Iona Community

Women’s Spirituality Week (FULLY BOOKED)
2024-08-10 16:00 - 2024-08-16 09:00 UTC | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Image: Descent of the Spirit Lipchitz Sculpture in Iona Abbey Cloisters. Credit: Iona Community/ B. Forsyth

Women’s Spirituality Week 10th – 16th August 2024
Together we will investigate a different perspective on women’s spirituality, finding inspiration from some of the women in the Bible, and how their stories speak to us now.
We will examine the remarkable hidden life of Mary Magdalene – her struggle, sorrow and triumph – and all she has to offer modern faith in terms of presence, recognition and equality.
We will honour Mary as a surprisingly contemporary figure, a prism through which we can examine the way we relate to ourselves, each other and the divine.
This week will combine workshops, Shibashi and positive exercises for inward reflection. Spend a week in community, in art, in nature, finding a slow life on our inner healing journey.
The week is open to people of all genders and will be facilitated by Evie Nieboer, a former Deputy Cook at Iona Abbey, and a member of the Iona Community Young Adults’ Group.

Costs
6 Nights: £762 per adult, £381 for reduced rate – see our programme page for more information.

Today we rise! YouthFest 2024 (age 14-18)
2024-08-03 16:00 - 2024-08-09 09:00 | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Image: Young people on the weekly pilgrimage on Iona. Credit: Iona Community/ J. Hudiburg
Today we rise. YouthFest 20204 3rd – 9th August
Grounded in each day, we will explore the island and community as well as what helps us grow and rise in our lives. Beach time, art, hiking, music, service, worship and fun!
Facilitators

Joshuah Brian Campbell is a singer, composer, songwriter, ministry worker, and actor from Cheraw, South Carolina, USA. He is passionate about church (and divine experiences that aren’t church), all kinds of music, cooking, and animals (especially hippos and dogs). On Iona, he looks forward to breathing new air, singing new songs, and learning new things with the YouthFest community. You can see Joshuah in action here.
Allen Hannah runs a Charity Theatre School called Encore Stars Academy and also works for the Scottish government. Allen is passionate about working and helping young people learn new skills and have fun. They like to sing, play the guitar and travel as much as possible and are looking forward to meeting everyone and being part in their journey as they discover Iona and all it has to offer.
You can get a flavour of YouthFest here:

Costs
6 Nights: £381 for all under-18s and up to 2 adults per group. Any additional adults will be charged at the full rate of £762.00. Contact ionaabbeybookings@iona.org.uk for all the essential booking information.

Global Song (FULLY BOOKED)
2024-07-27 16:00 - 2024-08-02 09:00 | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Image Credit: Albin Hillert-WCC
Global Song: 27th July – 2nd August 2024

Come and make a joyful noise on Iona! We will join together in sharing and learning songs from around the world and affirm our commitment to a world of justice, peace and the integrity of Creation. Suitable for any level of musical ability.
The iconic Iona experiences will also be part of the week: pilgrimage on the land, boat trip to Staffa and more.
Facilitated by Iain McLarty, a choir and orchestra conductor and a church musician working in a broad range of musical styles. He directed the latest Wild Goose Collective album, “This is God’s World” and is co-editor of the Church of Scotland’s Hymnary Supplement, which will be published in 2024. He is particularly interested in music and liturgy in an ecumenical context and is regularly involved in leading worship at national and international events, including for the World Council of Churches. He is an Associate Member of the Iona Community
Costs
6 Nights: £762 per adult, £381 for reduced rate – see our programme page for more information.

Time and Space 3 or 6 Nights (FULLY BOOKED)
2024-07-20 16:00 - 2024-07-26 09:00 | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Time and Space 6 or 3 night stays from 20th to 26th July 2024.
3 night stays begin on Saturday 20th or Tuesday 23rd.
You are welcome to come for 3 or 6 nights of Time and Space in July. This opportunity will allow you to experience life in community at Iona Abbey. This includes participating in regular worship, sharing in meals and joining in community tasks that contribute to our shared life.
Time and Space at Iona Abbey offers you the opportunity to participate in a programme that includes guided reflection, small group conversations and open space. Together we take the time and space to explore issues of concern, such as inclusion, ecological justice and peace, through creativity and discussion.
You will have the opportunity to participate in our renowned pilgrimage around the island, either on or off road. There is also an optional boat trip to Staffa (April until mid-October) and creative art opportunities throughout the week.

