Come Unity – a continental gathering
Born in Scotland, the Iona Community has found a home across the world, including in Europe. In the last few months, the Community has met in Austria and the Netherlands.
In September, forty-two participants from England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Austria met together in Tainach, Austria for the Iona Community Continental Gathering. The group explored what it means to live together in diversity through pilgrimage, worship and communal singing.
The venue for the meeting, the Catholic education and guest house of the ‘Sodalitas’ was, itself, a symbol of inclusion. Tainach is one of the places in the province of Carinthia where the Slovenian minority in Austria lives, which, despite legal provisions for minority groups in the Austrian State Treaty of 1955, is still subject to certain disadvantages.
Maria K Moser, director of Diakonie Austria, joined us to explore how inclusion can actually be achieved, and what is needed to make it happen.
Creating connection in polarising times
In November, twenty-four Members of the Iona Community Netherlands (pictured at the top of the page) gathered to explore the theme of ‘Resilience and Connectedness’. This theme didn’t come out of the blue. Polarisation in our society has increased in recent years, and there are numerous topics where it can be difficult to engage in conversation with people who hold different opinions. Topics such as migration, climate, Gaza, or vaccinations can be difficult. So, in how can you connect and maintain that connection in polarising times?
Enriching rituals
We invited Iona Community Leader, Ruth Harvey, to give some short introductions and to come alongside us for the weekend. Ruth emphasized the importance of patterns and rituals for binding us together in time and space. Rituals weave us into the fabric of the world, building strength and resilience even when all hope seems to be lost. These patterns are recognisable in our ways of working and worshipping. It was enriching to discover which patterns we use in the Iona Community Netherlands, both nationally and in the regional groups.
On Saturday afternoon, we practiced role-playing a contentious conversation about migration in the Netherlands. This exercise yielded several tips and tricks that we will continue to use in the coming period.
And of course, we worshipped twice a day, following the same pattern as in Iona Abbey, with a morning service at 8 pm and an evening service at 9 pm. We used translations of services from the Wee Worship book and the Iona Abbey Worship Book and sang translations of Iona Community songs. One of our youngest guests, Aletta, reflected on the weekend in a poem, written in Dutch and translated into English.
Als de avond valt,
gaat de storm in mijn hoofd liggen
en keert de rust weer terug in mij.
Als de avond valt,
eten wij hier samen
en spreken wij elkaar.
Als de avond valt,
zien wij lichten duidelijker dan overdag
en schijnen de zonnetjes in huis.
Als de avond valt,
zitten wij hier bij elkaar.
Dank u wel, God, voor de avond.
As the evening falls,
the storm in my head lies down
and quiet comes back to me.
As the evening falls,
we eat here together
and we talk with each other.
As the evening falls,
we see lights more clearly than by day
and little suns shine in the house.
As the evening falls,
we sit here with each other.
Thank you, God, for the evening.
USA North East