictions. For advertising or Because, as Jesus told the rich evidenced by the fact that they got to go to the ball while their little sister was said. ‘There was a real sense of joy, the sun shone all day, and it had the look of a photography specifications please contact the young man, their huge wealth is editor. Unsolicited material is welcome (by e- forced to stay at home in rags with her feet in the cinders. community taking ownership of its church, as around 400 people came along. At mail or on disk) but cannot always be included. not the way to life. one point there were over 150 people listening to Bob the puppet tell of God’s How interesting that in the fairy tale, the power and status of the siblings is next copy dates: Jesus came that we may all go to love. One elder of 47 years said he had never seen the church so busy.’ associated with grotesque ugliness. But in real life we take the opposite view. please contact the editor the ball. We find power, wealth and status attractive. We speak of the rich as ‘fabulously’ G G ‘Cinderella and her Fella’ – a local panto – in Maryhill Church, which was contact details: wealthy and of the ‘beautiful’ people living in elegant ‘stately’ homes. David Rhodes is a freelance writer who formerly great fun: ‘We thought it would be nice to give the whole community a wee taste The Iona Community, 4th Floor, Savoy House, of a pantomime, especially where people can’t afford to take their families into 140 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3DH worked in parish ministry and with the ecumenical So where does Jesus feature in this nightmare pantomime? We can safely the theatres in the town. We were offering a family ticket for ma’, pa’ and 3 kids at t: 0141 332 6343 f: 0141 332 1090 project Faith in Leeds. As part of that work he assume he never heard the story of Cinderella, but he was very definitely e: [email protected] developed his innovative ‘retreats on the streets’ to £5!’ familiar with the way she was treated by her ugly siblings. The Cinderella w: http://iona.org.uk/media/coracle/ help Christians make the vital connection between ‘Celebrating Lochee’, a tent in the park at the local gala – with brilliant Syndrome operated powerfully in first-century Palestine. G editor Neil Paynter their faith and social justice. David is the author of photos of ‘Lochee life through the decades’. This was a big draw for all ages, Karen Turner administration As today, the poor were regarded with contempt and demonised as being four books: the classic Faith in Dark Places, Advent and the church group collected local stories as a start-up for an arts project template design Wendy Ball, 2ND STOREY sinful by the rich and powerful. Despite thunderous warnings from the Old formatting by Neil Paynter Adventure, Lenten Adventure and Sparrow Story about Lochee. The follow-on was an evening story-sharing event in a hotel, a printed by Bell & Bain, Glasgow Testament prophets that the poor and vulnerable should be treated with love (www.turbulentbooks.co.uk), all based on work better venue than the church, which seems aloof and apart from the High and respect, the opposite was happening. In spades. alongside homeless and marginalised people. He is Street. And the group now have a grant to develop a film-based project Coracle is the magazine of the Iona Community, a an associate of the Iona Community. involving local people. charity registered in Scotland No: SC003794 Jesus said he had been sent by God to bring good news to the poor and, Company No: SC096243 inevitably, he was hated by the rich for doing so. Again and again we see Jesus G A great partnership in Drumchapel between the church and a boxing club. ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me’

3 coracle This has been much more than a ‘hall let’. The boxing club have taken part Brian Larkin At the time of writing, the Jeremy Thompson coracle 4 summer 2013 in open days, have painted the inside of the sanctuary and have helped to ecumenical Iona to London summer 2013 news news reduce vandalism. Cutbacks have caused 30 community projects and pilgrimage is carrying that same community buildings to close in Drumchapel over the past few years. Scotland humane message from Scotland to Restore: welcoming Drumchapel St Mark’s see this partnership as an opportunity to build Westminster. The band of walkers community. says NO to set out from Iona on Pentecost and the stranger walked to Faslane, and then on to From these examples you can see that Chance to Thrives puts life and Jeremy Thompson is Befriending Coordinator at energy before consideration of buildings so that we are sure that any Edinburgh, where they were investment in church buildings is for a clear purpose. We follow the Trident – greeted by Episcopal Bishop John Restore, a project of Birmingham Churches Together maxim: ‘First the life, then the place, then the buildings’ . Armes. Their Declaration for Peace which supports refugees and asylum seekers. Groups and Economic Justice was received from Restore have been guests at the Abbey and Over and above the mentors, Chance to Thrive is forming a pool of other YES to by MSPs at the Scottish Parliament MacLeod Centre … volunteers who are willing to support local groups in different ways. One and Edinburgh City Councillors and Joy, anger, relief, frustration, satisfaction, fear and hope are all things I have felt volunteer is totally convinced of the worth of getting involved: ‘It is the they were encouraged on the way while working as Befriending Coordinator with Restore. Jesus said that his most wonderful experience to see people gain in confidence. It has taken us a humanity by Sally Foster-Fulton, Convenor of disciples would ‘welcome the stranger’. God is passionate about justice, so at year to gain trust and we knew it would take time and didn’t want to rush it. Spring/summer 2013 has seen the the Church and Society Council of Restore we have a heart for refugees. Our aim is to show God’s love and People were very very cautious of us at first – “these people with their posh rising up of a rich diversity of anti- the Church of Scotland. They will unconditional welcome in practical ways. Our primary service is one-to-one voices”. Communities have been consulted until they are blue in the face by nuclear voices across Scotland. make acts of witness at significant befriending where volunteers stand alongside refugees and asylum seekers, consultants who parachute in and then are away. We feel gifted that local From the April weekend of protest religious sites enroute to London. G offering welcome, support and hope. Befriending can be pivotal. One refugee people have given us this trust.’ and action, when thousands filled Brian Larkin is Coordinator of the Edinburgh Peace wrote: ‘My befriender is very supportive, informative, caring and considerate. The eight local churches – Lochee Parish Church in Dundee, St Mark’s George Square and forty-seven and Justice Centre: http://peaceandjustice.org.uk Restore has enabled me to confidently integrate myself into the community. I found (Raploch & Cornton) Stirling, Larkhall Chalmers (Strutherhill) and St Mark’s people were arrested at Faslane, to www.justpeacepilgrimage.com Restore like a shelter for people who, like me, are lost in this world.’ The relationship Drumchapel, Maryhill, Tron St Mary’s (Red Road), Cranhill and Castlemilk in a tenacious group of pilgrims www.facebook.com/justpeacepilgrimage also has an impact on the volunteer: ‘I offer encouragement, have given informal Glasgow – come together on a couple of days each year to share setting out from Iona to ‘light a English tuition, help with homework and celebrate birthdays with the family. While FASLANE WITNESS – NEW DATE: experiences and to learn from each other and other community projects. series of beacons of hope for a the practical help has been really appreciated, it is the development of a kinder, gentler world’, people of all SEPTEMBER 7th, 2013, from At the same time, a three-year research project is being run in partnership relationship that is consistent, unconditional, personal and caring that has been persuasions are saying ‘No’ to member John Harvey with Carnegie UK Trust. Through the research project we hope to see how the most powerful and transformative experience, both for the befriended and for

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h place at 12 noon on Saturday, P Iona Community member Raymond Young is Chair of the Chance to Thrive Steering Group. the Scottish Parliament passed an remove people. Befrienders offer a compassionate service which is counter - September 7th, 2013 . Prayer historic resolution expressing its cultural. opposition to Trident. And in the This is an Act of Witness and There is joy when, to their credit, the Home Office grants a refugee protection We give thanks that, midst of it all the Abolition 2000 Worship as a peaceful protest and permission to remain. I remember a father of four saying that every day for amid poverty and oppression, global network of anti-nuclear against the possession, and four years he had woken up wondering: Will they send us home today, or allow people are finding a biblical faith that empowers and liberates, campaigners met in Edinburgh and intended use, of weapons of mass us to stay? … After years in limbo, people can finally start to build a new life. as they work together for grassroots change. delivered a Declaration to Faslane destruction currently held by the May your churches be centres of justice and joy, O Christ, expressing the belief that Scotland UK government – weapons which Refugees who have been given leave to remain in the UK are allowed to work. where your love is shared, will ‘lead the way to a world free of all the Churches in Scotland have However, refugee unemployment is well over 50%, much higher than the and your life made real in the world. nuclear weapons’. condemned as blasphemous and national average. About half the adults we work with are refugees with against the Gospel of Peace of permission to work, but the specific services in Birmingham to assist them From This Is the Day , Wild Goose Publications Twenty-nine MSPs, including Alex towards employment were cut in 2011. So in 2012 Restore piloted a project Salmond, supported the Scrap Jesus Christ. called ‘Equipping refugees for work’. Training sessions and mentoring Trident weekend of protest and There will be singing, prayers and relationships help folk with CVs, application forms and interview skills so that action, which brought together a speakers, including Peter they become more job-ready. One participant wrote: ‘This project has been so medley of peace activists, political Macdonald (Leader of the Iona important to me. It has given me the knowledge and the how-to for everything I parties, trade unionists and welfare Community), Sally Foster-Fulton, need to move forwards.’ And some participants have now succeeded in finding rights and anti-poverty activists. Convenor of the Church and work, which is a great achievement in the current economic climate, and The message reached 100,000 on Society Council of the Church of finding a job can be the final hurdle towards integration. Facebook in one week. And Scotland, and the Rt Rev Joe Toal, speakers on the demo were not the the local Roman Catholic Bishop. At the other end of the spectrum, I remember sitting with a man who was in usual politicians. They came from We will have a short march – and a tears. He had told the truth about the political persecution and imprisonment anti-Bedroom Tax action groups, picnic – and everyone is most he had suffered back in his native country, but the Home Office did not believe Disability Benefits rights groups, welcome. Please let local church his story. He had come to the UK expecting justice. He had no appeal options youth wings of trade unions, and groups know! left, and so the support he received as an asylum seeker was terminated. As a included Peter Macdonald (Leader ‘failed asylum seeker’ he was expected to make his way home, and no longer of the Iona Community). had any entitlement to accommodation or the meagre asylum benefits. He www.restore-uk.org ‘I was in prison and you visited me’

