Sunday At The Abbey

Part of my purpose for coming to Iona was to experience life in community, and that experience began in earnest on Sunday morning. On Saturday the staff set the table and cleaned up for supper. The rest of the week we do the setting and cleaning up for the meals, and we do the daily cleaning of the lavatories, showers and common areas. Since there are many of us, the work goes really quickly, unlike at home where I do all the bathrooms by myself.

The form of the day is similar to a day at Camp Washington. Breakfast is at 8:15, lunch at 1:00 and supper at 6:00. Worship is at 9:00 AM, followed by our chores. We can then take part in the daily programs if we want. There is also an evening worship at 9:00 PM. All the guests for the week are divided into three groups for the purpose of assigning chores. Tom is an Otter, and his group is in charge of breakfast, chopping of foods for later in the day and other chores. I am a seal, and we do supper and chores in one section of the housing area. The other group is the Puffins who take care of lunch and other chores.

Along with seven other people I helped with the worship service, which on Sunday is a Eucharist/Communion. Our job was first to help pass the small wooden offering bowls around. Then we all lined up single file and took the plates into the sacristy where they were fit into a large gold offering plate. Each of us then carried something for the Communion out to the altar. I carried a chalice with grape juice. Others carried a huge loaf of bread, a plate of gluten free bread, chalices of wine and the offering plate. We stood round the altar with the presider (a female minister from the Reformed Church of American who has been serving in Scotland for four years) during the liturgy and then helped to pass the chalice and the bread to the seated congregants. After we all returned to the altar, we received Communion and during the closing hymn we carried everything back to the sacristy. I enjoyed serving in the liturgy and not being in charge. As I stood at the front of the church I was very moved by the thought that Christians worshipped here 1500 years ago, and people from all over the world were worshipping together today. Tom and I both really like the words of the Iona Community liturgy because they are so relevant to contemporary life.

Sunday’s craft program was candle making, and for some reason I decided to do that. I am one of the uncraftiest people you will ever meet, but I had fun trying. I’ll see what the finished product looks like on Monday.

The group from Vermont showed up during supper. Their plane had been delayed six hours, but they seemed none the worse for the delay.

The first picture in this post is of a sculpture by Jacob Lipschitz that is in the center of the Abbey Cloister. It is titled "Incarnation", and Tom and I both found it quite moving.

Tom and I took a 600-meter walk up to the top of a dun, a high rocky point, near the Abbey after the evening program and worship. We sat there for about 15 minutes listening to the ocean breakers below and watched the sunlight fade from the western sky. Then we wended our way down in twilight to the road back to the Abbey.