In October’s Sounds of Iona, Ruth Harvey, Leader of the Iona Community considers the courage we need to keep showing up.
A highlight of my summer was the Greenbelt Festival. A delicious mixture of stimulation for my head, inspiration for my heart, and sustenance for my soul. Being part of the new Wild Goose tent, working with colleagues and members reminded me why I belong to this daft, fabulous, inspiring community.
One of the workshops we hosted was with partners in the UK-based Network of Christian Peace Organisations (NCPO). Liddy from Christian CND, Lynn from Sabeel-Kairos and John from the Fellowship of Reconciliation talked about ‘Widening the Circles for Peace’. We were encouraged to focus our prayers; inform ourselves about the many actions for peace being taken across the globe; and keep showing up at protests for peace.
Earlier this month Sally Foster-Fulton, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, joined Iona Community trustees at their recent residential. She had been invited to reflect on the theme of our Strategic Plan – ‘Rooted in Hope, lived in Community’ Before considering hope, Sally invited us to ‘notice fractures.’ We see fracture in the ongoing conversations about the legacy of slavery. We notice fracture in the exploitation of people because of race. We witness fracture in bio-diversity loss, in rising sea levels, in crop failures. We see fracture in the countless wars across the globe, not least in the Middle East.
What does hope look like in the face of such fracture? Hope is the light that shines on injustice. Hope is the weight we put into our words, our commitment. Hope is the courageous acts of continuing to show up – on marches and demonstrations, at events. Hope is continuing to pray for peace in the public square, in seeking out likely and unlikely allies. And there is hope in community as we continue to hold on to one another – to stay connected.
This is what I see happening in multiple ways across our Community, not least in our Common Concern Networks. The CCN Challenging Racism met recently to take our position paper to the next level – a way of ‘showing up’ in the public square. The CCN Poverty and Inequality agreed last week to join the Let’s End Poverty coalition. Two of our Members are taking a stand regularly outside the Scottish parliament calling for an end to the war in Israel/Palestine. These and countless other actions are ways of ‘showing up’ in solidarity with others, of witnessing to hope.
Photo: Liddy from Christian CND, Ruth from Iona Community, John from Fellowship of Reconciliation and Lynn from Sabeel-Kairos
Credit: F Fidgin/Iona Community
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