For All the Saints Gone

For all the saints gone

forward: the 2013

anniversary celebrations on

Iona and in Glasgow …

Peter Macdonald

Next year the Community will mark two significant

anniversaries – in May, the 1450th Anniversary of the

Arrival of Columba on Iona and, in June, the 75th

Anniversary of the Founding of the Iona Community.

Leader Peter Macdonald fills us in on the 2013

calendar of events – let us all become more

Pentecostally expectant! …

‘On Pentecost Sunday we remembered in a wonderful way our gratitude to

Columba and all the saints gone forward, by a great Act of Universal

Communion. No historic denomination of Christendom that has ever served

Scotland through the centuries was absent from the occasion, either in

presence or benediction …’

So begins George MacLeod’s account of the 1400th anniversary

celebrations of the arrival of Columba on Iona. In bright sunshine and with

a stiff breeze enlivening the Sound, pilgrims came from all over Britain and

Ireland and from as far away as Switzerland and even Australia. That year,

1963, fortuitously, Pentecost and St Columba’s Day began and ended the

week for the hundreds of people staying in the camp. They were joined for

the two main acts of worship by hundreds more who came by train, bus

and steamship. As well as remembering and giving thanks for the past,

participants were led in reflection upon ‘the shape of things to come’.

Fifty years on, preparations are well-advanced for next year’s Pentecost

celebrations, when we will mark the 1450th anniversary of Columba

setting foot on Iona. In 1963, I am told, the islanders had little or no

involvement in the celebrations. However, next year’s events are being

planned by a small group of folk representing the Parish Church, Cnoc a’

Chalmain (the Roman Catholic House of Prayer), Bishop’s House and the

Iona Community. Invitations have been extended to leading political

figures on both sides of the Irish Sea, senior representatives of the major

denominations and local dignitaries. A proposed additional early-morning

sailing from Oban will enable many other people to arrive on Iona in time

for the service of thanksgiving.

The inspiration of the Columban mission will provide the focus for the

week’s programme in our centres, for guests who are involved in local

ecumenical partnerships and initiatives.

Three weeks later, on Sunday 9th June, a large open-air service will be held

on Iona to mark St Columba’s Day. Associated cultural events are being

planned by Argyll and Bute Council at four locations including Iona.

Members, Associates and Friends are invited to events being held in

Glasgow, 7-9th June, celebrating the Iona Community’s 75th anniversary.

The weekend will include events such as the inaugural George MacLeod

Memorial Lecture, performances of a play based on the early years of the

rebuilding on Iona and of the Community, a service of thanksgiving in

Govan Old and a family picnic in Elder Park.

We have booked exclusive use of the Glasgow Youth Hostel for the Friday

and Saturday nights. It is hoped that as many Members and their families

can be with us for the weekend and that Associates, Friends and

supporters will attend the special events planned. A parallel programme

for children and young people is also planned. Here you will find the draft

programme for both celebrations. More information will follow in due

course.

Prior to the 1400th anniversary celebrations George wrote:

‘If hundreds of people come to Iona on Pentecost determined to partake of the

Sacrament together … if they have all been praying for a great day … is it

really extraordinary that something should happen? As Christians in our

modern world are we really expecting anything to happen?’

As we look forward to next year and to the anniversary of the founding of

the Community – let us all become more Pentecostally expectant!

God bless,

Peter

2013 CALENDAR OF EVENTS: IONA/GLASGOW

THE 1450TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARRIVAL OF COLUMBA ON IONA

CELEBRATIONS: IONA, PENTECOST, MAY 2013:

Saturday 18th May

An Island between Heaven and Earth, Iona Village Hall: A play by Alistair

Rutherford originally written for BBC Radio 4, now adapted for the stage

and telling the story of a group of ex-shipyard workers and trainee

clergymen who arrive on the island of Iona in 1938 and set about

restoring its ruined medieval abbey.

Sunday 19th May

A Service of Thanksgiving, Iona Abbey

Buffet reception

The opening of Historic Scotland’s new interpretation facilities for visitors

to Iona

An Island between Heaven and Earth, Iona Village Hall

THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE IONA

COMMUNITY

CELEBRATIONS: GLASGOW, 7-9TH JUNE 2013

Friday 7th June

Recounting: potluck supper and sharing 75 years of stories, 7-9pm,

Renfield St Stephen’s Church, Glasgow

Saturday 8th June

Accounting: AGM, including elections, 9:30am-12:30pm, Renfield St

Stephen’s Church

The Inaugural George MacLeod Memorial Lecture, 2-4pm (venue TBC)

An Island between Heaven and Earth, 7:30pm (venue TBC)

Sunday 9th June

A Service of Blessing, Commitment and Holy Communion, 11am, Govan

Old Church

Wild Goose Family Picnic: for Members, Associates and friends of the Iona

Community, 1pm, Elder Park, Govan

‘It was magic!’ The Church of Scotland Priority

Areas Holiday Week on Iona and Mull

by John and Molly Harvey

Oban pier, 1:50pm, Saturday 14th July, 2012. Two bus-loads of excited

people spill out onto the tarmac, heading for the ferry to Mull – that’s due

to leave at 2:00! The word goes out: ‘Don't take time to look for your own

bags – just grab what you can carry and RUN!’ And we all got on – with all

the luggage. What an exercise in trust – and what a great start to a holiday!