5 coracle became destitute. His mental PSALM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY Liz Dowler Neil Davies coracle 6 summer 2013 health, already badly affected by summer 2013 news Lord, I’m bewildered and depressed feature events, plummeted into deep by the injustice I hear about and see Food justice? depression. Once upon a time I had – day after day. I’m angry that it goes I have long worked, in my teaching and Outcasts and sinners assumed that if you were homeless on and on and on and on. What can research as an academic and in my daily you could access a hostel place, but one person do in the face of such living, for food justice. I am horrified by the Member Neil Davies works in the Probation Service in a residential setting with refused asylum seekers have no great need? I’m knackered through rising number of food banks as so many very high-risk prisoners. ‘I believe all human beings are valuable to God,’ he such rights. They are left to ‘sofa trying to address these issues and fed struggle to manage falling incomes and writes, ‘and have the possibility of redemption’ … surf’ and survive on food parcels. up that I’m powerless to make any rising prices, along with stringent benefit I came to the Probation Service in you’d be hard-pressed to pick out my two sons are now grown up Although the state casts them difference. cuts. I recognise that offering hospitality, a my fifties, having been an the offenders. These people with and I don’t as yet have any aside, we try to support refused listening ear and practical guidance are But it’s not me that needs you to Anglican vicar for nearly 25 years whom I share meals, play pool or grandchildren. The residents are asylum seekers through essential tasks for Christian folk. What intervene, it’s the marginalised in a variety of parishes in Wales darts and meet with regularly on a unreservedly appreciative of those maintaining relationships and horrifies me is that these should replace strangers, you know, the ones you and England. I left full-time one-to-one basis to help them staff who come in and spend time encouraging interaction with what was, until recently, provided by our implored us to welcome. ministry due to burnout and by a reintegrate into the community with them on these days. others to counter the downward longstanding welfare state. Instead, tortuous route began work, in are … human beings. They are spiral of depression. Group Lord, where’s your care and concern churches are increasingly being co-opted I vividly remember two 2008, as a Probation Officer at a mostly polite and compliant and, if activities for men, women and for the least of ‘these children of into sustaining, even promoting, a cashless Christmases ago … residents and hostel for some of the most you take the time to dig into their families help break the isolation. mine’? Why does a civilised society social welfare system; one which is staff sitting down together to dangerous, high-risk male past, you’ll find that they have Visits to museums, gardens, that supposedly champions the unaccountable, heavily reliant on enjoy our magnificent Christmas offenders in the country, released invariably been victims concerts and swimming do not cause of freedom for the oppressed volunteer labour and skill, and potentially dinner (provided by our back into the community on themselves, of sexual abuse, in the resolve their problems, of course, allow those who flee to our shores for demeaning and inadequate to the task. A dedicated, ex-navy chef). As we licence. By dangerous, I mean case sex offenders, or of other but they do communicate that safety to go without a roof, without a recent report in the Church Times (7th June began our meal, the bells of the murderers, sex offenders and violence. Most suffer from some there is still a place where you are bed, without a crust, in the hope that 2013) reveals a fifth of local authorities are parish church just down the road others who have committed form of mental illness or welcome, where you belong. One they’ll eventually get fed up and already channelling newly devolved ‘crisis sounded. I glanced around the violent crime, some of whom have personality disorder. asylum seeker said: ’As everyone slope off ‘home’? Where are you and fund’ money to churches, often to food gathering, and I couldn’t help made national headlines. knows, we are living in loneliness, but where is your justice, Lord? Has banks. While this shows trust in churches Often our residents feel valueless: feeling that Jesus would not have with Restore I have felt myself as part someone stolen your scales? to deliver care, it leaves them with huge My hostel in Plymouth has 19 because that is how they have been down the road with those responsibilities; there will be too few food been treated by society. The first gathered into the fold at the of the society, where I can speak, be But I know, or at least I hope, that you beds and our fundamental remit, banks in the right places with sufficient thing I do with each new resident church, but would be sitting down listened to and interact with other have seen the story unfold for every indeed the fundamental principle capacity to meet current need, and their is to offer them my hand and my to break bread with this table of people.’ individual who lies awake at night of the Probation Service, is to promotion conceals the realities of protect the public and manage first name. You would be amazed lost sheep. Worse still is when people are unable to sleep or rest because of the poverty and hunger. Teachers, pastors, the risk of these offenders. An at the astonishment this often deported. One young Afghan man, physical and emotional trauma they I believe all human beings are social workers and others should not be offender released on licence has engenders. However, I cannot who had fled Afghanistan to avoid have experienced back in their native valuable to God and have the acting as gatekeepers to people’s access to to fulfil specified conditions. These stress enough that this is not to conscription by the Taliban, was country, and the shock of exclusion possibility of redemption. When I food. conditions may include reporting excuse the often awful things they sent back as it was deemed safe for and disbelief they have encountered meet with our residents, knowing to the hostel office every two have done or to devalue their him to live in another part of that here. Consistent research evidence and people’s the often horrendous circum - hours, regular drug and alcohol victim’s suffering in any way. war-torn nation. I would like to experience show the minimum wage and stances of their upbringings, You, the tortured One, felt the brutal testing, exclusion from a Indeed, the primary objective of suggest to the Home Secretary, in state benefits are insufficient to live another sobering saying pain of their imprisonment, their designated geographical area the programme work residents whose name such decisions are decently and eat healthily however frequently comes to mind: ‘There beatings, their torture, their rape. You, (usually where the victim/s reside). undertake is focused on acquiring skilfully people budget, shop and cook. but for the grace of God go I.’ made, that she pops over to the rejected One, listen to the cries of victim empathy and an Food banks are an inappropriate and In addition, the people they Afghanistan to see how safe she those rejected today: you stand understanding of the effect that Government plans to privatise unjust solution to a big, tough, urgent associate with must be monitored feels there without the protection alongside them and offer solidarity, their offending has had on their much of the Probation Service are issue, which should be addressed by – this is particularly important of Allied forces. If we find such comfort and acceptance. victims. In some cases this is quite currently making headlines. The society as a whole and by government. We with sex offenders. The vast decisions distressing, how much cathartic for them. However for biggest concern of experienced You, the despised One, know each need sustainable livelihoods rather than majority also have to attend more traumatic is it for the offenders who are in complete probation staff is that these fearful prejudiced thought insecure poorly paid work, and a system of accredited national programmes individuals on planes returning to denial about their offending, this is changes would greatly increase that leads to mistrust and disbelief; social welfare benefits which offers dignity to address their offending. unknown futures? In most cases we not the case. For Probation staff, risk to the public – but that’s a never learn what happens to them and you know the truth.The actions, and sufficiency rather than penalties and Our residents are the pariahs of these people are the most difficult whole article in itself! G words and thoughts of us all are indebtedness. Charitable food cannot on their return. society and often the butt of to engage with. weighed in your scales. Bring justice, solve the problems of growing UK hunger periodic witch-hunts by the right- Neil Davies lives in an idyllic 200-year-old There are rarely quick and easy and we need urgent discussion of better wing media. The two questions I’m In short, I suppose my work can cottage on the edge of Dartmoor National answers for those we befriend and Lord, and please don’t let them wait ways forward. A group of Iona Community most often asked about my work best be summed up in the old Park. He has a spare double room and is happy support. They are on a long another day. Amen G members are informally discussing this issue are: ‘What are these people like?’ saying, which so resonates with to offer hospitality to members in need of journey. We remain motivated by www.restore-uk.org at present. If you are interested in and ‘How can you work with such me as a Christian: ‘Hate the sin but some time away from the stresses of 2013 the biblical teaching to welcome ‘Psalm for the 21st century’, by Jeremy Thompson, contributing to the conversation, please monsters?’ The answers are very love the sinner.’ Britain. the stranger, and pray that our God from Like Leaves to the Sun: Prayers from the Iona contact me through the Members’ book. G simple. First, if you visited the I’ll end with a parable: Invariably I of all comfort will bring justice and Community, Wild Goose Publications, Liz Dowler is a member of the Food Ethics Council: hostel and entered an informal have chosen to work over the peace. www.ionabooks.com www.foodethicscouncil.org gathering of staff and residents, Christmas and Easter holidays, as www.galgael.org

