A book of reflections, meditations and prayers for Advent and Christmas, Lent, Holy Week and Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. This book began as a birthday gift. For her 50th birthday Ruth asked her family not for material presents, but for gifts of time and experiences. What followed included long talks with her father about the deep stories of their shared spiritual journey. John and Ruth write: 'It has been a privilege to spend time in each other's company around the kitchen table and in a chilly Glasgow study. For us it has been a profound experience. We hope that in sharing a part of this story, it may encourage others on a similar journey of shared gifts and faith.' John Harvey is a retired minister of the Church of Scotland who was part of the experimental Gorbals Group Ministry. He has been a member of the Iona Community since 1964, and has served as Warden of Iona Abbey and as Leader of the Community. Ruth Harvey is the Leader of the Iona Community. Previously she was Director of Place for Hope, a Scottish charity accompanying churches and faith communities through times of challenge, change and conflict. She is a minister in the Church of Scotland and a Quaker. 'This book will welcome you home, with justice, courage, humour and delight.' Padraig O Tuama, former Leader of the Corrymeela Community
During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in spring 2020, many people turned to writing: diaries, letters, cards, poems. Human words, sent out across the void of our isolation, shouted into the storm over which we had no control. What we could do was communicate with each other, raise our voices against the silence of separation, argue with our own doubts, call out to God, express our fragile hope. Here are the voices of just a few - members and associates of the Iona Community - with poems, psalms, songs, affirmations of faith and prayers written during a full and fraught ten weeks. We offer these human words believing that when the darkness seems overwhelming, light dawns; that into the silence of our worst fears God speaks a living Word.
Alex Clare-Young, the first out transgender minister in the United Reformed Church, says: Transgender Christian Human is the story of my life as a transgender child and adult. Trans is an imperfect label but labels are, to some extent, necessary - especially when we choose them for ourselves. For me, being trans means moving towards a gender that varies from my sex assigned at birth. It also means moving between genders and critiquing the rigidity of gendered systems. I believe that we are called to live in relationship and continual, open conversation not only with those who mirror us but also with those who are other to us. As a trans person, I have experienced that call as both blessing and curse; both injury and cure. I have lived through the pain of feeling that there is no one quite like me and I have lived in the joy of sharing differences and similarities with those who are open to talk about their amazingly diverse life stories. Parts of this book are incredibly sad. Others are full of joy. Some are even pretty funny. I hope that the result is an honest and authentic reflection of being transgender, Christian and human. I have included resources and activities at the end of each chapter to encourage individuals and groups to explore the subject. I hope the book helps you to understand yourself and your friends, colleagues and family a little better - and that it acts as a mirror to reflect a different way of being.
Another wide-ranging collection of resources, including material for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Holy Week. Also includes a reflection, meditation and prayer for Holocaust Memorial Day; resources and ideas for remembering the Bible with women; prayers by and for kids; all-age resources for Pentecost and Ascension, and Christmastime; harvest prayers; a meditative look at climate change, the sacredness of all life and human responsibility; a blessing for a new car; stories and reflections for the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel; a reflection and prayer on racial justice; prayers for Remembrance Sunday; a reflection, meditation, and ideas for taking action on homelessness ...So - as always with the Iona Community - worship which is contextual, prophetic, with a strong justice and peace edge. Originally published as single digital downloads by Wild Goose, these are now all brought together for the first time in this second Big Book of Worship Resources. Contributors include Isabel Smyth, Jan Sutch Pickard, Ruth Burgess, Thom M Shuman, David Osborne, Roddy Cowie, Janet Lees, Joy Mead, David Coleman, Iain Whyte, Isabel Whyte, Peter Millar, Elaine Gisbourne, Richard Skinner, Ewan Aitken and others. God of justice and joy,help us to be faithful to our calling to walk in the footsteps of Jesus,to be people of hospitality, integrity, justice and compassion. AmenNorman Shanks
An original collection of stories, reflections, meditations, poems, songs and dialogues about recalling the wisdom of our own childhood thoughts and being open to what children in our midst have to share with us about God, faith, life, death and spirituality.
What becomes of faith in God when bad stuff happens? How do we react when we realise that, for all its glories, this world can be a dark, dangerous and disappointing place? Peter Longson's honest, unflinching exploration of the nature of evil and its consequences for life and faith leads him to some surprising and liberating conclusions about the nature of God.
This full-colour book offers a unique insight into labyrinths in the UK and wider, combined with Di's own stunning photography. It begins with a potted history of the labyrinth and hints for walking one, shares personal reflections and stories from the labyrinth and explores the variety of settings in which labyrinths are now to be found. It includes a section on how to create your own labyrinth and lead your own labyrinth walk.
In 2004, the Iona Community became concerned that many of those who could bear witness to its early days were by then in their 70s or 80s. As a result, they commissioned an oral history project, so that their testimonies would not be lost. This book is based on the recordings of their stories - of how a man called George MacLeod, and a group of like-minded friends and colleagues, had a vision of how to put the church with its message of 'good news to the poor' speak again to ordinary people.