We look forward to welcoming you to Iona Abbey for some Time and Space in 2024.
Costs
6 Nights: £762 per adult, 3 Nights: £381 – see our programme page for more information.

3 Nights: 20th - 23rd Book Here

or

3 Nights: 23rd - 26th Book Here

Sound and Vision - Creative Week (LIMITED AVAILABILITY)
2024-07-06 16:00 - 2024-07-12 09:00 | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Image: Creative collaboration. Credit: Iona Community/ S. Edwards
Sound and Vision 6th – 12th July 2024
A week of high summer invention and creation. Enjoy readings, workshops and learning activities around creativity: music, poetry, art and storytelling. Come to celebrate, learn, experiment, explore against the backdrop of Iona’s stunning natural beauty.
Sound and Vision Week is designed to allow creative people and people who just want to create to live in community, develop skills and forge new connections. Bring your inspiration, your dreams, ideas, work in progress, or just a willingness to collaborate, experiment and learn through play. There will be informal workshops in song writing, creative writing and visual art, culminating in a celebratory showcase on the last night.
Welcome to the curious and courageous, to artists and non-artists and everyone in between. Come and create magnificent things, or just have fun trying, on Iona in July.
Creative Workshops throughout the week will be led by Liz McWhirter, the Iona Abbey Programme Team and Iona musician Jerry Akehurst.
Details of Liz’s Monday workshop are below and she is also giving a talk at the bookshop on Thursday at 2pm.

ENTANGLED FOREST: A Theopoetics Creative Writing Workshop
A guided, reflective space for you to respond creatively in this challenging time. Prompts for free writing will include poems, natural objects and a short film by digital artist Jonathan Kearney. Devices such as list-making and collage will enable you to explore composting and re-purposing words into poetic forms that serve to both constrain and liberate, whether they retain a poetic structure or lean towards prose. Work towards a poem, prose, a manifesto, lament or prayer; the aim is to use language as an act of self-care, resistance and hope. Ultimately, new language may challenge ways of seeing and help engender change that is personal, political, systemic (Callid Keefe-Perry). The poet ‘never closes the case for becoming’ (Roland Faber). P.S. There’s no compulsion to share your writing on the spot!

Liz MacWhirter’s debut novel ‘Black Snow Falling’ (Scotland Street Press, 2018) gained a Carnegie Medal nomination. She is writing a novel for her PhD, exploring intersections between trauma spirituality and contemplative theology. Poetry is published by Lucy Writers, Cambridge. Liz performed ‘Blue: a lament for the sea’ at Yale in 2023.
Costs
6 Nights: £762 per adult, £381 for reduced rate – see our programme page for more information.

Columba Week (FULLY BOOKED - waiting list open)
2024-06-08 16:00 - 2024-06-14 09:00 | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Image: Columba’s Shrine by the door of Iona Abbey. Credit: Iona Community/ B. Forsyth
Columba Week 8th – 14th June 2024. – FULLY BOOKED
(WAITING LIST – please contact ionaabbeybookings@iona.org.uk to add your name to the waiting list).
Iconic, flawed, ambitious and unique, Saint Columba emerged from the sorrow of exile to become the foremost figure of his time, spreading the gospel and establishing a thriving island community which one writer called “a beacon of enlightenment Christianity”. Columba’s story is curiously modern. It challenges us to speak truth to power, create genuine openness and welcome, to do the hard work of peace-making and leadership in dark times.

Sunday 9th June, Columba’s feast day, will include the launch of the CHARTS Iona project, bringing an exhibition from Donegal about the saint, and with music, poetry, and a session on placenames and the landscape of Iona. The week will also include sessions on the Book of Kells, created on Iona in honour of Columcille. The poetry created in his memory since ancient times. The artwork of sculptured stone and painted imagery made over the centuries, and a discussion of how beauty, memory and places of pilgrimage can become a springboard for action for social justice in our world. Take part in workshops on music, writing and art, and a guided pilgrimage to stunning St. Columba’s Bay.This week will be led by Iona Community Member and writer, Rosemary Power.

