Holy Islands

IONA 08/07/12

Presenters: Bishop Stephen Oliver / Reverend John Bell of the Iona Community

Glasgow Queen Street Station:
Bishop Stephen & John Bell meet: conversation about the journey, Iona’s history and contemporary spirituality:
John: At the heart of its spirituality is a desire to hold all things together in Christ, so that prayer and politics and peacemaking and piety and scripture and the way we lead life are interlinked.

MUSIC: COME WITH ME, FOR THE JOURNEY IS LONG
From CD 'The Truth That Sets Us Free' by the Wild Goose Collective; Publisher Wild Goose Publications.
CD and songbook of same name available end August 2012. Further details at www.wgrg.co.uk

Ferry:
Bishop Stephen: During the summer months I’m travelling to 3 islands off the British coast: islands with a long Christian history, islands which still attract thousands of visitors and pilgrims each year. Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumbria, Caldey Island off South Wales, and today I’m making my way to the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland.

John, we’re on the ferry from Mull to Iona
+ interview with John about Iona Community music.
The name ‘Wild Goose’ and its symbolism as the restlessness of the Holy Spirit.
George MacLeod’s description of Iona as a ‘thin place’, and his vision to rebuild the ruined Abbey and make it a centre of reconciliation.

MUSIC: ALLELUIA
From CD 'The Truth That Sets Us Free' by the Wild Goose Collective; Details above.

Bishop Stephen: Coming off the ferry and my first steps on Iona, an island that I’ve longed to visit for many a year. This is the first time. An island of so much history – Columba exiled here from Ireland, founding a community, medieval Benedictine monastery, burial place of Scottish kings. And when I look round at the island I can see that it’s got a cragginess to it. I can see the Abbey which was restored in the 1930s at a time of the great depression, when George MacLeod, a minister in Govan across the waters there in Glasgow, brought skilled people here to rebuild the Abbey – an amazing feat.

And today it’s this place of young people and many thousands of people who come here year by year, who seek here that rhythm of life and death of new beginnings, and also a place of thoughtfulness and tranquillity, a place of prayer and of passion.

I must say the island is stunningly beautiful. The crystal sea is shimmering blue and green, sand that is so white it’s like caster sugar, the smell of sea and salt, the rocks that have that orange hue , and a light that is quite amazing here.
I guess that when Columba first landed here, one of the things that he would have done pretty soon would have been to pray. John.

John: Gracious God we thank you for places of significance where the stone and the rock and the sea and the sun all proclaim your glory. And we ask that places like this might always be able to resonate the power of your Gospel, and enable people who come here seeking what they want to find what they need and return better able to be servants of your world and of your kingdom.
Through Christ our Lord, (both) Amen.

Conversation: John – some of the earliest stones formed when world cooled down, this is where you hear a corncrake.
But most people have an interest in its spirituality. Because before the Christian church was established here there were people of pagan religions who worshipped here. But particularly since 563 when Columba came, this has been a centre for Europe, a kind of cradle of Christianity, he began to evangelise Scotland and then he went back to Ireland, trained monks who later went on to the continent of Europe, and relit the flame of faith when it had almost died in central Europe.

And although what we do today is different from 563, it’s the same God and it’s the same enthusiasm that leads our worship.

In Iona Abbey church:
Bishop Stephen describes Abbey’s simplicity and colour and roughness of the stones. Ruggedness that makes me think of the island, as if it’s growing out of the island.
What is worship like here?
John: Variety of music and worship here which represent diversity of people who come.
It’s an ecumenical community, and when the Cathedral part of building was rebuilt by Duke of Argyll, he willed it to a Trust to ensure that it could be used by any Christian denomination but would not belong to any one. So on a Sunday gather here Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, sometimes Orthodox, Quaker, and from all over the world, you might have as many as 20 different nationalities on a Sunday.

MUSIC: MORNING HAS BROKEN
From Abbey Worship.

PRAYERS

MUSIC: ALLELUIA
From CD 'The Truth That Sets Us Free' by the Wild Goose Collective; Details above.

