Living intentionally, together

     I have talked before about how I am living in community with about 14 other people. I share my sleeping quarters with 4 other women, ranging in age from mid 20's to mid 60's, and the rest of the living space is shared with the 14 others.  We have a common living/dining room and a small kitchenette that we share.  There is a mini-fridge, a microwave, and most importantly an electric kettle, which is referred to as "the jug" (as in someone is always putting the jug on).  There tends to be those of us that are in at a reasonable time (before midnight) and those that are in a little later (earlier).  Occasionally there are those that don't make it in, and they come scurrying in to change clothes and get to work on time.

     There is actually very little disagreement among those of us living in the house.  We have a gathering each week on Friday mornings to discuss what issues we may have.  Here is the gist of the meeting; if you move or use it put it back, if you dirty it clean it, and if you take a shower clean out the drain.
Typically, the meeting closes with your mother doesn't live here.  And we will have similar issues and concerns next week, discuss them only a little and move on.
Clearly, if 15 people who have little to no relationship with one another can live together with very little conflict then there should be a way for others to get along.  About the only thing that we have in common is the interest in being at Iona.  We come from different countries, we speak different languages and those that speak English as a first language all have different accents.  We sat outside and discussed things we had been taught in school, and discovered the wide disparity in how many continents there are, how many planets there are, and how words are pronounced. Some are here for religious reasons, spiritual reasons, and employment reasons and simply because they thought it would be a fun way to spend 8 weeks.  But the point of the matter is, with essentially very little effort we all bring our differences together and live together, peaceably.

How much effort would it take for you to achieve peaceable living?

This could be a thin place.

So you come to this tiny place

     Okay, so not to make too much of a small thing, but I am on an island that is about 3 miles long and 1.5 mile wide.  It has one road, which is a single track road meaning only one vehicle at a time.  If the hotel van is unable to turn around in their drive, then they must go about a quarter mile up the road to turn around.  Iona is about 6 hours from Glasgow, (its 5 hours from Shreveport to New Orleans) if you could do it in a six hour stretch, but it is almost impossible to achieve the coordination of a bus/train, ferry, bus, ferry combination. Typically, you come up from Glasgow, stay overnight in Oban, and then do the ferry, bus, ferry trip. You traverse one entire island, Mull, to get to Iona.  So in reality, you cannot actually be here by accident.

     I tend to think of it as a bit like Mayberry, small town atmosphere in an island setting.  Once the last ferry leaves in the afternoon, no one is on the island that is not living or staying here.  We don't have locks on our doors and if you misplace something you simply announce it and eventually the item will be returned.  There are at least three I pads and I phones in my room, and we simply leave them plugged in and charging while we are at work.  One of the youngsters that was here this week misplaced his IPod and when the housekeepers located it they put it in the mail for him. Often I walk from the village to my residence well into the night without any concern.

     So it is remote.  It is freakishly safe.  And it is apparently a beehive of social and cultural events. Almost every evening there is some event planned before or after worship, which is at nine.  Many of these are planned by the other volunteers here and may include everyone, or one of the work or resident groups.  Other events are planned to take place by outside groups. Earlier this month a music educational group "Mendelssohn on Mull" performed in the Abbey Church. This is a group of highly skilled youth and young adults who have been sponsored through an organization on the Isle of Mull to pursue careers in classical music. It was amazing.  I truly wished that I knew more about music, because it was so moving.  Last night a couple of my friends and I went to a celebration of Tibetan culture.  Monks from a monastery in India are touring England and Scotland and were presenting a dance exhibition.  It was amazing, lasting about two hours.  I am not sure that I would have that opportunity ever, except on Iona.

Truly, if you are here long enough the world comes to Iona.

Treasure in our lives

       This week our entire community is filled with teenagers.  There are some from Sweden, Scotland, Canada, England, U.S. and Mexico.  The Iona Community considers it very important to work with youth from throughout the world.  Historically the youth camped on the grounds of the Abbey, but now with accommodations in the Abbey and Macleod centre, they stay indoors.  The theme for the week is "Treasures," and that will take on all the fun type of themes in the form of game shows and pirate parties.  On a more serious note the youth will explore what they treasure in their life, what treasures hold them, and what do they do with their treasures.