Costs
6 Nights: £762 per adult, £381 for reduced rate – see our programme page for more information.

Experience Camas
2024-05-20 - 2024-05-22
Come and experience Camas for yourself
This is your opportunity to experience the wonder of Camas firsthand and at a discounted rate for all those working in the voluntary sector, support and social care services or education. This is a no obligation invitation to discover the life-changing potential that Camas could have for your service users/clients. Camas has a wealth of experience of hosting diverse groups such as addiction support groups, groups of refugee/asylum seekers, youth groups, learning disability groups, church groups and groups focused on rehabilitating offenders. Come and experience the magic of Camas and share in our community life!
Time at Camas includes:
Nature Connection: Immerse yourself in the stunning natural beauty of the Isle of Mull by walking down the track to Camas and waking up right on the shore of beautiful Camas bay each morning.
Adventure Activities: Dive into exhilarating outdoor activities including kayaking, abseiling, coasteering, wild camping and hiking.
Fireside Gatherings: Evenings filled with storytelling, games, music, and laughter, fostering bonds and creating lasting memories.
Stargazing: Lose yourself in the beauty of the night sky on the Camas lawn, offering a chance for reflection and perspective.
Building relationships: Share insights and ideas, participate in activities and share in community life at Camas as we cook, clean and work together.
Why Camas Outdoor Centre?
At Camas, we believe in the life changing power of nature and community. Our remote location and tailored programme of activities provides the ideal experience for groups of all kinds to unplug and unwind, grow in self-confidence and forge meaningful connections.
Don’t just take our word for it, watch this short film about Camas here:

Cost and how to book?
We are offering this stay at Camas for the reduced price of £75 per person.

Wild Goose Resource Group
2024-05-18 16:00 - 2024-05-24 09:00 | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Bones & Groans 18th – 24th May 2024
Exploring worship beyond words and into the imagination, through body, sound and visual artistry.
Led by Jo Love of the Wild Goose Resource Group, with Carol Marples (Soul Marks Trust) and Jane Bentley (ArtBeatMusic).
We hope that all who come are keen to be actively involved in the programme.
When you reserve a place, you will be invited to complete a questionnaire so that we can find out about your interest in creative worship.

Costs
6 Nights: £762 per adult, £381 for reduced rate – see our programme page for more information.

The Miracles Unboxed - John Bell - (FULLY BOOKED - waiting list open).
2024-05-04 16:00 - 2024-05-10 09:00 | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
The miracles unboxed with John Bell 4th – 10th May 2024. (FULLY BOOKED)

(WAITING LIST – please contact ionaabbeybookings@iona.org.uk to add your name to the waiting list).

Has science or cynicism put an end to thinking about miracles, of which the gospels record thirty-one? John Bell believes they are buried treasure more to activists than pietists, sometimes funny in the extreme, sometimes profoundly unsettling.

Costs
6 Nights: £762 per adult, £381 for reduced rate – see our programme page for more information.

Wildlife Week
2024-04-27 16:00 - 2024-05-03 09:00 | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Wildlife Week 27th April – 3rd May 2024

The experience of wonder is healing and motivating. We will take the week to immerse ourselves in nature on Iona; her various species of plants, rocks and creatures. From wondering we will move to a deepened love and solidarity with creation, spiritual resilience and a renewed commitment to living lightly and faithfully on our planet.
Find out more about Wildlife Week in this enticing short film created by a facilitator for the week, David Coleman:

The week will be facilitated by David Coleman is an Iona Community Member and Eco-Congregation Scotland Chaplain as well as other folks skilled in geology, botany, nature management, climate change and ecotheology.

Since 2018, Rev David J M Coleman has been Environmental Chaplain for EcoCongregation Scotland. encouraging and challenging Scottish churches, as well as training institutions, in their relationship with the Earth and commitment to Creation’s care. Supported by partner Karen, he has travelled from Shetland to the Borders, leading worship and being encouraged by the often understated commitment of local communities, and emphasising their permission to move on creatively from the ’Stewardship Christianity’ which has been made obsolete by the Nature & Climate Crises, to something which better allows us to be taught by the Earth, by the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky’ [Job 12] He is a member of the Iona Community, having contributed much reflective visual material to Wild Goose Publications. He got into trouble for pursuing an interest in Creation Theology at college, but has survived the thirty years since, as a URC minister, mostly in grassroots church situations, though having the opportunity to learn from the spirituality of Christians from the Pacific and elsewhere.
Costs
6 Nights: £762 per adult, £381 for reduced rate – see our programme page for more information.