7 coracle Neil Harvey dream – we're interested in people the same aims and objectives as couple whose presence is felt in a coracle 8 summer 2013 who want to wrestle it into reality ‘Navigate Life’. Its main point of different way. Colin Macleod, summer 2013 news news and that means getting your sleeves difference is in how it is structured GalGael’s founder, died in 1995 at The GalGael Trust: beautiful rolled up and dealing with the rough and funded. ‘Journey On’ will aim to the age of 39 but both his vision as well as the smooth.’ become increasingly self-funded and character are very much alive through a strong element of social around GalGael. And then there’s So right now at GalGael we’ve got simplicity in an increasingly enterprise. Participant activity will that other MacLeod, George, who our sleeves rolled up. We’ve still be centred around traditional would have been so proud of his embarked on a series of changes forms of creativity, however a range namesake’s legacy. His presence is complex world both to our programme and also to of items will be sold in order to felt around GalGael not just how we obtain the funding for that create a degree of income for the because he would have approved, GalGael in Govan provides a safe harbour where people whose lives have been programme. battered by storms such as worklessness, depression or addiction can find skills, programme and ensure the but also through the unassuming purpose and inspiration. In GalGael workshops both boats and lives are rebuilt … Up until early 2012 GalGael ran a continuity of our services to the way in which GalGael has adopted programme called ‘Navigate Life’. community. We’ll also develop and some of the simple practices that The GalGael Trust has been working with long-term unemployed people space near the Clyde, we access This 12-week programme was grow our timber processing in were at the heart of the older in Glasgow’s southside for 15 years. 2013 brings a new programme and beautiful Scottish hardwoods described as: ‘A learning community order to produce increased income MacLeod’s vision: an open door, new challenges. through relationships with agencies rather than a training programme. A through timber sales. However, and the sharing of food, thanks - such as Historic Scotland and we GalGael. People seem very at home with the name. It slips off the tongue community of creative people who community projects and personal giving and community. But have tools and people who can turn beautifully. Visitors rarely ask what it means or why we use it. At our come together to cooperatively meet creative space will continue to be a perhaps the most striking similarity these raw materials into beautiful premises in Fairley Street we have a sign above the door which proudly some of our needs; our shared need big part of the ‘Journey On’ between these two great men is handcrafted boats and furniture. states: ‘GalGael: Est. 9th Century’ . for acceptance, to learn new skills, to programme. the belief they shared in ‘work as work, to contribute our creativity and Beautiful things happen in a space These are significant changes for worship’ . Picking up simple tools If you’re interested in the detail, then here it is. The name comes from the find friendship. Membership of this like that. Simple. GalGael and it is vital that we get it and building community was words used to describe the 9th-century Norse who had become community will challenge, inspire important to both of them. They Well, kind of. Simple things often get right; failure to will result in us integrated in parts of Celtic Scotland, and the local people. Folk spoke of and empower and, for some of us, be may have had different angles but complex as they get bigger and grow struggling to fund a programme ‘the Gall’ and ‘the Gael’, the foreigner and the native, so GalGael describes a something of a ‘’rite of passage” that shared a vision. older. How do you conform, tick that has significantly changed the coming together of the familiar and the unfamiliar, the old and the new, enables us to find the best within boxes and comply at the same time lives of many in Glasgow’s So keep an eye, an ear and even a the insider and the outsider. ourselves and return to us our as maintaining creativity, freedom southside. At the same time many prayer out for us at GalGael over heritage of working with natural It’s important to know that. and flow? At GalGael we are would argue that success may this next wee while, as we continue materials, the elements, the land and struggling to hold on to our beautiful result in us losing touch with what the great struggle of building a What’s more important is the feeling you get when you walk through the sea. Membership is for as long as we simplicity. it is that makes GalGael so special. creative, beautiful, simple life in an doors of GalGael – you immediately get a sense that something special is want; this is not a numbers game, An increased focus on commercial increasingly complex world. happening in the heart of Glasgow’s southside. Perhaps it is because of Colin Macleod, founder of the rather we’ll support the balance G success must not be allowed to this feeling that folk don’t get hung up on the name. GalGael Trust, knew all about shifts between what we receive and Neil Harvey is Business Manager at the GalGael detract from the creativity and struggling to hold on to beautiful what we feel able to give.’ Trust. He is a former Coordinator of Camas, the Iona GalGael works with people who have ended up on the fringes. Mostly they freedom that is at the very heart of simplicity. GalGael grew out of the Community’s Adventure Centre on Mull. are unemployed and often they battle with serious addictions. The A thoughtful description of a early 1990s’ protests centred on GalGael. It’s going to be a tricky majority of our course participants are in their 30s. They work closely with course that was never designed to Along with building beautiful protecting the trees of Pollok Estate balance to strike. volunteers and great relationships are forged. GalGael’s work with ‘the old tick boxes. Both our courses and traditional boats, GalGael from the emerging M77 motorway. How will we do it? Well, in our own and the new’ means that, at least in some way, vital tradition and craft our ethos are simple, but not produces and sells a range of Taking a tree camp in a Glasgow park GalGael way we’ll continue to work continues to be passed down from one generation to the next. simple in a way that is designed to small craft items and bespoke and a group of unemployed people and to pray. We’re lucky in that tick boxes. When it comes to ticking furniture. See the GalGael online Our work is centred on restoring a sense of self-worth and belonging, and and turning it into what GalGael is we’ve got some strong characters boxes, we see that as very complex. shop: http://shop.galgael.org/ in many ways it is surprisingly simple. What you need is a good space, today wasn’t an easy route. But Colin watching out for us, many of them some raw materials and some creativity. Put those things together and wasn’t interested in the easy route: Our new programme is called present in our daily and weekly life Photos © GalGael Trust people’s restorative journeys happen quite naturally. We have a great ‘It's not enough to have the great ‘Journey On’ and shares many of at the GalGael. But there are also a 9 coracle Anikó Schuetz residents are fenced into severely Ecumenical Accompaniment against House Demolitions, was coracle 10 summer 2013 confined areas. After more than 60 Programme in Palestine and Israel, demolished a sixth time … summer news 2013 years of this enforced with which several Iona news And yet, this is the land the Bible tells ‘To see and bear witness to happenings displacement, many of these Community members have us about, and sites in Jerusalem, people still hold on to their old volunteered. Bethlehem and the Galilee are still house keys in the hope of on the ground’: a trip to the Holy Land And local organisations are places of pilgrimage and devotion. returning home one day. bringing the divided sides Member Anikó Schuetz writes about her experiences in Palestine/Israel … My prayers stay with this land we call A big problem in the camps and together. I visited Sindyanna, a non- Holy. In words from the book of As part of my training for ministry, I was able to spend a nine-week permission to work the land. Family villages is the persecution and profit organisation in the Galilee, Numbers, engraved onto a 7th- placement at St Andrew’s Scots Memorial Kirk in Jerusalem, to work with can’t help. Most produce cannot be imprisonment of children for which runs a basket-weaving century silver amulet excavated from the congregation and others, and to learn more about the Holy Land and exported, leading to low prices in the throwing stones at the Israeli army. project where Arab and Jewish the garden of the Scots Kirk in its people. local markets and, of course, to more Presentations I heard given by women work together, overcoming Jerusalem: The Lord bless you and keep poverty. Nevertheless, the hospitality Defence for Children and Breaking prejudices and discovering The Holy Land is wonderful in so many ways. I will never forget driving you; the Lord make his face to shine and generosity of the Palestinian the Silence, a Jewish organisation common ground. The Church of into Jerusalem for the first time, up to the Mount of Olives – and seeing upon you, and be gracious to you; the people is a constant, and so made up of former soldiers, were Scotland-run Tabeetha School in the lights of the Dome of the Rock down below. To be in the streets of Lord lift up his countenance upon you, humbling. There is not much to share shocking. Jaffa welcomes pupils and staff Jerusalem – to hear the shouts and smell the spicy scents of the souk in and give you peace. G – even water is only supplied from different backgrounds and the Old City, and to walk up to the Temple Mount – was an experience In my travels I witnessed intermittently (about once a religions, so that children grow up Tent of Nations: www.tentofnations.org beyond imagination. Yet this feeling of wonder is lost through moving Palestinian villages and farms fortnight) – yet I was always in diversity, not division. And the past groups of armed soldiers at the gates of the Old City – passing two being surrounded by growing Defence for Children: http://www.dci-pal.org/ welcomed warmly into homes and Church of Scotland employs staff security checks in the few metres between the souk and the Temple Jewish settlements (also illegal Breaking the Silence: www.breakingthesilence.org.il invited to meals, and never let go from both communities in its guest Mount itself. The militarisation is a constant reminder of the stark under international law). The village Rabbis for Human Rights: http://rhr.org.il/eng/ without being served the obligatory house and hotel, and also supports difference between predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem and the of Susiya in the South Hebron hills Arabic coffee. impoverished communities EAPPI: www.eappi.org Jewish western part of the city. Even without the wall, the fences and the has been bulldozed several times: through working with the local Sindyanna: www.sindyanna.com checkpoints that divide the West Bank from the rest of the country, The ‘Security Barrier’ is the Israeli its inhabitants now live in tents and Sunbula shop as well as Hadeel in moving from one world into the other is easy to spot, as a third-world government’s response to the threat caves. As a sign of hope, one family- Tabeetha School: http://tabeethaschool.org/english Edinburgh, which both source their region turns suddenly into a first-world country with all its services and of suicide bombers, but it violates holding is run as an environmental Hadeel Fairtrade Shop, Edinburgh: Iona Community products from groups predomi - luxuries. This becomes even more apparent in the countryside: dry, brown international law and divides and educational farm. ‘Tent of members Carol and Colin Morton, who worked in nantly in the West Bank and Gaza. earth resurrects into richly growing fields, heavily irrigated, as a vast neighbouring communities through Nations’ works for reconciliation. Palestine/Israel for many years, set up Hadeel. Hadeel network of pipes and sprinklers reveal. its weaving in and out of areas, 'We refuse to be enemies’ is their But at present there is so much aims to provide a sustainable source of income for crafts - locking people in. To leave, even for Travelling between the state of Israel and the West Bank is, of course, not motto. injustice … Since I returned home, people working with social enterprises in the West Bank, medical care, Palestinians must hold the village of Susiya has received Gaza, Lebanon, as well as in the Galilee and in the Negev. easy. The wall (‘Security Fence’) cuts apart the land and reshapes it, so that One of my most saddening permits (which are difficult to obtain), another demolition order … one of Their work also helps to sustain infrastructures, as many journey times increase through all the detours, controls and checkpoints. I experiences was visiting Hebron, and going and coming are subjected our guides, Moriel, who works with of the producer groups also provide health, education and was surprised to actually see how young the soldiers at the checkpoints one of the four holy cities of to often severe and humiliating Rabbis for Human Rights, has been emergency services in their communities, which lack any are – little more than teenagers, carrying big machine guns. The barrier Judaism, where military planes fly A n

