coracle spring 2014 issue 4/59 THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE IONA COMMUNITY , 2013 p3 ‘TELL ABOUT IT’ Alison Swinfen, Pike Diamond and Chaz Doherty p15 BORDERLANDS AND UNIONS: ON TH E SCOTTISH REFERENDUM – A LETTER TO DAVID CAMERON Ruth Harvey p18 the magazine of the iona community TRIDENT – AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT REASON TO VOTE ‘YES’ ON 18TH SEPTEMBER coracle Alan and Maire-Colette Wilkie p21 GATHERED FOR GOD 1. You could have chosen better people 3. You could have honoured better singers Annual Repor t who showed much less diversity, than children shouting in the street. who would not compromise your gospel You could have sat with safer diners Issue or question your integrity. than those with whom you chose to eat. Instead you picked a random harvest, You could have kept a tighter circle whose pedigree was scarcely known, and made far fewer foreign friends. believing that, through these companions, Indeed, you could have done our bidding the love of God could yet be shown. and used your means to serve our ends. Gathered for God, gathered for God, Gathered for God, gathered for God, caught in the net cast by the Lord … caught in the net cast by the Lord … 2. You could have chosen safer subjects 4. But, Jesus, you came, contradicting and caused less upset and offence, how we believed God ought to be, or made innocuous pronouncements, and took our flesh for your own body which would not undermine pretence. to liberate humanity. But you decided to be different, For all you are and do and promise, to speak of money, tax and food, we gladly worship and applaud, and how the privileged can be loveless, grateful that, in your net, you caught us, and how the poor show God is good. gathered for freedom and for God. Gathered for God, gathered for God, Gathered for God, gathered for God, caught in the net cast by the Lord … caught in the net cast by the Lord. John L. Bell © 2013 GIA Publications Inc., from Gathered for God , GIA Publications. Recording and sheet music available from www.wgrg.co.uk Iona Community 75th Anniversary photo © 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 2014/contents © the individual contributors Work and worship, Prayer and politics, Sacred and secular … The Iona Community is: 1 coracle Susan Dale simple ‘send in the counsellors’ comfortable? A message came experiences; we eventually hope coracle 2 spring 2014 • An ecumenical community of men and approach was the right one: back from the police family liaison to create a resource for other spring 2014 news women from different walks of life and news different traditions in the Christian church people did not seem to need teams that they would be glad for communities who face similar • Committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Listening Point ‘counselling’ at that moment, but us to be there. Walking forward in tragic circumstances. to following where that leads, even into the they did need to talk, and to talk to faith, we moved in on the week On September 26th, 2013 the unknown Many Iona Community members and associates supported the people who would really listen. before the trial of Mark Bridger • Engaged together, and with people of goodwill town held its breath again as, at Listening Point project running here in Machynlleth, which began started. Within the space of 24 across the world, in acting, reflecting and We opted for a model providing a last, after all the waiting, the family praying for justice, peace and the integrity following the abduction and murder of little April Jones on October hours it was transformed from an drop-in centre where people of April were finally able to hold a of creation 1st, 2012. Your prayers, donations and gifts meant so much, and office into a beautiful drop-in could just pop in for an informal funeral service for their beloved • Convinced that the inclusive community we enabled us to provide really good community support to this small centre. The council had left us seek must be embodied in the community conversation and a cup of tea, a daughter. I acted as an usher at town in the middle of Wales, where support resources are so scarce. many items to use – fridge, kettle, we practise helpline staffed by myself and the church, and wept with the I thought it might interest you to have an update on the project. printer and stationery, desks, So we share a common discipline of: another counsellor, and a free family over their loss. After the chairs; volunteers and visitors • Daily prayer and bible study It has been an amazing time filled with tears, anger, and also counselling service where people funeral, I went to the drop-in • Mutual accountability for our use of time again brought flowers, paintings laughter and love. Listening Point continues to offer unconditional could be referred for more formal centre, where we all sat together and money and tablecloths. Rocking chairs love and support to whoever walks through the doors: it is support. Volunteer listeners and in our grief and love for each • Spending time together appeared for the inner room. • Action for justice and peace becoming a project run by, and for, those within the community, counsellors were recruited, and other, and drank tea and shared And are, together with our staff, whatever their need. policies and ways of working Someone posted a note the cake that someone had made responsible for: made clear. Folk delivered flyers and left for us. When April went missing, there was a knock on the door at 9:45pm through the door • Our islands residential centres of Iona Abbey, advertising the service, and we from folk already out searching. From that moment on, life here anonymously yesterday Listening Point is now at a the MacLeod Centre on Iona, and Camas were launched on the 15th of Adventure Centre on the Ross of Mull. would never be the same for me. I resisted the urge to go out into with these words: ‘Thank crossroads, moving towards December, 2012. The drop-in was And in Glasgow the night and scour the hills. As a visually impaired person with no you for being here. This becoming a community resource • The administration of the Community in the parish room of the local night vision, and unable to walk far, this, I thought, would not be the is a sanctuary.’ rather than a project, and of • Our work with young people church – folk brought books, way in which I could help; I wept however because I wanted to be course the issue of finding funding • Our publishing house, Wild Goose Publications jigsaws, wool, art materials, made We were up and running, and have • Our association in the revitalising of worship out there with the others. Then, along with everyone here in the again raises its head. I am taking a posters – the kindness and not looked back. The centre is with the Wild Goose Resource Group community, I waited, and waited – each helicopter pass over the step back for a while, but handing generosity was overwhelming. light, and often full of laughter, as The Iona Community was founded in Glasgow in bungalow shaking the very core of my being: terror was engulfing on to a team of amazingly skilled people of all ages join in knitting, 1938 by George MacLeod, minister, visionary and us all; and it went on for weeks, then months. The centre had a simple rule: and dedicated volunteers. prophetic witness for peace, in the context of art and other activities; police visit ‘What is said in the drop-in, stays in the poverty and despair of the Depression. Its In some ways I felt frozen, deskilled, unable to ‘do’ anything. Meeting alongside young mums and those My view is that it will take a the drop-in’ and an ethos of original task of rebuilding the monastic ruins of a police welfare officer, who had at that point been working 12-hour who are elderly or infirm. Since generation for the events here to Iona Abbey became a sign of hopeful rebuilding acceptance, empathy and non- days supporting the search teams, was another defining moment. be fully processed and for us to of community in Scotland and beyond. Today, we judgemental positive regard. We opening our doors last December There was a need for action within the community and I could not recover from the trauma, but I am are almost 250 Members, mostly in Britain, and started with ourselves: our own we have received 422 visits. 70 1500 Associate Members, with 1400 Friends remain in my professional-practice bubble outside of that need. I very hopeful – the resilience, thoughts and feelings about what attended a ‘fun day’ for children on worldwide. Together and apart, ‘we follow the felt driven to step forward. I had professional skills; I was also the estate. We have received 120 compassion and generosity of the light we have, and pray for more light.’ was happening, and it was Director of Counselling for a small charity, the Churches Counselling people I find myself working and through this resting in each other calls to the helpline and 14 clients Coracle is the quarterly magazine of the Iona Service in Wales, which could possibly host and assist any project have received counselling, not to living with amazes and astounds Community.