Time and Space 3 or 6 Nights (LIMITED AVAILABILITY)
2024-04-13 16:00 - 2024-04-19 09:00 | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Time and Space 6 or 3 night stays from 13th to 19th April 2024. (FULLY BOOKED)
3 night stays begin on Saturday 13th or Tuesday 16th.
(This Time and Space Week is now fully booked, we do have other Time and Space Weeks available – have a look at our programme page.)
You are welcome to come for 3 or 6 nights of Time and Space in April. This opportunity will allow you to experience life in community at Iona Abbey. This includes participating in regular worship, sharing in meals and joining in community tasks that contribute to our shared life.
Time and Space at Iona Abbey offers you the opportunity to participate in a programme that includes guided reflection, small group conversations and open space. Together we take the time and space to explore issues of concern, such as inclusion, ecological justice and peace, through creativity and discussion.
You will have the opportunity to participate in our renowned pilgrimage around the island, either on or off road. There is also an optional boat trip to Staffa (April until mid-October) and creative art opportunities throughout the week.

We look forward to welcoming you to Iona Abbey for some Time and Space in 2024.
Costs
6 Nights: £762 per adult, 3 Nights: £381 – see our programme page for more information.

3 Nights: 13th - 16th Book Here

or

3 Nights: 16th - 19th Book Here

Time and Space short break - 3 nights
2024-04-09 16:00 - 2024-04-12 09:00 | Iona Abbey Centre, Isle of Iona, United Kingdom
Time and Space 9th – 12th April 2024.
This short break will give you a flavour of life in community at Iona Abbey. You’ll join us in regular worship, shared meals and community tasks that contribute to our shared life.
Time and Space offers you the opportunity to participate in a programme that includes guided reflection, small group conversations and open space. Together we take the time and space to explore issues of concern, such as inclusion, ecological justice and peace, through creativity and discussion.
You will have the opportunity to take part in our renowned pilgrimage around the island, either on or off road. There is also an optional boat trip to Staffa (April until mid-October) and creative art opportunities throughout the week.

We look forward to welcoming you to a Time and Space week at Iona Abbey in 2024.
Costs
£381 for reduced rate – see our programme page for more information.

Nurture the land
2024-03-25 - 2024-03-30
Nurture and be nurtured
Come and help prepare our organic garden and polytunnels for the season ahead while taking part in community life here at Camas. In keeping with the tradition of the Highlands and Islands, we grow produce on a system of lazy beds – long ridges divided by drainage ditches.
These beds are improved and enriched by using the seaweed from the bay on our doorstep. Join us for the start of the growing season when we will be getting these beds up and running, sowing seeds for the year ahead. In addition, we have two polytunnels we hope to fill with colour and life for the months to come. Alongside sowing and growing, there will be plenty of hands-on tasks around the garden: fixing up beds, borders and compost-bins, and being creative with willow cut from the garden.
No gardening experience is necessary, this will be the chance to learn, share ideas and leave your mark at Camas. If you enjoy getting your hands dirty, evenings by the fireside, simple community living, all in the breathtaking Ross of Mull, then Nurture the Land Week is for you.
This week is led by Camas Staff.
A week at Camas includes:
Nature Connection: Immerse yourself in the stunning natural beauty of the Isle of Mull by walking down the track to Camas and waking up right on the shore of beautiful Camas bay each morning.
Adventure Activities: Dive into exhilarating outdoor activities including kayaking, abseiling, coasteering, wild camping and hiking.
Fireside Gatherings: Evenings filled with storytelling, games, music, and laughter, fostering bonds and creating lasting memories.
Stargazing: Lose yourself in the beauty of the night sky on the Camas lawn, offering a chance for reflection and perspective.
Building relationships: Share insights and ideas, participate in activities and share in community life at Camas as we cook, clean and work together.
Cost and how to book?
This week is offered at the discounted rate of £210 or £105 concession.