     We are invited to their sessions, if we are not working, and if we can stay awake long enough.  Because they are youth many of their sessions take place after evening worship is dismissed (9:30 p.m.), and therefore, I am not able to stay up that late.  But simply hearing the review of their sessions has started me to thinking.  What do you treasure most?  Certainly I would have to put my family right up there at the very top.  Not very large and concentrated mostly in one place family is my most treasured treasure.  I would have to say my friends, which fortunately for me is an ever growing population.  The only reason I really enjoy social media networks is to have the distinct privilege of staying in touch with my friends all over the world.  Just last week I heard from friends in Cambodia, India and Hong Kong.  I don't place much stock in my possession treasures, although I admit some of my possessions are treasured.  My niece asked me when she was in charge of my house "what should I try to save if the house catches fire?"  My response, "you and the dog, and if worse comes to worse we can get another dog."  Clearly if you know me I love my puppy, but I can't purchase more family.

     I think the other critical question they will be looking at is what do you do with your treasure?  Certainly how we use our incomes to impact ourselves and society is an increasing concern.  Early in my stay here this time I was working on my new household budget.  Because of decisions made by others, I will be facing a reduction in my household income and I want to make certain that the things I am responsible for will be covered.  So I spent some time working on my budget, and could not figure out why there was this chunk of money left over at the end of the budget.  I kept going through the numbers, again and again, and it was a mystery.  I left it alone and went with some friends on a walk, and the discussion turned to finances.  First thing one of them said was after their tithe, and it was a slap on the forehead.  That is where my money goes first, and I was so used to taking it out, that I didn't even think about it.  That was the money at the end of the budget, it wasn't left over, and it was money that I typically don't count.  Duh!

     Maybe it's time to pay more attention.  Maybe it is time to check where our treasures are, what our treasures are doing and what do we treasure.

Picnic in the Nunnery

     Coming to the Isle of Iona and participating in the life of the Iona Community is not a retreat.  They tell you that in advance, whether you are coming as a guest or a volunteer.  As a guest you will join in the life of the community, through a series of sessions that you will participate in, and through tasks that you will be given.  You will help serve and clean up after meals.  You will do some light housekeeping, some dishwashing and maybe even some vegetable chopping.  While you will be given time on your own to do with as you please, this is certainly not a place of retreat, meditation and navel gazing.  As a volunteer we work about seven and half hours a day, with one and half days off a week.  And to paraphrase a wonderful country singer "we work hard, we play harder."

     At our staff meetings on Friday a good part of the time is spent making announcements about social activities that will be taking place on the island. These may be open to all the people on the island, or smaller groups on the island.  Those of us working here may also have social events that we have planned, for example a game night or a leaving celebration.  Sometimes the events are even smaller, for example, people with shared days off may plan events.  A volunteer in the Abbey Kitchen and I share the same day off, and we both like to walk, so we take hikes together.

     After a particularly busy week, those of us living in the same centre decided to have a picnic.  All of those who wanted to join in and were not working met for a time of fellowship and feasting.  We ate in the Nunnery which is a ruin where a Benedictine nunnery was built centuries ago.  We spread out two sleeping bags, and shared the bounty of bizarre foods we had purchased at the grocery (turns out most of us were into cheese and olives, with bread and smoked salmon pate).  And we sat and laughed. It was very simple, but shared community.  There was very little planning, it wasn't a big event, but many of us agreed that it may have been one of the most significant gatherings we had participated in.

Where are the simple significances in your life?

This was a thin place.

Notion of Priority

     The Iona Community is a collection of similar minded Christians, who place an emphasis on peace and justice, in all the variety of forms in which they may or may not make themselves obvious.  It is an ecumenical group of folk, so they probably don't share common practices from their faith traditions, but they do share a love of Christ and explore ways to extend that love to the world.  They have lots of different ways of creating opportunities for that very thing; running the two centres on Iona, and the one on Mull, providing worship and spiritual resources through their publishing branch, and through a mission outreach program to people living in urban centres which they call Priority Areas.