INTERVIEW: BISHOP STEPHEN WITH GAIL VINCENT, IONA COMMUNITY.
Extending a welcome and hospitality to all visitors to the island.

Reading: Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Chapter 12.

MUSIC: WE CANNOT MEASURE HOW YOU HEAL
From CD ‘Listen’ by St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, Glasgow, directed by Frikki Walker.
Oboe: Rona Macleod / Organ: Geoffrey Woollatt.
Label & Number: 0XCD-109 – OxRecs Digital (www.oxrecs.com)

Reading: Beatitudes, Matthew Chapter 5

John: Reflection

Since childhood these words have puzzled me because one of the things that happened in my school days was that we were compelled, sometimes under threat of punishment, to remember words by heart, so we learned the 10 Commandments, 1st Corinthians 13 … and the Beatitudes.

The thing I suppose which has always got me about the Beatitudes is the first word, the word ‘Blessed’ which seems at odds with the experience of being poor in spirit, mourning, hungering for justice, or being persecuted. How can a restricted or impoverished state of being be ‘blessed?’

There are other texts in which we find the word ‘blessed’ which are also in the popular memory. At Christmas we remember ‘Blessed are you among women’ which is said to Mary by the angel Gabriel and then by her cousin Elizabeth. But ‘Blessed among women,’ uses another word in Greek from the word that’s used for ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’.

The word is Makarios for ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ and it infers that there is an intrinsic merit belonging to people who are poor or persecuted, and that this is a cause of celebration.

That doesn’t make it any more plausible to me. If being meek and being merciful and being persecuted for doing what is right is such a bliss-filled experience, why are more people not queuing up to avail themselves of the benefits?

So there are two things that come to mind when I think of this particular text, or these sets of word in which Jesus outlines the characteristics of the kingdom.

The first, actually, is to think of the opposites:

Now, how does this set of the Beatitudes sound?

Blessed are those who keep bragging about how religious they are!
Blessed are those who are totally incapable of grief
Blessed are those who are arrogant and self-obsessed
Blessed are those who are unkind and unforgiving
Blessed are those who refuse to have anything to do with justice
Blessed are those who are inherently corrupt
Blessed are those who create dissension and start wars
Blessed are those who get off scot free when they do something wrong.

I think it’s when we think of the unpalatable opposites that we realise that Jesus is not calling us to be doormats that anyone can walk over, but rather he is suggesting attitudes of resistance to the norms of societies which encourage selfishness, egocentricity, and escapism from reality.

The Beatitudes, as I read them, are not soft options, but words of Jesus which invite us to subdue within ourselves rogue passions and insensitivity, to diminish our self-importance while encouraging within us generosity and costly compassion.

But there’s another thing that comes to mind when I feel for what this ‘blessed are the poor’, ‘blessed are those who mourn’, what it means.

It’s just that when I think of the people who have deepened my life, and who have challenged my presumptions, and who have brought out the best in me,

These are not people who have been addicted to success or recognition.
These are not people who have had safety nets under them from birth
These are not people who have refused to take a stance on matters of public policy
These are not people who have ridden roughshod over other people’s feelings.

For me, the people who have changed my life,
who have deepened my faith,
who have forced me to rethink my opinions

include an unmarried woman called Gabi who worked most of her life in a brassiere shop
caring for women who had mastectomies

They include a boy called Gary who spent ten years in prison but was one of the most selfless encouragers of others

They include a girl called Nomso who was raped by four men and became HIV positive yet who recovered her self-respect and inspired others

They include a prestigious gynaecologist called Ron who leads a youth group of awkward
teenagers

a pensioner called Sally who looks after asylum seekers

a severely disabled man called John who never stops smiling and has raised
thousands of pounds for charity

and my grandmother who lost her husband, her two sons, and all her brothers and sisters before she died, yet she lived without complaint until she was 94.