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It could be a water hole What matters Gatherings, like the one at Easter their homes, took me to places welcome and befriending. Daily I had (water being so vital to all life) or a is to catch that breath of wind, to which I was invited. that were significant to them, glimpses of the Wellspring campfire, like the one at Campfire and draw fresh water The invitation to give three arranged public meetings for me commitment to work for justice and in the Heart on the night I arrived from those hidden springs. G keynote addresses at their to speak on Israel/Palestine, peace, locally and globally, especially there, when folk from different Jan Sutch Pickard Gathering included a suggestion invited me into their pulpits and reconciliation between indigenous backgrounds, indigenous, that beforehand I might visit prayer breakfasts, and – most and non-indigenous Australians and incomers who have made their Painting by Bessie Nipper of the Anangu people. Quilt by Lynona Hawkins. 13 coracle Polly Burns references to creation – Jesus suspect, and in some circles, sexual, transgender folk are all called to summer 2013 himself used many when telling downright evil. Certainly in my own repent and turn away from their ‘sin’. For feature stories – and yet there seems to be background, as a child growing up years before entering my relationship Earthing our prayer a profound sense of disconnection in the 1950s in Roman Catholicism, with Alix, I had belonged to the ‘ex-gay’ from creation within so many and then as an adult in Evangelical movement, trying my hardest to free Polly Burns is the Iona Community’s Prayer Circle Coordinator … people. This disconnection is churches, I was encouraged to myself of the ‘burden’ of my sexuality: ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ ‘Because they have taken away my Lord and I back at least 4000 years and can be manifested in a multitude of ways, subdue my physical self, to become fasting, going for ‘ministry’, attending don’t know where they have laid him.’ It was dawn on Easter Sunday and found in Chinese, Buddhist, Islamic and not least in how the human race more ‘spiritual’. John Donohue, in ‘Christian’ counselling. God did indeed these words were going through my head as I walked down a farm track. Christian cultures. In ancient Chinese has abused the earth and raped his classic Anam Cara , writes: ’It is honour my search and brought deep Instead of celebrating with others at the dawn service as I had for so many culture the hare symbolised her of her resources and abused one of the tragedies of modern healing on many levels but my years, I was alone. The morning was coming alive with birdsong and a herd resurrection. There were many stories and tortured fellow creatures in the culture that we have lost touch with sexuality remained the same. On that of horses looked up as I arrived at their gate, curious as to why I was there and beliefs that incorporated the hare. name of producing food. these primal thresholds of nature. Easter morning, wandering down the The urbanisation of modern life has farm track feeling bereft and isolated, I so early. Bouncer, my equine partner of three years, nuzzled me gently, In Saxon times the Goddess Oestara, or Another place this disconnection succeeded in exiling us from this found myself wondering who this Jesus seeking out the treats he knew would be in my pocket. And weep I did: Eostre, was said to rule over the spring rears its head is in the struggle to fecund kinship with our mother was that the church preached about tears of grief and of rage. Despite the beauty of the morning I felt desolate, and the dawn. Her sacred animal was pray. bereft. My partner, Alix, and I had recently left the church. She had been the hare, which was also a symbol of earth. Fashioned from the earth, we and who asked me to disconnect from One of the most frequent things training for lay readership but had been denied licencing because she had the moon. The moon hare was are souls in clay form. We need to the fundamentals of my very being. It people share during Prayer Circle been honest about our long-term relationship. The Bishop had said that supposed to have laid the cosmic egg remain in rhythm with our inner clay seemed that the Christ I had known week on Iona, and write to me she could continue to serve, to lead services and do all that she had been from which all life emerged. It is from and longing. Yet this voice is no and with whom I had experienced a about, is this struggle with prayer. faithfully doing, but that he would not licence her. The rejection was made Eostre that we get the festival of Easter, longer audible in the modern world. relationship of trust and acceptance The desire to pray is there, indeed worse by the fact that we knew of others who were not as honest who which originally celebrated the coming We are not even aware of our loss; had been taken away. If all that I was in there is often a longing for a were being ordained. They just kept quiet and their congregations and of spring. The symbols of the pagan consequently, the pain of our my deepest being was not to be deeper and more meaningful bishops played along. It was the final straw in a long struggle, and so I festival were changed: the hare of spiritual exile is more intense in being trusted and had to be subdued or prayer life, but frustration and 1 found myself alone, being comforted by the warm muzzle and soft liquid Eostre became the Easter Bunny and largely unintelligible.’ This is discarded – no wonder I had an issue disappointment often lead to eyes of my horse. the cosmic egg became the Easter egg. echoed in words of a poem by my with prayer! people giving up or just going partner, Alix Brown: In pagan times special cakes were The three hares marked for me the My turbulent feelings ebbed away as I saddled Bouncer and rode him through the motions, using other baked as offerings for the moon To be intimate with God we must crossing of a threshold into a more through the meandering farm tracks. All around creation was singing of people’s words and patterns. This goddess and were marked with an know ourselves earth-based spirituality. It was a new beginnings, trees that had been barren and stark against the skyline helps alleviate the guilt of not equal-armed cross to divide the cake not simply the arrangements of bone threshold I crossed with trepidation. were being graced with greenness. Allowing the steady swing of Bouncer’s praying at all, but so often leaves into quarters. These represented the and muscle Some church friends questioned if I movement to calm my breathing and mind, I began to feel myself to be the soul feeling dry and unfulfilled. part of all that was around me and the sense of isolation began to lunar quarters. The cake was then nor the chemistry was leaving Christianity behind, diminish. Bouncer’s powerful hind quarters propelled us up a slope in a broken up into pieces and buried at the Prayer Circle weeks over the past of our material time. becoming pagan. Others judged me as steady canter, and I felt the tension leaving my body as I became one with nearest crossroads. eight years have placed a lot of We must connect to our feelings, New Age and told me that I was no listen to the wisdom of our bodies. his movement. Suddenly he came to a halt and I had to grab at his mane In all of this it was the connection to emphasis on reconnecting with the longer part of the Body of Christ, For, in this, we meet with to stop myself going over his shoulder. He stood, sides heaving, his eyes the seasons and nature that spoke to earth and with our own physicality. because I did not attend worship the spirit within and ears fixed on something I could not see. I could hear and feel my heart me the most. The scriptures are full of It is so easy to be an observer of services in a building with other pounding through my body as I strained to see what had caused his nature, rather than experiencing showing us our true, unique brothers and sisters. The words stung, sudden and very uncharacteristic stop. I could see nothing and tried to ourselves as part of creation. The and special selves; as for many years I had answered a call 2 urge him forward but he remained planted, his nostrils flaring to take in a misleading translation in Genesis teaching us acceptance and love. to serve within a church setting. scent undetectable to me, his body on alert, every muscle quivering with giving man dominion over creation As a woman in an extreme However, words from the Book of Job anticipation. Then suddenly, just as I thought I would have to turn and go has led to our attitude of being Evangelical fellowship I was taught whispered back to me: ‘Look to the another way, there they were, tumbling out of the hedgerow ahead of us: superior to the rest of creation that women’s instincts were not to animals, they will teach you’, and I three hares, dancing and spinning in a circle. Dancing on the spot with rather than part of it alongside be trusted: that the feminine continued on, exploring what it meant excitement, Bouncer turned so that he could follow them with his eyes. My other creatures. This is not the instinct had led to the Fall. Even in to, in the words of Christine Valters heart leapt as the three hares continued in a circle beside us, boxing, belief of indigenous cultures or the more moderate parts of the Paintner, ‘see earth as our primary leaping and playing before racing off through the meadow. I could not even of the ancient cultures of our church, this distrust of the feminine monastery’ . 3 own shores. St Francis of Assisi’s stop laughing as Bouncer and I continued our ride, the earlier desolation can be seen. The anguish of the Years before, when involved in a canticles speak of the elements as replaced by sheer delight and joy. many women called to serve in the Charismatic church, I had felt that God ‘our brothers and sisters’ in much the I had no idea, as I returned to the stable yard, that my encounter with the church, and yet refused ordination was calling us to be ‘ a church without same way as prayers from the hares was to be so significant. Chatting to a friend later in the week I for so many years, is a wound that walls’. At the time I took this as an Native American tradition call the shared my experience with her. I had originally met her at a workshop was opened afresh by the recent instruction to be out in the community, rest of creation ‘our relations’ . where horses were being used as co-therapists and healers. Kim was a decision not to accept women as an interpretation I am sure was valid.

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o shamanic practitioner and was steeped in paganism and I had always held This disconnection with nature also However, words of Colin Tudge, from t o h

p her a little at bay, my evangelical roots holding me tight. Smiling quietly, manifests itself as a disconnection This distrust of our bodies is The Secret Life of Trees , have caused me

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circle. Dutifully I hit the search button on Google and gasped when image disconnection that has been and the rejection by the church of ‘Perhaps this is why we feel so drawn to d n a after image came up, images that portrayed my hares: three hares running encouraged by the church over the anything other than the hetero - trees. Groves of redwoods and beeches y l l o

P or dancing in a circle. I discovered that it is an ancient symbol that dates centuries, the body being seen as sexual orientation. Homosexual, bi- are often compared to the naves of great 15 coracle cathedrals: the silence, the green, filtered, numinous light. A single bayan, each being a struggle. Murdoch MacKenzie coracle 16 summer 2013 with its multitude of trunks, is like a temple or mosque – a living colonnade. summer 2013 feature The Iona Prayer Circle is part of the Iona news But the metaphor should be the other way round. The cathedrals and Community’s ministry of healing. mosques emulate the trees. The trees are innately holy.’ 4 Healing of the body, healing of Pilgrimage to Lund What would it mean to really get rid of the walls: the inner walls that divide situations, healing of the effects and me from myself, the outer walls that come from the belief that I am ramifications of injustice: all of these separate from and superior to other relations on earth? What if I became needs have their roots in discon - connected, deeply connected, to the rest of creation – all creatures, the nection. Disconnection from ourselves, trees, the rocks, the ocean? What would it mean to feel this, to know it, not from our bodies, from one another, just in my head as some kind of poetic metaphor – but to feel it in the from our planet and from God. We will marrow of my being, to know it in my cells? … Sitting on a rock in a continue to explore ways that help us canyon in the Arizona desert, I had my first experience of this kind of live in the truth of connection. We invite knowing. An excerpt from my journal reads: you to join us.

