Iona - A Place of Pilgrimage

The island of Iona has long been a place of pilgrimage. Its magical landscape, religious heritage, and idyllic culture all lend it to being what Marcus Borg calls a thin place, where the line between heaven and earth, the sacred and profane is blurred. Having just visited, I get why thousands make the long journey to this tiny island. It is a powerful place. Though I am thinking I may prefer the description offered by Henry, a fellow traveler I met on Iona during Easter weekend, who said, “I wouldn't say it is thin - I would say it is fat - overflowing - abundant with life and spirit.” Such was my experience on Iona - rich, full, and immense.

Central to the allure of the island is the Abbey, which has a history all of its own. In 563 AD St. Columba established a monastic settlement that spread Christianity to much of Scotland. In the middle ages it became the site of a Benedictine Abbey. In 1938 an ecumenical group of Christians under the direction of George MacLeod, began restoration on the Abbey and today it serves as a guest house and a house of worship for the Iona Community and guests.

The Iona Community is unique to the other communities we have visited so far in that they are specifically Christian community. They are also unique in that they do not necessarily live on Iona. They are a dispersed group of people, about 200 in number, who share a common rule which includes:

Daily prayer and reading of scripture

Mutual sharing and accountability for use of time and money

Regular meeting together

Action and reflection for justice, peace, and the integrity of creation

Every year they welcome hundreds of visitors to the three centers that they oversee and maintain: the Abbey, the MacLeod Centre and Camas Centre, which is on the Island of Mull. Each center is run by both paid and volunteer staff who come from all over the world to live and work in one of these centers. Paid staff come for 1 to 3 years and volunteers come from 4 to 12 weeks at a time. In addition to the staff and volunteers, guests can come to each of these three centers and participate in the life of the community as well. Guests participate in housecleaning, cooking, worship planning and leadership, and grounds maintenance. During our 5 nights on Iona we stayed at the MacLeod Centre.

Worship in the Abbey usually takes place every morning at 9 am and every evening at 9 pm. Being that we were there over Holy Week and Easter, we had additional worship for Maundy Thursday, Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, a Saturday Night Vigil, and a Easter Celebration on Sunday Morning.

It is hard describe what it is to worship in the abbey - voices echoing across the cold stone walls, candles illuminating dark corners, ancient memories lingering between signs of the present - it was beautiful and austere and melodic all at the same time. I came expecting it to be the heart of my experience on Iona - surprisingly the land outside the abbey held just as much if not more power and inspiration. I don’t know that I have ever hiked on land with such history, emotion, and energy. The island speaks a language without words. Its rocky outcroppings, shorelines, sheep herds, boggy marshes, fields of heather and historical sites all give way to an experience of connectedness that satisfies the hearts longing...

There is more to say about Iona - much more - so perhaps this can serve as a beginning…