It’s because such people whom we all know, have made a positive impact on our lives well beyond the capability of those who worship the gods of wealth or success, of the ego or escapism that we can say with Jesus

Blessed are you, poor in spirit
Blessed are you who mourn

And I believe that Jesus said these words with conviction because it was in conversing with people of no social standing, in seeing the faith and generosity and gratitude in people whose names never hit the headlines, and being cared for by people whose moral standards could have compromised him … and being touched by the gentle and the merciful and those who were penalised for doing good… in such things, by such people Jesus like us - was blessed.

MUSIC: LET MY PEOPLE GO
From CD 'The Truth That Sets Us Free' by the Wild Goose Collective; Details above.

John: At St Columba’s Bay:

Story of Columba arriving there and burning his coracle.
People come to the bay and take a stone and throw it into the sea to symbolise starting afresh or leaving something behind which they want to leave in God’s hands. Only the individual knows at what level it’s significant to them. This moment of ritual can be a very unique experience.

Bishop Stephen: Interview with Leni about her stones – one thrown in the ocean and one brought away from the beach.

Bishop Stephen: Well I’m going to go off and do that now. It’s quite a personal moment for me because it’s been something of a journey coming to Iona and meeting all these people. And just standing here on the beach with all these pebbles around me of so many different colours, of orange and pinks and greens and greys, and when I look into the sea those colours become ever more vibrant once the waters touch them - the water of life, the water of baptism – all individual but somehow more vibrant for being together and being touched by that water.

And there are things that people need to let go and this is a place where, it’s far away from their normal life, they get some perspective on their life, and that can be frightening, it can be scary, it can bring to the surface all sorts of hidden things that they’d rather not face, or their busy lives have made sure that they don’t face it back home, but here, somehow it’s safe to let it come to the surface, and that can be quite a traumatic thing for some people, for others it can be very liberating.

So forgive me if I don’t share with you my deepest, innermost thoughts, but there are things that I need to leave behind, not least because I need some space to accept and welcome new things here - that sense of community, of commitment of people, of rich varieties of lives being intertwined here.

So let me get that stone, and let me throw this and leave things behind, as I welcome those new things into my life.

Abbey: Intercessions

Bishop Stephen: With one heart and mind let us make our prayer.

Eternal and gracious God hear us, for those who are poor in spirit, those devoid of love and those hungry for food.

Hear our prayer for those who mourn, all who have lost the one they loved most, those who have lost confidence in themselves and trust in others.
God, in your mercy,

All: Hear our prayer.

Hear our prayer for all who care for your creation, whose concern is for the future of this fragile planet. May our children and all who follow us inherit the beauty of our earthly home.
Hear our prayer for those who hunger for justice, and those persecuted for righteousness. All who work and suffer for a fairer world.
God, in your mercy,

All: Hear our prayer.

Hear our prayer for the strong of this world who show mercy. By such healing grace bring new opportunity and new life to fractured communities and to broken people.

Hear our prayer for all people of integrity, for those who are pure in heart. Strengthen them in soul, uphold them in spirit, and defend them against cruel mockery and cynical scorn.
God, in your mercy,

All: Hear our prayer.

Hear us, for all who are called to be peacemakers in this world. Renew in them the deep wells of faith and hope, for they are your children.

These and all the silent prayers of our hearts, we bring in the words that Jesus taught us:

LORD’S PRAYER

MUSIC: PEACE I LEAVE, MY PEACE I GIVE YOU
From CD 'The Truth That Sets Us Free' by the Wild Goose Collective; Details above.

Bishop Stephen: Well John, it’s been quite a journey, thank you for showing me Iona. I’ve never been here before but I’ve learned so much and it’s been an absolute delight to be with you.
John: Thank you.
Bishop Stephen: Will you give me a blessing as I go on my way?

John: Certainly. This is an ancient Celtic blessing.

“The peace of God,
The peace of God’s people
The peace of Mary the strong and loving one
And of Christ the king of human hearts,
Be upon each thing your eyes take in
Be upon each thing your ears take in
Be upon your body which comes from the earth
And upon your soul which comes from heaven
Ever more and ever more. “ (Both) Amen.

MUSIC: PEACE I LEAVE, MY PEACE I GIVE YOU
From CD 'The Truth That Sets Us Free' by the Wild Goose Collective; Details above.