Today it is windy and the sound of the wind howls as it circles the ranch, Let the clear silence At the invitation of Iona associates Catharina Cramnert and Birgitta friends will be on Iona again in the stirring up the dust and taking it with it as it swoops and dives around the of our animal being Ormelius, Anne and I spent a week in Lund at the end of April. Our week beginning 7th September, property. The young horses outside my window seem to sense its direction, cleanse our hearts Swedish friends had been encouraging us to visit them for several years during which I hope to be Member in chasing and swerving around the corrals, wispy tails held high over their backs of corrosive words. and this seemed a good time to go, partly in order to inform people in Residence. like cheerleader’s banners. May we learn to walk Lund about the Iona Community in preparation for the arrival of upon the earth On a previous visit to Iona Åsa On other days when the air has been still and the sun blazing in a perfect ‘Psalmdiktaren’ John Bell on 25th and 26th May. For us this involved a non- with all their confidence Gustavsson wrote the following very expanse of azure blue, the thing that strikes me is the silence. I have never stop programme of visits to fascinating places in and around Lund, and clear-eyed stillness beautiful poem: experienced a silence like it, not even in the Hebrides or in the wilds of the including a visit to the museum, which has several artefacts of Celtic so that our minds Vintergatan och havet Scottish Highlands or on the barren expanses of the moors. This silence is Christian origin, one of which may have connections with Iona. We were might be baptised palpable, heavy with content. Down in a nearby canyon, I walked along a also engaged in a number of ‘in-depth dialogues’ relating to the justice Ingenstans är vintergatan så mjölkigt vit in the name of the wind creek bed, following the water that trickled in some places and bubbled up in and peace work of members of the Community. And f ortunately the som på vägen hem efter en céilidh and the light and the rain. 5 others. I sat for a while on one of the many boulders, surrounded on either side marvellous spring edition of Coracle had just arrived, with its descriptions där vi går, en förstummad rad by the steep red sides of the canyon. At the top, trees stood like sentinels, their – John O’Donohue G of 86 examples of peace and justice involvement by many members of the nattliga vandrare i mörkret outlines dark against the blue sky. As I sat, I felt myself beginning to breathe Notes: Community. på Iona. more deeply, my breath matching some unseen rhythm. The longer I sat, the 1. John O’Donohue, from Anam Cara, Bantam Books, 1999. At the outset I explained how glad we were to be in Lund at last, and Klostret ligger någonstans där framme. more I became aware of the silence surrounding me. With my face turned up p.20 jokingly said that I was not worthy to untie the shoelaces of John Bell and De nära ljuden idisslande får. to the sun, I could feel my heart beating within me and could sense the air 2. Alix Brown, from the poem ‘Intimacy’ so wouldn't be able to lead any singing! I also said that coming to Lund De fjärran Atlantens slag mot stränder. coming into my body. It was more than just sensing the flow of air in and out was a pilgrimage, as for many years I had been inspired by the words of Om någon tänder en ficklampa dör 3. Christine Valters Paintner, from Abbey of the Arts online of my lungs. With each intake of breath I could sense an energy flowing into the ‘Lund Dictum’, agreed at Lund in 1952 by the World Council of magin. newsletter, May 2013 me and sinking right through my being. Time seemed to disappear; all I was Churches Faith and Order Commission, stating that all member churches Vintergatan slocknar. aware of was the rise and ebb of energy as I breathed in the silence. There was 4. Colin Tudge, from The Secret Life of Trees, Penguin, 2006 would seek to do everything together, except those things which they The winter street and the sea* a sense of connection with the rocks and trees around me. Gradually, I became 5. John O’Donohue, ‘To learn from animal being’, from really had to do separately. It was interesting to discover that many people aware of a pulsing, as if the air around me was pulsating. Almost Benedictus, John O’Donohue, Bantam Press, 2007, p.89 whom we met had never heard of the Lund Dictum! However, they had Nowhere is the Milky Way so milky white imperceptible to begin with, it grew in intensity as I gave my attention to it. as on the road homeward bound NATURE AS PRAYER GUIDE: A WEEK certainly heard of the Iona Community and it was quite humbling for us to Was this what people meant when they spoke of the vibrations in energy? after a ceilidh AT CAMAS, 7th–13th September realise just how much the work of the Community, and particularly the Whatever it was, I felt that I was on the edge of another level of awareness or where we walk, a dumbfounded line, 2013, led by Polly Burns and Alix words and music of Graham Maule and John Bell, had inspired their even another reality. That sense has not left me over the last four days. When nocturnal wanderers in the dark, Brown: worship and daily lives. They were obviously well-used to singing ‘Iona’ the wind has been roaring or the rain has lashed down, I have been able to go songs by John and Graham in Swedish, of which they had several books on Iona. deeper and sense that pulsating connection that brings with it a sense of Longing for a spiritual life that has published. The abbey lies somewhere up front. belonging and Oneness. (Apache Springs Ranch, Sonoita, December 2008). meaning and relevance? Tired of the The close-by sounds, ruminating sheep. The week included an Iona-inspired pilgrimsvandring within the large offerings of formal religion and The distant Atlantic strokes against It is this sense of connectedness that seems to be the key in helping us to parish of Sankt Hans ‘John the Baptist’, otherwise known as ‘the Church dogmatic practices? Allow nature to shores. pray. Over the years, during Prayer Circle weeks, I have seen words fall with the Smiling Cross’. The pilgrimage was walked in silence with stops for be your prayer guide. Learn to partner If someone flashes a torch the magic away, as our community forms and we find the Presence in the silence of reflection and prayer and singing at significant locations, including the with creation to find your connection dies. contemplation. When words do come, they flow from another place, not kyrka , the school, the hospital, the Netto building (a discount with God, using the arts, meditation Extinguished Milky Way. from our busy minds full of the concerns for justice and peace and and the wonderful surroundings of supermarket), a tree, a parking lot and ended at the highest point in the healing. Those concerns are very valid, yet they can be so overwhelming Åsa Gustavsson G Camas. area, from which we could see the newish bridge to Denmark. The prayer that they can create a stridency within us, harsh anger or bitter despair. at the parking lot ended with these words: ‘Jesus, give our world humble * The Milky Way is called ‘the winter street’ in Swedish. Led by Polly Burns, Integrative Arts We have explored many ways of praying during Prayer Circle weeks: and audacious decision-makers so that the emission of carbon dioxide and Psychotherapist and Coordinator of Photo: ‘Time for reflection on the pilgrimage’ © Murdoch walking labyrinths, creating rituals and ceremony based on the four the exploitation of our earth can be minimised. And so that, when you come the Iona Community Prayer Circle, and MacKenzie elements, focusing on our breath, feeling the vibration of the Aramaic back, you will be able to meet God’s creation in all its beauty.’ … Alix Brown, Integrative words of Jesus, singing blessings as we moved our bodies in dance. Yet it The Swedish Iona Group will be hosting the next Iona Psychotherapist. For more information: On the Sunday night we had an ‘Iona-inspired communion service’ which seems to be when we allow ourselves to find our place as part of creation Continentals meeting: 16-18 August, 2013, in [email protected] was truly beautiful – with a wonderful choir and an inspiring sermon alongside the rocks and trees – when we truly begin to glimpse the truth preached by Pastor Maria, at the heart of which she said: ‘To grow in faith is Björkögården. The theme of the gathering is ‘Peace by that the moon is our sister and the sun is our brother – that prayer stops to grow in love and do our best to put it into practice.’ Some of our Swedish peace’. 17 coracle John Harvey with other nations. move their societies in the same coracle 18 summer 2013 direction. At the moment, I do not summer 2013 feature If this is not a totally Utopian sparks of the see signs that the three traditional Sparks of light Debating Scottish Independence fantasy, but rather an aspiration which may in fact be shared by Westminster political parties are either able or willing to put forward At a Family Group meeting in spring 2013, the Pentland Family Group an internationalist, rather than a many in all the four nations of the the Light a vision of the sort of society I think discussed the following questions on Scottish Independence, offered by fellow nationalist in any narrow sense. British Isles (as I believe it will be), many want to see; in an Pentland Group member Maire-Colette Wilkie. It was an excellent conversation then the next inevitable question is In the spring edition of Over recent months I have been independent Scotland, my sense – (other Family Groups/Iona groups might want to discuss these questions – will Scottish independence help, Coracle a number of made to reflect quite deeply on my hope! – is that all the parties themselves), and Maire-Colette’s questions seemed a good basis for a series of or hinder, moves towards that goal? Community members gave a what sort of society I want to see will increasingly buy into the vision pieces in Coracle reflecting on the upcoming Referendum. The first reflection short account of what they developing in these islands over Let me first comment that it seems that is already becoming visible of the series is from member John Harvey … (Neil Paynter, Ed.) the next while. Because of what I unfortunate, to say the least, that were working at and the here, if for no other reason that justice and peace concerns Questions on Scottish Independence: have said in the previous the issue around the forthcoming they will see it in their own paragraph, it will be obvious that Referendum is so narrowly they were involved in. That ‘We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into interests to do so. my natural inclination is to think of formulated. A truly British-wide continues here, and will be a it is ours.’ – Dag Hammarskjöld There is, of course, the not inconsid - society in terms of the whole of the debate on the best way of regular feature in Coracle. So erable question of economics: will Our starting point is the Justice and Peace Commitment (Rule 4) of our British Isles; the sort of society I governing these islands (and if you are a member, an independent Scotland be able Community. want to see developing in Scotland hopefully moving towards the sort associate or Friend, e-mail to afford to make these sort of relates to the sort of society I want of society we want) would have me with your news and I’ll 1) Will justice be furthered/diminished by Independence/union? moves, not just right away but over to see developing in England, in taken time to examine a number of the longer term? Here, in common I share it with the Community 2) Will dignity and social equality be furthered/diminished by Northern Ireland, and in Wales. If I options – one at least of which suspect with a lot of other people, I (Neil Paynter, Ed.) … Independence/union? were to try to capture the broad would have been some sort of a feel I need much more information Runa MacKay: Today, Saturday, I have outline of this, then I, and I suspect federal system, as was earlier 3) Will the democratic deficit be corrected by Independence/union? – and information that is not been at the Women in Black Scotland’s a pretty large number of people mooted by the First Minister of propaganda. From what I can glean vigil for peace at the east end of Princes 4) Given our commitment to the abolition of nuclear weapons (Rule 4/7) is throughout all four nations, would Wales, and indeed was I think and understand at the moment, Street, by the statue of the Duke of Independence our best opportunity for a) removing Trident from Scotland, b) want to see: discussed at an earlier stage within redeploying Trident resources? the Liberal Democratic Party. both from the Better Together Wellington here in Edinburgh. We have G a more equal society, with a camp and from the Yes camp, my had a silent vigil there every Saturday 5) As a Family Group are we seizing the moment to explain and enact Rule narrowing gap between rich and Given the very stark choice we are sense is that Scotland probably can from 1-2 pm ever since we went to war 4/9? poor to be offered in 2014, however, my afford it, but it will be a bumpy ride. in Afghanistan. Sometimes we are sense, at the moment, is that an 6) How far is fear/ignorance hindering debate and decisions about a society where the biblical ‘bias Will people be prepared to take the three, sometimes a dozen but we have G independent Scotland, still within Independence? to the poor’ was increasingly risk? On balance, I think I want to not missed one Saturday. We carry the community of the British Isles, banners against violence of any kind 7) Given that Community members are committed to be politically engaged evident in all areas of civic and say that I hope we will. might just have a chance to move anywhere. We have a spokesperson to (Rule 4/8), why is the Independence question not being addressed? Should we national life In offering these comments, I am towards modelling the sort of answer questions from passers-by and ask this question of Council or other Family Groups? aware that while this is a divisive G a society where the engines of society I think a very large number hand out leaflets highlighting which issue – and the Iona Community 8) Your (great) grandchildren are doing a history project. They ask you: capitalism – banking, insurance, big of people within the four nations are the most violent situations or places has had other divisive issues to ‘Grandma/dad. What happened in the Scottish Independence referendum of business, advertising, etc – became want to see; and that in turn might at the time – currently the use of

n less and less controlled by large encourage and energise others deal with in the past! – those of us a 2014? What did you do? Why?’ … drones and the war in Syria. m

e in Scotland will nevertheless have l and often foreign corporations, and within the other three nations to o C The Pentland Family Group is absolutely right to expect us, as members of It is a busy corner – we sometimes have

d to make a decision on the matter i fell more and more under mutual take steps to move in the same v a the Iona Community, to consider the increasingly urgent question of fellow campaigners beside us: Stop the D ownership direction. To develop such a model, very soon. The support and © independence, or union, in the light of our Justice and Peace e generosity of our fellow members War, the Socialist Workers’ Party, even g based broadly on what I have d

i G a society which developed a r Commitment. Rather than look at the specific questions raised in their Army recruiting vans, and during the

B in other parts of the British Isles, outlined above, will of course take h

t balanced immigration system and

r paper, however, I feel I need to take a step back. I need to be clear as to Edinburgh Festival noisy Bolivian o far more than a simple – or not so and in other countries, will be very F how I view myself in relation to the rest of the citizens of the nations of encouraged a community of bands. Crowds of shoppers flow past simple! – constitutional important to us, and I’m sure we these islands; and I need to be clear as to what sort of a society I want to diversity within its borders paying scant attention. ‘Is it nothing to rearrangement to achieve. I have will be able to count upon it, even see developing in these islands over the next ten to thirty years. you, you who pass by?' (Lamentations G a society which prioritised well- been encouraged recently by signs if people have different views. paid work, sufficient social housing, 1:12). Visitors to Edinburgh sometimes ‘No man,’ wrote the English poet John Donne, ‘is an island, entire unto that a wide range of people within I end with one of my favourite a high standard of education, stop, and also soldiers back from Iraq or itself.’ Leaving aside, for the moment, matters of constitutional and political Scottish society do seem to be quotations, from Jim Wallis of the health care and social security – Afghanistan. Not very often we get, not concern, I am quite clear that I feel deeply connected to all four nations of open to exploring new models of Sojourners Community in the and a sensible defence system, not abuse, but serious disagreement, and these islands. I was educated under an English system (even though in community and civic life; it will States: ‘Hope is believing in spite of based on weapons of mass our spokesperson (very skilled Scottish-based schools!), I received further education in both an English surely require a great deal of the evidence – and watching the destruction fortunately!) may have a prolonged and a Scottish university, I served in the British Army (albeit in a Scottish determination and hard work, and evidence change!’ G

discussion. C regiment), I have immediate family in Scotland, England and Northern G a society which was comfortable not just by the political parties, to a n d

John Harvey was a member of the Gorbals Group l bring this about. By the same Any woman is welcome (we don't have e Ireland, I have good friends in Wales, I feel a strong sense of cultural with its place in the world of ©