Reflections for Advent from members, associates and friends of the Iona Community around the world - from Uganda, Scotland, Wales, Palestine, Switzerland, India, Malawi, Australia, China, Iona, Sweden, Kenya, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany, Jerusalem, Japan, Ireland, Taiwan, Cuba, Alaska - and more.
When Jacqueline Ley's 23-year-old son told her that he was gay, she was shocked and hurt. Her fundamentalist Christian background told her that homosexuality was sinful and that her son had placed himself beyond the pale. But she underwent a remarkable transformation of attitude. A mother's journey from craving 'normality' for her child to celebrating him as a blessedly extraordinary creature of God.
Advent is a time of wonder and waiting - but that's not a passive thing. We need to walk into Advent with our eyes open. We walk through a world where wars are being waged and babies are being born. We are humbled by our inability to do much about what is wrong. But we do our best: to be kind, caring, to understand the meaning of mercy. We do our best to be even-handed, to act justly. Words from the prophet Micah inspired this book. But it also reflects the words of a later prophet, George Fox: 'Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.' Join us on a cheerful, thoughtful, justice-seeking journey towards Bethlehem, a journey day by day through Advent.
Shortly after becoming Chairman of the Birmingham District of the Methodist Church, Donald Eadie was told that he had a degenerative disc disease. Following three major spinal operations, he was forced to retire, and to face the letting go of identity and role, feelings of marginalisation and abandonment - living with the death of the old life, and not being able to imagine a new one with meaning and purpose. Jesuit priest and writer Gerard Hughes accompanied Donald during this time. 'The borderlands are the place of exploration and discovery. They are the new centre,' he said. And paradoxically, in time, Donald began to experience the move away from the centre of a busy life to the edge as a journey deeper into the heart of things.
Katharine Preston challenges us to think more deeply about the human condition and our choices in this time of ever-increasing climate disturbance. Moved by the landscapes surrounding her home, Wild Orchard Farm, and drawing on both her ecological and theological training, she writes for scientists leery of faith, people of faith who know and love the miracles of science, and anybody who shares the vision of the planet as a sacred community. There will be more books like this. There have to be. But read this one now, and be uplifted by Katharine's sense of wonder, fed by her scientific and theological literacy, her experiential reasoning, and her realistic and timely passion for the Earth and all its creatures in this, our age of accelerating climate crisis. -David Coleman. Environmental Chaplain with Eco-Congregation Scotland
Liturgies and liturgical resources for New Year, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Advent and Christmas. A liturgy for an 'ordinary day', and resources for special days like the UN International Day of Friendship and World AIDS Day. Full communion services and shorts acts of worship; liturgies for small groups and all-age gatherings; collections of resources that could be used to help shape liturgies, or at special events and gatherings. Services rooted in church, community, home and school life. So - as always with the Iona Community - worship which is contextual, with a strong justice and peace edge.
In September 2015 the world woke up to the fact that people seeking refuge from war and persecution were drowning by their thousands in the Mediterranean. From sub-Saharan Africa and conflicts across the Middle East bodies moved, died or survived. Alison Phipps and Tawona Sitholé were working together in Ghana at the time, which is where this conversation in poetry began. In an echoing call and response they offer words for these times of war; ways of wondering what it means to resist; to suffer with; to bear witness; to seek companionship; to be part of the agony of a family made in love, and parting, separated by land, sea and paperwork. Alison Phipps is UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts; Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Glasgow; and Co-Convener of Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network. Tawona Sitholé is a Zimbabwean writer and musician. He is Poet in Residence with the UNESCO Chair programme of Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow and is co-founder of Seeds of Thought, which promotes creative writing and performance. This is a confluence of voices inspired by seemingly different, yet very similar, experiences, which forms a wholesome body that flows smoothly, massaging all your five senses. - Chirikure Chirikure, poet, Harare, ZimbabweA special offering from two gifted lovers of the Word. The Word as a healer's bittersweet medicine for troubled hearts and minds. The Word as nourishing sounds and voices that take us back to ancestral time. - Kofi Anyidoho, poet and Professor of Literature, University of GhanaBeautiful, heart-warming, poignant. I totally recommend this book. - Amal Azzudin, Glasgow Girl and human rights activistLuminous, beautiful and sore. Poetry that is lyrical and tender, wounded and elegiac, probing and incantatory. And above all else life-affirming. - Karine Polwart, Scottish singer-songwriter
A collection of worship and reflection resources for the summer period of Ordinary Time - prayers, stories, responses, songs, poems, reflections and meditations, written by Iona Community members, associates, friends and others.
Fig Trees and Furnaces, based on the biblical books from Esther to Maccabees, is a collection of stories, scripts and reflections written by Iona Community members, associates, friends and others. It is a companion volume to Olives and Obligations, which is based on the books from Genesis to Nehemiah.
Reflections, meditations, prayers, activities and liturgies for Lent. Includes a liturgy for Mother's Day, worship for Ash Wednesday, an all-age service for Shrove Tuesday for making and sharing pancakes, and other all-age resources. Sally Foster-Fulton i
Prenumerera på vårt nyhetsbrev för att få fantastiska erbjudanden och inspiration för din nästa läsning.
Genom att registrera dig accepterar du vår personuppgiftspolicy.
