MEMBERSHIPS

We warmly invite you to join the Iona Community.

Members live across Scotland, the UK and the wider world. We live out our commitment to the Rule of life in our local area, meeting in Family Groups and in Regional Groups.

By joining us you become part of a global movement seeking justice and peace, a more sustainable way of living, and a progressive renewal of the Church and its worship.

Applications for membership are open all year round. Scroll to find out more about

• being a Member of the Iona Community
• Associate Membership (including Student Christian Movement, Volunteer, and Young Adults Group Memberships)
• being a Friend of the Iona Community

A wee note about location: our centres on Mull and Iona are run by gifted staff, including volunteers. A small number of our Members and Associate Members do live on or near Iona and Mull, but we are a dispersed community. While Iona is important to us, we live out our Rule of Life wherever we are in the world.

If you have any questions about membership, please contact membership@iona.org.uk

ASSOCIATE MEMBER

Associate Membership is for those who want to deepen their connection with the Community’s life and work.

As an Associate Member you are invited to:

• keep the Rule
• join a Family Group, making an 80% commitment to attendance (see below for more about FGs)
  NB new Associate Members wishing to join a Family Group will be asked this on joining. If you are an existing Associate Member and would like to join a Family Group, please contact your Regional Coordinator in the first instance, or our membership team: membership@iona.org.uk
• become involved in the life of your Region
• join one or more of our Common Concern Networks
• join an Associates Group if there is one in your Region. NB if there is not an Associates Group in your Region, then please join the Regional Gathering, where you will meet other Associate Members.
• join the Young Adults Group if you are aged 18 – 30

We ask for a minimum donation annually of £70 (or £100 for a couple)

A reduced rate of £30 annually is available if you are:

• a student in full time education
• your only income is from state benefits or a state pension
• you are paid beneath the real living wage (£9.50/hour)
• you are homeless, a refugee or an asylum seeker

We never want finance to be the deciding factor in becoming a member. Please contact us for further details: membership@iona.org.uk

As an Associate Member you will receive:

• A welcome pack with a recent issue of our magazine, Coracle
• Two issues a year of Coracle
• The Iona Community Annual Report
• Regular updates through e-Coracle, our digital newsletter
• An annual copy of the Iona Community Prayer Book
• Invitations to online learning opportunities
• Invitation to join our Common Concern Networks
• Access to the IonaBelong platform for members

Student Christian Movement Membership

SCM Membership is open to you if you are your last year of membership with the Student Christian Movement. We are delighted to welcome you, with a free year of Iona Community Associate Membership.

Young Adults Group

The Iona Community Young Adults’ Group is open to Associate Members or Members aged between 18 and 30. You can find out more about the group here.

MEMBER

Membership, open to all across our global movement, is both a demanding and fulfilling commitment. Whereas Associate Members are invited to keep the Rule of Life, Members are held accountable, one to another, for keeping the Rule. This means you will be expected to talk, and to listen, with one another about all aspects of the Rule. The level of commitment is significantly demanding as a Member. Membership also includes making time for keeping all aspects of the Rule, and for meeting regularly with other Members.

If you are curious about membership, as well as considering the Rule, please read the New Members’ guidelines as part of your discernment.

Associate Members (including Young Adult Group members) considering becoming a Member will usually have been involved with their local Family Group and Region for at least two years, and may have already explored the commitment involved with keeping the Rule with other local Members.

If at any point you would like to consider becoming a Member, please talk with Members in your Family Group, and/or contact the Leader, Ruth Harvey: ruth@iona.org.uk

FRIEND

You can also become a Friend of the Iona Community. Friends are those who have an interest in the concerns and work of the Iona Community and want to maintain a loose connection with us.

Friends support the work of the Iona Community with a donation of £50 annually.

A reduced rate of £25 annually is available if you are:

• a student in full time education
• your only income is from state benefits or a state pension
• you are paid beneath the real living wage (£9.50/hour)
• you are homeless, a refugee or an asylum seeker

Friends receive:

• Two issues a year of our magazine, Coracle
• The Iona Community Annual Report
• Invitations to online learning opportunities
• Regular updates through e-Coracle

Please become a Friend online here

FAMILY GROUPS AND REGIONS

We meet in small local groups, called Family Groups, clustered into Regions. To find out more about our Regions, visit here.

It is through our local Family Groups that we account to one another for living, and keeping our Rule of Life. All Members join a Family Group. It is in this context that they account for keeping the Rule. Members recommit to keeping the Rule on an annual basis. Associate Members, who are also committed to keeping the Rule, are invited (but not obliged) to join a Family Group.

A Family Group is a place for:

• committed sharing: Members, and Associate Members who want to join a FG are expected to give at least an 80% commitment to meeting together and to accounting for the Rule. This helps build relationships, build trust, build community.
• deep sharing: we talk about ‘accounting’ with one another – really this means we share deeply about the ‘stuff’ of life: our spiritual life; how we use our time, our money, the earth’s resources; our concerns. There can be a great depth of sharing in Family Groups – a vulnerability, an open-ness – but this can only really be built on trust, hence the need for commitment.
• honest sharing: any group of human beings, getting together on a regular basis, will begin to notice differences, no matter how much we share in common. So a FG is a place where our honest sharing with one another about things that matter can lead to exploring differences and even having fairly radically different views from one another. We are encouraged in our FGs to practice the art of deep listening – listening with the intention to be changed, or at least to be open to being changed. This can be hard – so we treat one another with respect and compassion.

There are more resources for how to support and nurture Family Group in the Members Section of the web-site.

Family Groups meet regularly, usually monthly, and worship, pray, share how we are keeping the Rule, discuss issues relating to Iona Community Concerns and hold one another accountable for our ways of life, including the spending of time, money and the earth’s resources.