Ministry in the 1960s, a parish minister and is a token, the many people in the men) and black is not absolutely D

connection to all four nations, and of course I am a member of a religious international affairs, based not so a v

former Leader of the Iona Community. He is the i d

community that embraces all four nations and beyond. My whole much on a past imperial heritage other three nations of the British essential if you just happen to be C o

author of Bridging the Gap: Has the Church Failed l e

upbringing and experience therefore marks me as a citizen of the British as on a realistic assessment of what Isles will need to do equally hard passing by and would like to join us, m a Isles – and everything I believe in encourages me to look upon myself as we can actually offer, in partnership and determined work if they are to the Poor? (Wild Goose) www.ionabooks.com even if you cannot stay the whole hour n ‘We are all members of the Body … We are all sparks of the Light.’ Tributes …

19 coracle or cannot come every week. It is a by members John and Margaret good for the community, empowering would be good to have another A TRIBUTE TO MEMBER JOHN to John and Jean is that their coracle 20 summer 2013 wonderful opportunity to pray for Smith, who also live in Greasby, the people and enabling them to make member bringing young folk to WILLIAMS, by Graeme Brown childhood was, in their own words, summer 2013 sparks of the sparks of the light the needs of the world. focus of our recent work has been their own decisions, but the bureau - these festivals. John Williams began his life in ‘idyllic and full of endless patience light/tributes Women in Black started with the in the transfer of our local cratic mountains are high! Charles Simonson: In addition to very unusual circumstances. His and love’. community centre from Wirral Black Sash Movement in South I regularily welcome international occasional guest preaching I have father ran away from home in In 1968 John was released from Council management to local Africa, and in Israel, where I joined students and visitors and enjoy sharing two church commitments in Sunderland aged 11 to be a cabin parish duties to serve as Diocesan volunteer management them when I was working as a my home and knowledge of Argyll with retirement. One is a monthly peer boy, taught himself to read and Social Responsibility Officer for (www.greasbycommunitycentre.org) . doctor in Hebron in the Occupied them – it was a joy to host folk from the support group with other United write on board ship, and became a local government in the Borough At the same time we are battling to Territories during the First Intifada. Pilgrimage for Peace and Economic Church of Christ clergy. It provides captain. He was 83 when John was of Teesside. There John identified support local traders, as Sainsbury’s A group of Israeli women still stand Justice recently. a time to check in and share what born in Brighton in 1931, and areas of concern and, with the are muscling in to take their in Jerusalem on Fridays against the is going on for each person both John’s mother died when he was help of church members and custom. With others from the community we are Occupation. building a website, Faith in Argyll: professionally and personally. A five. He was brought up by an leaders from the wider Rolf Bielefeld: Kirsten and I are Murdoch MacKenzie: Anne and I www.faithinargyll.co.uk second is helping a church I have uncle and aunt with whom he community, addressed issues are deeply involved with fairtrade. served develop a lived in London throughout the relating to planning, now well settled in Berlin. I am still Margery Toller: At the time of writing, While in India years ago we worked study/conversation process which Blitz. It was they who introduced unemployment, and broadcasting, running a consulting firm serving on the Pilgrimage for Peace and boards and supervising bodies of at the production end, including explores what it would mean to be him to the church. as well as the moral dilemmas J

Economic Justice. News to follow! o batiks, an example of which hangs an ‘open and affirming’ church – associated with drugs, abortion, h non-profit organisations, and serve On leaving school John joined the n

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Brandenburg. Last but not least, I service in the army, studied at ,

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Medical Justice and Freedom from orientation – offering not only f

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enjoy sailing the lakes, rivers and King’s College, London and St r e

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Argyll, we have been working with Teesside at a time when he was e

canals of Berlin and teaching Boniface College, Warminster and i v i Diversity Committee and am secretary within the church. It specifically n young people how to sail. others for Argyll and Bute to was ordained priest in Durham. He busy running an induction course g

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acute social need in London, and e

October 2013 at Haus Salem in detention, i.e. for us in Scotland, Rhode Island as of a month ago. M

Oban and Lorn. We have an Oban also an issue, as important today a

in a large council housing estate in y

Bielefeld-Bethel. Our theme will be o

Dungavel IRC, and work on whistle - r and Lorn Fairtrade Directory with as it was then, namely, good social But in terms of ongoing ministry, Stockton-on-Tees. There John o f

‘The art of living community’. Peter blowing in healthcare and how to M

84 entries. During the 2013 housing, for which there was a i my greatest satisfaction is in became Team Rector in d Macdonald and Dieter Haite, OSB, d l Fairtrade Fortnight our fairtrade change the culture, through Patients desperate need, and John helped e remaining on our Conference’s developing a new pattern of area s b

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information and registration: h ,

fairtrade art exhibition in Taynuilt David Osborne: I will shortly be retiring particular I have been mentoring York and Durham. The group who Association in Middlesborough. It p h

[email protected] o t Primary School, fairtrade stalls in after 5 years in teaching and over 33 seminarians in their process of worked there were in the forefront took 12 years of concentrated o