As anyone who has ever had to organise a group holiday to Iona with the

Community will know, it takes a lot of work!

This summer, the Church of Scotland Priority Areas team, led by Martin

Johnstone and Lynn MacLellan, took a group of 35 adults and 46 children

to the Iona Community’s three centres – the Abbey, the MacLeod Centre

and Camas – for a week in July. The families came from ten Urban Priority

Area parishes in Glasgow and three nearby towns. To accompany them,

they assembled a team of 18 staff, including the two Iona Community

Members in Residence at the Abbey and the Mac; and the whole week

was brilliantly supported by the members of the Programme and Youth

teams of the Community’s staff on the islands.

And yes, it took a lot of work! A large amount of money had to be raised;

it included a generous amount from the Community itself. Preparatory

staff meetings were held throughout the preceding months in Glasgow.

Detailed planning of the programme, with activities for every age group

and for each day of the week, was thrashed out. Liaison with the staff on

Iona took place; room lists and task groups were prepared; menus were

mulled over; buses were hired and tickets bought; and a few weeks

before the start of the week, there was a gathering in the new Gorbals

church to which all the families and staff were invited, to get to know

each other, share information and check on things like clothing and

special needs. 100 packed lunches were prepared, along with ‘eventuality

travel sickness’ bags.

So it was a pretty well sorted, very excited, and probably somewhat

apprehensive group who gathered outside the Royal Concert Hall. We set

off in two hired coaches – and just made it to Oban with ten minutes to

spare, as one of the buses had to turn back after 15 minutes to pick up

someone who had been left behind in Glasgow! CalMac weren't going to

let us on, but a plea from a leader – ‘We've got an adult in a wheelchair

and a whole bunch of children’ – got us past the barrier.

We couldn't have had a better arrival on Iona. Perfect weather – the island

shining above the sparkling sea – and the Community had sent two vans

over to Fionnphort, together with the

Leader of the Community and the

Convenor of the Iona Committee, to

welcome us and to pick up all our

luggage.

What were the highlights? The

weather – stunning for the first three

days, dreich and then soaking for the

middle two – then stunning again for

the last two. The islands of course –

most folk managed to get to at least

one beach, some more than once.

The Centres – people loved the

Abbey, and took over the Mac with

gusto, while the teenagers revelled in

all that Camas had to offer. The

Community’s staff who got involved

with us – several going way beyond

their allotted hours and job

descriptions in offering help and

support. The programme – we had

stories from Jan Sutch Pickard,

‘Worship in the Wild’ with Jo Love,

games all over the place with Neil

Young and the Community’s youth

staff, two boat trips with Davie

Kirkpatrick (to Staffa in the afternoon,

round the south end of Iona in the

evening), the off-road and on-road

pilgrimages (the latter just made it to

Martyrs’ Bay for lunch, quite an

achievement considering the various

stop-offs for chips on the way – but

we made it to the Machair in brilliant

time to meet the off-roaders for

flapjacks!), arts and crafts in the Mac,

abseiling and kayaking at Camas, two

ceilidhs, breadmaking, music-making,

pizza-making, candle-making,

bedtime stories for the wee ones,

an indoor barbecue, a closing

concert. And we even had our very

own 2012 Olympic Games, setting

off at exactly 20:12 on Wednesday

to meet the Olympic torch coming

over from Camas; we had a

beautiful homemade five-circle

Olympic symbol. The games were

held in the village hall, due to the

weather, and ended with a race

through the grounds of the

Nunnery. We even had our own

medal ceremony!

Did the families enjoy themselves?

One granny, with tears in her eyes,

confessed that ‘no one has ever

given me a holiday before’. People

spoke of the unique experience of

getting away as a family together;

of the pleasure of getting food put

down in front of them; of the

programme for the children which

gave them ‘time off’; of the way

everyone looked out for each

other; of the beauty of the island

and of the story of the Abbey. A

mother shared her surprise at how

religion on Iona was about ‘the

ordinary things – I expected it to

be all holy!’; another called the

whole experience ‘humbling – a

total privilege’. A single mum, who

had been initially quite cautious

about the holiday, shared how she

gradually felt more and more

comfortable, and ‘I love the way

you say the Psalms in the services’.

