Mauri and Sherry

day six – our purpose for coming to iona

Posted By Sherry on June 18, 2008

People! We set aside our introverted tendencies to take opportunity for chats with people such as Sister Ann, who has come to Iona every summer since 1973. Back then the ferry was a little boat, and there were no cars (only tractors) on the island. She’ll soon be 85, yet she continues to meet the needs of parishes without clergy in the land of northern Wales.

Steve, from Holland, described his church of 400 members with one pastor to serve the entire congregation—along with much volunteer help. He told how the government gave them a school built during the baby boom and no longer needed. The people of their church gradually restored it and built on it to the place big enough to hold 300 people in one service.

In a discussion on Sabbath observance traditions, we heard from Eva, of Czech descent, whose family never went to church. As a result, she started attending church as part of her late-teen rebellion. Cherie, from Oregon, remembers her Syrian grandmother told of laboring with her family in the field, and the pastor took church to them wherever they worked. When she grew older she never could acclimate to traditional church because to her church was held outdoors.

Eva

Cherie

Music! For choir rehearsal we crammed ourselves in the tiny music loft in the Abbey, room for at most ten singers standing off the edges of one side of the grand piano. Mary, the Abbey musician, helped us learn a couple of songs we would lead out in the evening worship meeting. One chorus remains stuck in my head: Unless a single grain of wheat fall on the ground and die, it remains but a single grain, nothing more. Faith, a young Scot, sang the solos. Her high, straight-toned voice, reminiscent of a boy soprano, soared into every corner of the Abbey, even from the loft. Beautiful!

Extras! We’re served simple food, by design, but simple would not describe dessert. Close your eyes and try to imagine Sticky Toffee Pudding. I promise, you haven’t even come close. We will carry home the recipe!

After evening worship, we watched (with envy) Ceilidh dancing at the village hall. After a while we re-donned our rain gear for the stroll back. [I've been uploading a video of the dancing to YouTube for a half hour now and the wheel is still spinning. At $4 an hour for Internet, this might have to wait for another time.]

Here are a few miscellaneous shots:

Just like at home, a man’s work is never done!