© Dirk Grützmacher: I work in a 20- Tesco and the Co-op, where we years in rural parish ministry in the ministerial formation. My students of the Church’s response to pressure to get it off the ground year-old housing estate with 80% distributed hundreds of leaflets, Church of England, and hope to have have answered a call to parish changes in wider society in styles Russian-German and Kasakh- events in schools and a meeting more time for writing (just published ministry after earlier careers in of leadership, participation and German inhabitants. I teach and act with Alan Reid MP and with local Love for the Future , Wild Goose), singing, education, nursing and being a the exercise of authority. One of as chaplain in the primary school. councillors. Our Chairperson, walking, cycling, woodwork, as well as restaurant chef. Fascinating people! John’s colleagues, David Goodacre, Communism and the Soviet regime Pauline Cameron, and others are leading courses on spirituality and the Very rewarding process. wrote of him that he had a were very effective in removing working with the Scottish Fairtrade environment and joining with others Leslie Simonson: Charlie and I wonderfully rewarding ministry of religion from the inner workings of Forum to welcome Malawian rice who are working for a greener society. have both been celebrating our great vision and service, the people. I also work as farmers Howard Musuka and Susan For the last twenty years I’ve been recent and very ecumenical embracing radical ideas in order to Emergency Chaplain to members Ntende to Oban and Lorn Fairtrade involved with the Glastonbury Festival: success with our State Legislature reach out to people in the modern of the public and the emergency Town: www.obanfairtrade.org.uk as the link between the Festival and age, always ahead of his time, but services. which has made Rhode Island the Margaret Jacobsen: I am a member Sheila Doig’s team that runs 12th State to legalise same-sex combining his love and service Michael Gisbourne: My work as a volunteer advocate working with the Iona Community's drop-in, marriage. We both serve as guest with the life of prayer and worship. Parish priest in South Lancaster adults with mental health convening the group that runs the preachers round about the John’s gift as a listener, his warmth, continues to involve the renewal of problems and adults with learning ecumenical welcome and worship neighbourhood, sing in our local his patience and wisdom, his deep worship, including supporting the disabilities. It is upsetting at the centre, available to the support services church choir, and are in the throes rumbling laugh all stood him in worship in some local schools. I moment, working with people and festival-goers if they need a of finishing the renovation of the good stead in every leadership chair the local Christian Aid Group whose lives are being turned minister, and sometimes speaking from family home I grew up in as a child. role which he undertook. and am Treasurer for the Lancaster upside down as services are cut the main stage. We will move in gradually It was at this time that John and Street Pastors. Through all this and changed and benefits are Jean Young: Just back from the Solas throughout the summer and then Jean met and married, and to activity I hope to help those I come altered. I also work with the charity Festival where it was good to meet up pack for Scotland. Abbey staff and them were born Catherine and into contact with know that they which supports and represents the with fellow members. I continue to work volly reunion awaits, followed by Elizabeth. It is one of the hazards are of immense value in the heart third sector in Argyll and we are with three voluntary youth groups in October Community Week. Looking of those engaged in pastoral of God. beginning to work in co- Perth and Dunning. I am also involved forward to seeing y’all in the ministry that they can neglect David Horton: Just a bit of news production with the NHS and local with Messy Church. Looking forward to autumn! G their family in favour of their government – when it works it is from Greasby, Wirral. Spearheaded both youth festivals this summer. It Send news to: [email protected] work.The testimony of their family WILD GOOSE PUBLICATIONS NEW PUBLICATIONS Love for the Future: A Journey, David Osborne 21 coracle and, thanks largely to John’s A TRIBUTE TO ISHBEL and Urdu and working with the subsequently sent her a Christmas Aid, and during Christian Aid week summer 2013 stubbornness and persistence, it MACLELLAN, by Rosemary Christian Association for Radio and card each year. was well known for collecting (book), £10.99 tributes was eventually established and Legge, from a Service of Audio-Visual Service at Jabalpur. around Muir of Fowlis. Climate change, pollution and diminishing resources In 1980 she was invited to spend a grew rapidly, providing 400 homes Thanksgiving She then moved to Madras (now mean that the future will be difficult for life on earth. We year in Holland producing and Ishbel joined the Iona Community and establishing a reputation for Chennai) in South India, again face an environmental crisis. Isabel Mary Maclellan, known to presenting programmes to combat in 1971, at a time when the sound business ethics, good working in radio broadcasting. us as Ishbel, was born 72 years racism. These programmes went Community had many members Clearly we need technological solutions to some of our relationships and happy residents. Over the five years she spent there problems, and appropriate political and social ago in Glasgow on 3rd June out to several countries in Asia and and associates in active service John was, in fact, a political she produced and presented programmes. But to meet the challenge we must also 1940. Africa. overseas. She was one of the first chaplain and there had never religious programmes which were change ourselves. We need the courage to face up to women to become full members of been anything like that before in When Ishbel was ten her parents transmitted to the whole of India. In 1981 Ishbel returned to Scotland what is happening, the determination to work at the the Community. Teesside. John said on one bought a new piano and Ishbel She also trained local staff, several and worked with Moray Firth problems and the freedom to let go of the old ways of occasion: ‘My passion in life is to scratched the word ‘Bible’ on it. of whom went on to work for All Community Radio Association in Jean and Duncan Finlayson of St living which are causing such damage to the earth. And that is hard. The scale of the problem can feel relate faith to work.’ In 1975 John Her mother was furious, but India Radio. Not only was Ishbel Inverness. While there she set up Colm’s College were a huge thought that she would go into the Moray Firth Radio Christian influence on Ishbel. They and their overwhelming. We may be drained by fear or worn down became a member of the Iona involved in radio work, she was also by our seeming lack of progress. Community and found in it ready Christian work when she grew involved in a social work project in Council, which represented 10 family became lifelong friends and support for the work in which he up. the slums of Madras and organised denominations. mentors for her Iona journey. It is In this book David Osborne tells of a long pilgrimage on true to say that her association with foot to the island of Iona, an ancient centre of Celtic was engaged. Jean was to join Ishbel was a member of St discussion groups for young Then, in 1985, she began six years the Community was to become a Christianity. In telling the story he draws on the Bible, the John later as a member, and the Columba’s Church of Scotland in people of different faiths. working with Save the Children. Christian tradition and other sources of wisdom to Family Group to which they backdrop for the whole of her life, Glasgow, where she was very Ishbel was so good at her work of She travelled widely as Area suggest the qualities we need to develop in ourselves for belonged were, in Jean’s words, underpinning her work and involved as a Sunday School training others that in 1973 she Manager for Highland and the journey we face into the future. ‘immensely supportive to them witness at a local level wherever teacher, Youth Fellowship was able to hand over her work to Grampian regions and the He points to some of the spiritual resources available to both in John’s latter years’. she lived. president, Guide Captain and two Indian nationals. This was at a Northern and Western Isles and us and suggests ways to develop our spiritual lives in In 1983 John was appointed Youth Club leader. time when India was no longer also travelled to Brazil to see the Although Ishbel became restricted order to grow in compassion, faith, hope and wisdom, work of Save the Children there. in her ability to attend national while tapping into the energy of the Creator to work for Director of the Diocesan Board of Her first job was with BBC allowing foreign missionaries to She was responsible for recruiting, plenaries she remained in close the healing of the creation. Ministry in Lichfield and for the Scotland in radio and television. work there. next 13 years John led a team with training and managing volunteers. contact with fellow members of The book contains material for personal reflection and She gained a wide experience in And so began a new chapter in wide responsibilities, including the She was also part of the the Grampian Family Group and group discussion, pointers for further reading, and current affairs, drama, light Ishbel’s life. She spent the next delivery of the Bishop’s Certificate Fundraising Department, with close friends from previous practical suggestions for a way of living in which we can entertainment and religious three years in Ethiopia working Course, which often had as many communicating with schools and Family Groups in Scotland, Africa make our own journey into the future with love. broadcasting. All this stood her in with Radio Voice of the Gospel in as 500 participants, 50-plus churches, and organising area and India. She loved the company ‘Using the thread of a long walk from Shropshire to Iona, good stead for the work she Addis Adaba. From this base, Readers and local lay ministers in conferences. at Family Group gatherings. When David Osborne weaves together autobiography, spiritual subsequently did as a missionary, programmes went out around the training, a steady flow of she was at gatherings there was reflection, and passionate concern for the future of the which was what she really clock to over a third of the world’s Ishbel retired from Save the ordinands and post-ordination never a pause in conversation! earth threatened by irreversible climate change. A rare wanted to do. And so during this population in many languages. Children in 2001, but continued her training for all the clergy in a large resource for all those people struggling to keep faith and period she studied the Old and Ishbel also wrote and produced work for the Lord in both the local Ishbel’s lifelong faith had given her diocese. It was a great tribute to hope going in the face of what feel like insuperable odds.’ New Testament as a part-time drama for radio and shared in the community and abroad. She was an strength to face many challenges John that a number of those who –Tim Gorringe, Professor of Theology, Exeter University student at Trinity College, responsibility of training staff. active member of Cushnie and bravely. Ishbel knew that she was had undertaken training in those Glasgow. Tough Church, serving as a Board drawing near to the end of her life Like Leaves to the Sun: Prayers from the Iona years kept in touch with John and While in Ethiopia Ishbel took ill member, and was ordained as an but she was very much at peace Community (book), Neil Paynter (Ed.), £8.99 She then had the opportunity to sent him their good wishes in his with a viral infection which elder in 2001. She was Convener of about it. She knew that she was study full-time and went on to For many people prayer is difficult. This collection helps us illness. attacked her heart and she had to the Presbytery World Mission going to be with the Lord whom to be less bothered with our uncertainties about what we Moray House College of come home for treatment. It was 10 Committee and served on the Kirk’s she had loved and served all her should be saying when we pray. We can read a prayer and For a man who was naturally Education in Edinburgh where months before she was well Committee on Publicity and the days. then sit quietly for a few minutes, allowing the particular gregarious, it was a desperate she did Youth and Community G blow to suffer a stroke which left enough to return, but by then the Board of Communication. She was words and thoughts to meet with our inner self, with our Education studies, including a Ishbel Maclellan, photo © soul, which is linked to the energies and wisdom of the John virtually without the power Marxist revolution had spread over also a great supporter of Christian Christian Education course. She Creator of all things. of speech and yet, so deep were Ethiopia, the Marxist government then did a two-year course at St had taken over the radio station The prayers here are not to be read in a rush. They are not his inner resources that, with the Colm’s, Edinburgh alongside strength which he gained from and so she was unable to go back. about a small God, but about One who at every moment those training for the diaconate. is at the very heart of both our personal lives and the life the Eucharist and from daily She also studied overseas mission This was a disappointment to of the world. A God whose goodness, healing and tender prayer with Jean, he remained and India and Africa studies and Ishbel, but it did not stop her. She grace are at the core of humanity. In the reading of them serene and occasionally even able did practical work in church spent four months as Deputy may our hearts become more loving and aware, for each to engage in his priestly role of placements. Warden of Iona Abbey. Then, in prayer invites us into a reality much wider than ourselves offering a blessing to those who 1977, she went to Geneva, where – the whole world in its contradiction and promise – and On 20th June, 1965 her hard work asked this of him. What John was she worked for the World Council brings us close to our sisters and brothers who, like us, are came to fruition and she was is woven into the stuff of many of Churches as head of the Radio on a journey in which both light and shadow, sadness commissioned as a missionary by other people’s lives and lives on and TV section of the Department and joy are regular companions. the Presbytery of Glasgow. forever. Thanks be to God. G of Communication. A highlight of TO ORDER: 0141-332-6292 And so she set out for India. She this time was interviewing Mother [email protected] spent two years studying Hindi Teresa and Desmond Tutu, who www.ionabooks.com But there were ‘unintended withdraw table fellowship from the situations. A God who weeps and enforced displacement, of Palestinian 23 coracle A touching place: coracle 24 summer 2013 consequences’, and this fascinating American Presbyterians. laughs with us, and who suffers origin. summer 2013 reviews reviews reviews/a book is that story. with us. news and letters Christian activists will recognise I will also admit – and this I know is touching Send Back the Money!: place Slavery had been abolished in the these arguments. I recognise them While it is true to say that this is a URGING CAUTION: A LETTER contrary to what I should stand for as The Free Church of Scotland FROM METIN MITCHELL, a Friend a practising, albeit mediocre, Christian and American Slavery, British Empire in 1834, but all for they were deployed during theological novel, in the sense that continued in independent America the various independence it raises in a clear way many issues of the Iona Community based in and Friend of the Iona Community – by Iain Whyte , James Clarke & Co, 2012, reviewed by in the southern states, where campaigns in Southern Africa and around the nature of God, it is also the United Arab Emirates that in the context of Palestine I Jim Wilkie Presbyterian congregations with are still being deployed today, a story which touches into the This letter is to urge caution and understand very deeply the Iona Community member Iain Scottish roots were strongest and usually to frustrate change. From heart of many contemporary express concern. I believe the temptation for armed struggle. I hate Whyte has campaigned on issues had been most generous to the his own wide experience Dr Whyte situations. As the tale unfolds it current bias within the Iona myself for even contemplating that of liberation for most of his life. visitors. Anti-slavery campaigners mentions one later example – what crisscrosses continents and leads Community against the state of violence could be a solution, but such After he retired he completed a declared that these funds had been happened at the General Council the reader into many cultures. The Israel, which I detect through the are some of the things that I have Ph.D. on Scottish involvement in generated by slave labour and of the World Alliance of Reformed book propels us to raise questions pages of Coracle, and what appears seen that I do understand those who the campaign to abolish slavery should be returned. ‘Send back the Churches in Ottawa in 1982 when a about our planet and its future, to be its uncritical support for the take up arms and cannot fully within the British Empire, and money!’ status confessionis was declared about the vast gap between rich Palestinian cause is naive, ill- condemn them. published this as Scotland and the and Apartheid was proclaimed a and poor, about what is important Dr Whyte documents the twists informed and intellectually Having said all this … the situation in Abolition of Black Slavery, 1756-1838 . Christian heresy. in our own lives in such uncertain and turns of some of the incomplete. the Middle East is complex. There is Now he has turned his attention to times. Its many more-than- arguments advanced to keep the For my part I believe that today it is Mark Braverman’s powerful sermon no black and white. a little known episode in Scottish interesting characters mirror our money: most important that Churches (Coracle 4/53) in particular gives me The State of Israel, for all its faults, has Church history that took place age. unpick their response to No. 3. some concern because of the lack following the creation of the Free 1. Don’t discuss the matter in the much to commend it. It has a free Surely it is the involvement of us all The book starts with the arrest of a of context for those who do not Church of Scotland. Assembly of the Church. Sweep it press and it allows its Jewish citizens in international corporate finance, man in a remote village in Sierra fully understand the Middle East, under the carpet! not only to express their support for 1843 saw 480 ministers of the and our commitment to the Leone. But who is this mysterious yet who will understandably be the Palestinians but to actively help Church of Scotland give up their 2. The American Churches are in theories that support it, and our figure who is at the heart of the moved by his words. And I can also them, without been tortured, killed or livelihoods and make themselves great difficulty over this issue. The deployment of similar arguments novel? What threat does he pose see that Jan Sutch Pickard’s letter imprisoned. This is remarkable in the and their families homeless for the situation on the ground is not to those in No. 3 to justify it, that is for the security of the world? He is on Kairos ( Coracle 4/53) is full of context of the Middle East. And sake of their conscience. They simple. It is too complex for the greatest challenge to us all. brought to trial in an international good intention and sincerity … should be acknowledged. established a new denomination, outsiders to understand! court and his testimony in that trial and yet, despite this, I urge the Iona Thank you, Iain Whyte. Through the The Palestinians themselves are far which had to train, pay and find touches the lives of millions of Community to temper its support 3. Corporate sin is a different matter clarity of your history lesson you from cohesive, and in some cases manses for its clergy, and build people. They respond to his life- for the Kairos movement. from individual behaviour. We must have reduced our wriggle-room! have been shown up to be blatantly from scratch all its places of affirming witness. His life-giving draw fine distinctions between And before going further I should corrupt, diverting funds from worship. The Church was ‘Free’ Dancing, by Warren Bardsley , Church in the dance. This unfolding story is told slave-holding and slave-having. disclose a little more about my own charitable donations for personal use. because, unlike the established Market Place Publications (available from Warren through the eyes of a journalist Those in the latter category cannot experiences: I have been to Gaza The Palestinian Anglican Church itself Church of Scotland that they left Bardsley or from the Iona Community bookshop), present at the trial. be blamed for their situation. The on two occasions – and can testify has not been devoid of controversy behind, it enjoyed no state subsidy reviewed by Peter Millar way slave owners treat their slaves This mysterious figure is addressing to the horrors and to the courage over corruption. and was free from any state is the true test of their personal Warren Bardsley, a member of the not only an international court, but that I have seen there. I have been interference. I have also noted distinct levels of sinfulness! to Ramallah on numerous Iona Community and a retired all of us. We are drawn into his trial prejudice amongst Palestinians: Faced with this enormous task the Methodist minister, is a passionate and moved by the way in which he occasions – and can tell you with 4. Separate civic and political Christians against Muslims; leaders decided at once to send a and prophetic campaigner for understands the workings of God anger of the fear that I witnessed in institutions from ecclesiastical Palestinians from Jerusalem looking delegation to the Presbyterians in human rights in Palestine, and has in our globalised world. A world in one my Palestinian employees as ones. The Church should not down on Palestinians from Ramallah; America to acquaint them of the written powerfully about his which oppression, injustice and we were confronted by Israeli involve itself in politics! Palestinians from Ramallah looking issues and enlist their support. soldiers at a checkpoint. I have experiences in Palestine, where he violence can easily make us down on those from Gaza … After all, having won their War of 5. There is slavery in the Bible. In worked as an ecumenical question whether there is a God at been to Jerusalem, to Yad Vashem, Independence from Britain, they their campaigning, abolitionists are accompanier. all. and had time to reflect, like It is too easy for those of us who have were ‘free’. The delegation of five doing the work of the Devil! Braverman, on the Holocaust and grown up in Europe to become starry- His novel Dancing does not deal The great thing about the novel is did indeed receive support and the paradox of the Israeli treatment eyed about the struggle of others. 6. Division over ethics should not with Palestine as such but opens that it raises huge and serious something over £10,000 came to of Palestinians after such an event. I I would prefer that we, who support divide us when we agree theolog - up for us a vast canvas of global issues with a light touch, along Scotland. I wondered why Dr Whyte have been published in the the Iona Community, speak out in ically. Beware of breaking Christian and spiritual issues. with wisdom and humour, and that never gives any indication of the Financial Times criticising the State general terms against torture, fellowship and creating division – is why it makes such an interesting value of this in ‘today’s money’. At its heart is the struggle in the of Israel for its attack on Lebanon injustice and corruption – and speak either in the Presbyterian Church in read. I am sure that many will find it Perhaps this is because Wikipedia modern world between these great … and indeed in a public forum out universally. In the context of the America or in the recently not only a good read, but also life- points to five different tables that global forces which can so easily directly challenged Tzippy Livni Middle East it seems incomplete to established Free Church in affirming. A book for our times. But offer conversion of £10,000 in the dehumanise us all, and that other (previous deputy Prime Minister of criticise the State of Israel but not be Scotland! also for those who are finding a 1840s as anything from £800,000 reality which is centred in the Israel) on her version of events in critical of Iran or some other states meaningful belief in God extremely to £27.8 million today! Anyway, the 7. But do we agree theologically? tender and liberating possibilities Gaza. And lastly, I will tell you that that are substantially worse in their hard. sum was substantial. The new Some campaigners believed that of God. Not a God of dogmatism some of those who are dearest to treatment of minorities or human Church needed it and could put it there was no agreement and but one whose love, light and me professionally and personally rights abuse. Or perhaps we should to good use. therefore that Christians should healing can actually transform are Palestinian or, because of simply have the humility not to 25 coracle meddle in situations we do not should be released by the end of I’m planning an autumn event for Karen Buchanan coracle 26 summer 2013 understand fully, and perhaps if we the year. As part of the West End ministers and lay people, exploring summer 2013 a touching poetry place really feel the need to focus on the Festival in Glasgow, on 7th June, aspects of worship: how we plan situation in Israel and Palestine, just WGRG and the Collective led a Big and lead it collaboratively, how we I opened up the sea: poems from keep to the prayer of the church Sing at St Mary's Episcopal develop patterns which allow for there: Pray not for Arab or Jew, for Cathedral, introducing new congre - greater participation and Palestinian or Israeli. Pray rather for gational song from Scotland and imagination. With one more year to a Dundee housing scheme ourselves, that we might not divide around the world with a focus on go in my role as Chaplain to Greater I’m bad Now your life’s Safe them in our prayers, but keep them St Columba. Members of the Glasgow Girls’ Brigade, I have a a loaded gun. both together in our hearts. Collective also led the singing at special event to coordinate for the My bleeding eyes The further away I am, Govan Old on St Columba’s Day, at four uniformed youth organisations made up in black A bleeding rose the safer I feel, INFORMATION ALERT: OPEN the service of thanksgiving and (GB, BB, Scouts and Guiding) as part and blue looking from a distance HOUSE MAGAZINE, from Love is not commitment celebrating the 75th of a series of joint events in the run- look at you you can see what’s real. member Ian M.Fraser like a red red rose, not upset or sad anniversary of the founding of the up to the Commonwealth Games. this is coming I am safe I have always thought of Coracle , almost like you’re glad Community. John has been Also: ‘Music and Mission’ workshop from someone who knows. now I’m far away. rooted in the Reformed tradition but me working recently at retreat centres, with Edinburgh Presbytery in You can’t touch me and flowering ecumenically, and I see a man that’s mad It’s a heart on a stick, churches and seminaries in North September; Wee Sing in Stirling also for I can see Open House , rooted in the Roman a lunatic gives you a prick, America, in Sweden and with in September; participation in what’s happening to you, Catholic tradition and flowering dishing out violence and once it bleeds, various denominations in the UK. ‘Castlemilk Praise’ in November; a not me. ecumenically, as companion We're planning again for the youth-friendly carol service in getting your kick it bleeds forever I’m all right. magazines. For a good number of Greenbelt Festival in August, where Glasgow Cathedral in December . that makes you tick dead petals falling, years I have been on the Advisory John will speak and WGRG will lead your rush of adrenalin I’m free. YOUTH DEPARTMENT NEWS one by one. Board of Open House and have a Big Sing. We’ll be sharing a venue an overdose Like bullets firing Just me been an occasional contributor. with our partners in the Iona Some recent highlights: We had a ‘You’ll have to stop’ from a gun No one can see me Mary Cullen is the new editor and Community, Church Action on brilliant weekend with the my eyes will close. it’s just me brings imaginative creativity to the Poverty, Fischy Music and the Community kids during the 75th Coming down bleeding and the ripples of the sea, task. One important feature is its Corrymeela Community. anniversary – taking a pilgrimage you look at me never receding, receiving of liberating aspects of around Glasgow, creating a massive and frown a bloody red sea. I’m lonely and cold, the Second Vatican Council which Jo Love/WGRG resource worker: piece of community art for the ‘Did I do that?’ you say. This is the love my streets weren’t paved with gold, meet up today with a groundswell Recently enjoyed the Solas celebration service – and eating ‘Yeah, you do it he gave to me. now it’s just me, of concern for aggiornamento . For Festival, where we did two late- cake. Solas was a great success: the nearly every day,’ I say. and the ripples of the sea, night Holy City worship sessions Drug dealers, life stealers ebbing and flowing, most young people at the festival A

