Sounds of Iona August 2025

In August’s Sounds of Iona, Ruth Harvey prepares for Community Week on Iona…

Community Week

Over a hundred of us, Members, staff and volunteers, gather on Iona this coming week for our annual Community Week. We’ll be joined by Sally Foster-Fulton, past Moderator of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly, and Global Churches Ambassador for Christian Aid; and by our very own John Bell, song-writer, theologian and Community Member, who will together be guiding our reflections on what it means to be ‘Rooted in Hope.’

Themes of hope

Sally’s session, “Theologies of Hope in Turbulent Times” will ask ‘how do we respond to the shifts in our communal landscape: climate chaos, displacement of people, war, oppression, intolerance of difference, rapid normalization of ‘us and them’ ideology.’ She will contend: ‘hope is not a ‘cross your fingers’ plea, but a promise to put your weight, work and walk behind the future you hope for.’ And John will pick up the thread in his session entitled “Unlike optimism, hope is a verb.” He says ‘The desire for hope is consistent within churches and civic society, sometimes expressed as if it were a remedy or a commodity which was quantifiable and dispensable. Such a notion suggests that hope is what other people have rather than what all people should contribute to.’

The MacLeod Centre

We’ll also spend time sharing memories of the MacLeod Centre – more opportunities to do this will emerge over this next year, including at the York Members gathering in the autumn. We’ll join with the island community for afternoon tea on Sunday, and we’ll walk the new on-road pilgrimage together on Monday. Members from London will guide us through their award-winning Fingerprint Labyrinth, and we’ll sing global songs for worship. And our days, of course, will be held within the intentional rhythm of work, rest and worship.

Threads of hope

Whether you are with us on Iona, or joining us in community from a distance, please add your energy, your fire, your passion, your prayers to ours as we together ask urgent questions and explore threads of hope for ourselves and all creation.

Representative Liz Cheney, in a speech to academics in California recently, called us to ‘incandescent courage – that blazing truth-telling that refuses to be snuffed out by the pressure of partisanship or the seduction of safety.’ May we be filled with incandescent courage, faith, cheerfulness – and with hope.