‘It was magic!’ someone else said of

the time. An asylum seeker said

that it was brilliant to get the

opportunity to come here: ‘When

you are locked in Glasgow, you

don't realise how beautiful places

like this are.’ Some had come

expecting a bit more peace and

quiet – most had really no idea of

what to expect. One three-year-old,

trying to explain how it felt on the

boat trip to the south end of the

island, as the swell began to rock

the boat, pronounced ‘the boat’s

gone kind of curly’! Tears and

laughter were shared.

So yes – the families, overall,

enjoyed the holiday. For some,

especially mothers with young or

particularly challenging children,

there were times of struggle; one

such mum, offered a wee while off

while her children were in the

crèche, announced gratefully: ‘I'm

just going to enjoy a shower to

myself.’ Older children often acted

as ‘au pairs’ for some of the mums

with younger children, which was a

tremendous help. The end

refectory table in the Abbey was

set up with Lego for the wee

children at mealtimes. As for the

staff team, it’s probably true to say

that everyone felt it was a tremendously

worthwhile week, and a

privilege to be involved and to

meet and get to know so many

courageous and amazing people –

even if it meant starting usually

before 7:00 in the morning and

finishing with a nightly meeting

from 9:45 till 11:00, assessing the

day and planning (and adapting)

the programme for the next one.

A group of this size and make-up,

with so many staff of its own and

also with its own programme, was

undoubtedly a challenge to the

more fixed normal weekly

programme of the Community.

Overall, we came away with the

sense that the Community staff

had risen to the challenge with

enthusiasm and grace – indeed, one

volunteer said that ‘this is what we

had expected Iona to be about all

the time’.

Tricia McConalogue, one of the staff

team, writes: ‘The staff at the Mac were

brilliant at initiating conversation at

the dinner table and getting to know

the families. They also knew the

children by name. Their patience with

the children was great too, allowing

them to ring the bell for mealtimes. The

Mac was lively and vibrant and the

staff seemed to welcome this buzz. One

evening the people who were helping

to wash the dishes in the kitchen

started a sing-song. The staff joined in

and afterwards one of the staff

thanked the women, saying this really

made her day … For me it had the

attributes of Braendam House, that

being there for each other, looking out

for each other, noticing if someone

wasn’t at the table and going to look

for them, just what Jesus would do. It

would be great if Iona was made

available for more families like this.’

In conclusion, we’d like to think that

George MacLeod, once he’d got over

the sight and sound of all these

children in the Abbey, was smiling

down on it all, and saying softly to

himself, in the words of one of his

famous prayers: ‘Thus shall these

walls continue to be justified.’

John and Molly Harvey are members of the Iona

Community. They have been involved with Braendam

Link, Bridging the Gap and ATD Fourth World, and were

members of the Gorbals Group. John is the author of

Bridging the Gap: Has the Church Failed the Poor?, Wild

Goose Publications,

Deficit reduction hits the poorest hardest

Rev Paul Nicolson, Chair, Zacchaeus 2000 Trust

I share the view of the Pro-Housing Alliance in their submission to the

Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards: the moral collapse in

the banking industry began in the 1980s when Parliament deregulated

lending, abolished rent controls and allowed the free movement of capital

in and out of the UK. It is as if Moses went back up Mount Sinai,

deregulated the Ten Commandments – and then wondered why there

was so much theft, etc. The Libor scandal is the culmination of a long

period of deterioration during which making profit overrode morality.

The Zacchaeus 2000 Trust serves the very poorest citizens of London

struggling with a complex benefit system. The abolition of rent controls by

the 1979 government, about which the 1997 government did nothing, hit

housing benefit claimants very hard when the bankers’ bubble exploded

in 2008. The massive increase in private sector house prices, due to

reckless lending into a market in short supply, had contributed substantially

to the increase in rents and therefore in housing benefit payments;

they rose in billions every year, from £5.4 billion in 1986/7 to a planned

£19.7 billion in 2007/8 to £21 billion in 2009/10, and rising to the profit of

private landlords. This was obviously unsustainable. However, when the

crisis hit in 2008, instead of reintroducing rent controls to hit the landlords

who had profited billions from housing benefit, the Labour government

introduced the Local Housing Allowance, which capped housing benefit

and forced many tenants into rent arrears with threats of eviction. Then, in

2010, the Coalition turned up the pressure of rent arrears on those with

the lowest incomes by introducing the housing benefit caps; and in 2013

the Welfare Reform Act 2012 will introduce an overall cap of £500 a week

on benefit payments, which will, particularly, damage large families living

in high-rent areas. That is on top of the reducing value of social security

and a new council tax benefit scheme which will be run by local

authorities; there are anxieties that it will be a new poll tax.

The consequences are debt and forced migration. Zacchaeus 2000 runs