more info about Open House: ‘It’s not my fault,’ you say. r t and ran an IC/WGRG bookstall Could you turn squealer never knowing, w yet. A week on Iona with o

[email protected] ‘You make me act that way.’ r k

throughout weekend. Still doing Bellahouston Academy kicked off and stop a dealer? just me ©

I turn away. JOURNEYING, from Friend David D Maybe save a life and the ripples of the sea, a stories for ‘Spill the Beans’, and the the celebrations for the 25th v ‘Sorry,’ I say. i d

Gleed writing team are planning a day for an hour or two. my time in the spotlight’s C birthday of the Mac – Bellahouston o l e conference for existing and Circus The life you save about to arrive, m Since 1988 our dedicated team of have been up to the Mac every year a n Journey leaders have taken small potential users of the material. Still since it opened, under the We live inside won’t thank you nearly time to take that dive, groups on relaxed pace walking doing some locum support with St leadership of the excellent Eleanor a circle of homicide, he’ll have to wait longer just me and exploring holidays to the Paul’s Church, involving me in Dyce. Now planning for a big you can’t look in, for his hit, and the ripples of the sea, remote and not so remote parts of chaplaincy at Royston Primary – at summer of weeks at Camas with but we can look out go somewhere else a bright moonlit sea, Britain and Ireland. We are always the weekly ’Lunch Bunch' club we priority groups, Youth Festivals and there’s always something to buy his kit. my spotlight, keen to hear from people had six weeks of fun on the story the Church of Scotland’s National to shout about, You tried to save some lives on me interested in joining the team. of St Columba this term, involving Youth Assembly. too many drugs but instead, they drew the knives and the ripples of the sea. There is an introductory building paper boats and not enough mugs now your a grass My great moment has arrived, THE 75th ANNIVERSARY OF THE programme and ongoing support. wooden-peg monasteries and open the gate and on your ass then I dived IONA COMMUNITY SERVICE Journeying is a non-profit seeking making a banner with Celtic of the circle of hate you’ve got nowhere to hide into the ripples of the sea, company. Its origins lie in Celtic designs. Holy City planning group The full service of thanksgiving and free drugs galore you’ve just committed just me, spirituality. To discover more about currently doing our annual commitment celebrating the 75th Here, do you want more? suicide. I opened up the sea, evaluation process and making anniversary of the Iona Community Then give us your money just me, journey leadership contact: Bad seeds [email protected] plans for the shape of next season. can be downloaded from the Iona this circle’s not full bringing the ripples with me, www.journeying.co.uk I’ll be starting a summer holiday Community website (see the June E- of milk and honey I’m brain-dead, down to the bottom of the sea, art project with a Sunday school in Coracle): www.iona.org.uk you get nothing for free someone said, trying to get just me, WILD GOOSE RESOURCE GROUP Motherwell, making six collage we’ll even take your liberty inside my head. free. NEWS Bread for the road pictures depicting the story of walk the rounds They planted a seed Either we walk on the poor and we'll Karen Buchanan is a single mother of four children. She In 1988 we published the creation for the café area of their look for some pounds I keep trying end with Hiroshima, or we will walk lives in a Dundee housing scheme with a widespread songbook Enemy of Apathy but we new church building. In a joint ‘A tenner fir smak’, to weed with the poor, which will end in culture of drugs and violence. Her poem sequence ‘A never made a recording of songs venture with Shirley Billes, Worship that’s a’ we take to kill it off, Transfiguration. brand-new day’ is published in Living Letters of the Word, from it. A mere quarter of a century Development Worker with the roll up, roll up keep it out Wild Goose Publications, www.ionabooks.com later, we’re doing just that, and it Church of Scotland Priority Areas, – Source unknown in the circle of fun. of my trough.