Gardening at Iona Abbey

Joint Island centre’s gardener, Rachel Saum, shares her reflections on five months of gardening at Iona Abbey and Camas.

Why do people come to Iona?

When they leave have their deepest desires been met?

Back in April, I needed somewhere to live for a few months and some gainful employment. I had decided I would spend the summer volunteering on the land, to gain more gardening experience. I had been looking into whether I could do this on a Scottish island. The day after I closed the door on another opportunity I had been exploring, I saw the Island Centres’ Gardener role advertised and applied. Practically, I came to Iona in June because I was offered a job that ticked more boxes than I could ever have asked for or imagined.

At a much deeper level, my desire was to be in a place where I would be able to continue listening to the still small voice of God as I discerned where next on my adventure of faith.

When I leave in November, I will be departing with plentiful practical gardening experience along with unexpectedly well-honed muscles, strengthened by hours spent pushing a wheelbarrow. (Anyone who has ever had the privilege of working at Camas will know what I mean!) Collecting seaweed to mulch lazy beds, barrowing rocks to improve the drainage between them and pushing crates of garden produce up the track have all been a thoroughly enjoyable labour of love. Doing physical work outdoors with the aim of growing nourishing food sustainably and developing beautiful spaces for guests and team members to enjoy has felt purposeful and life-giving.

Providing opportunities for guests and team members to encounter stillness through Lectio Divina – the contemplative practice of savouring a short sacred text – has given me occasion to go deeper. Making space for garden task teams to spend 15 minutes gardening in silence followed by the invitation to share their reflections has brought forth profound wisdom which I will take away with me. Sharing in Sunday evening communal silence has offered a space in which to breathe each week.

However, it was only when I spent a few days away from the activity, conversation and words in silence, solitude and rest with a different Christian community that I truly began to make sense of all my experiences, my jumbled thoughts and confused questions. It was only then that I encountered the gentle whisper of clarity, which past experience tells me is the voice of God.

So while I will leave with immense gratitude for the gardening experience, for being here for this time, for people I have met and for the natural environment which even on the blusteriest and wettest of days has lifted my spirits, I will also be leaving with questions about how the rhythm of the Abbey enables others to find fulfilment for their hearts’ deepest longings.

Rachel Saum – joint Island Centres Gardener