     Isn't that cool? Ministry with the poor is labelled Priority area, and the community lives into that by making that ministry a priority in their life.  It seems so Gospel like, just as Jesus placed the priority on being with and ministering with the poor. It is so often easy to give lip service to a ministry and say it’s important, but in the end it appears not to be so.  Or how embarrassing would it be to call something a Priority but then not bring realization to the name.  But that it NOT what occurred.  The culmination of the effort by the Community resulted in about 60 people being able to leave the urban environment and come and spend a week on the Island of Iona, and participating in a holiday (vacation) program designed to mimic the Olympic Games.  For me it was similar to spending the week in Sihanoukville with the Cambodian lay leaders, who had never been to the beach before.
The members of the Iona Community may not know for months, maybe years, how their efforts influenced the lives of the people. But for those of us that were privileged enough to have the opportunity to work directly with these guests they changed our lives with their smiles, their stories and their generosity.

It was a thin place.

Routine and rituals

     We have a routine.  All of us do.  But here on Iona, we follow a weekly routine, and we are not particularly comfortable when that has to change.  We can and will be flexible, in all sorts of hospitable ways, but in the end, we enjoy our routine.
On Friday morning we bid adieu to our guests of the week, and then return to our work areas for meetings, getting our house in order for the next set of guests and a little social time without the pressure of caring for guests.  On Saturday afternoon, everything needs to be ship shape, as new guests will arrive, we will prepare meals, have welcoming time, worship and other guest events.  Sunday is our big worship service in the morning, followed by our main meal of the day during lunch, activities, events and then an evening meal of soup, then worship.  Monday and Thursday some guests will go to Staffa, to see the Fingeals cave and the puffins, while others will do other things.  Tuesday is pilgrimage day, and guests will do the long or short pilgrimage, Wednesday is a day of planned events and activities, then Friday we say goodbye and start all over again.  That is routine.

     Within the routine there are rituals.  When guests are going to Staffa, we have to move the lunch meal up 30 minutes.  On pilgrimage day we have to provide them bread and fillings to make sandwiches to take with them.  Tuesday evening’s meal is typically a bit heartier because of the physical demands of the pilgrimage.  When you are on pilgrimage there are rituals you perform, such as selecting a rock at Columba's bay and throwing it into the ocean to symbolize releasing the issues you are carrying.

     We have rituals in our jobs that may or may not be common. Typically when we make scones for tea break, yes it is a real thing, we ritually sit down for tea each day, the last little bit of dough that can no longer be cut into a scone is shaped into a figure eight.  When I work the morning shift, my ritual includes going around the outside of the building to check my freezer and refrigerator temperatures before going into the kitchen.

     Routines and rituals can be important, but when they become the most important thing we need to be careful.  When doing the thing becomes more important than what we are doing or who we are doing it with, we need to be careful.  That's where the Pharisees got themselves in a bit of a bind.  So let's hold them close, but not tightly, and our routines and rituals can continue in our thin place.

Hosting leadership

      In this morning's Sunday sermon the presenter suggested that we no longer lived in a world that needed heroic leaders.  We have entered a time where we need hosting leaders.  Heroic leaders have plans and initiatives that focus on what they and those like them believe and don't generate a movement, but further an institution.  It doesn't matter which side of the platform you come down on, right or left, conservative or moderate, as a hero leader you are going to champion only the cause that you are the hero for.  The presenter noted that in almost all recent incidents, in Europe and the U.S., where a HERO has been elected or put into office to 'save the day' it has not been so.

      The suggestion offered was that we needed hosting leadership, a leader(s) that can genuinely build consensus among the governing bodies to move in a direction that serves the largest group of the population to the detriment of the least numbers of the population.  I don't generally pay attention to the status of government, but all I could think was it would be great if we could just start with the church. What if the church could agree to have hosting leadership?  What if we could agree to do those things that we were commanded to do, and serve the largest group of the populace while causing limited detriment to others that we called Christian?  Maybe if we could get that right, the world might pay closer attention to us, and what we should be doing.  What if we could agree to start hosting leadership with those that attended our congregation, and those that our congregation serves?

Willing to believe, that would be a thin place.