Uncertain journeying

Ten trains and four ferries. Seven different places to sleep across sixteen days. My time since I last wrote my blog post from ONE of those trains on my way to Iona has certainly been varied, if only in the very logistics of being in the right place at the right time! However, I am pleased to report that, with one minor exception requiring an extra two hours' waiting in Oban (thank you to Café Shore for your extended hospitality), everything ran as planned in terms of getting there and getting back.

On arrival on the island, my first engagement was to meet my co-leader, Simon Ruth de Voil. While Simon and I had had some tentative conversations over Zoom on how we envisaged things might go, and some email exchanges after that, there is no substitute for breaking bread together in person, or in this case, sharing a lunch in the Argyll Hotel, as we embarked on what can only be described as a holy kind of community-leadership speed dating! As ever, we needn't have worried. God had gone before each of us and a partnership that had at first felt somewhat random became fertile ground for seeds of creativity and Spirit-led response to what each of us was able to bring. Being asked by some of the retreatants "So how long have you known/worked with Simon?" is testament to how God was able to take our loose threads of ideas and weave them into the Divine tapestry. In Simon, I feel as though I arrived to meet a new colleague and left with a friend.

Simon and me on the ferry leaving Iona

While on the island, of course, my time was a whirlwind of activity. From breakfast, through morning worship, group sessions, lunch, art workshops, dinner, and evening worship, there was precious little time to stop and think. Add in a talk at the Iona Community Shop on how I became an iconographer and sharing something of the process of painting an icon, an island pilgrimage day, attending a concert given by Simon in the Abbey Church (including meeting one of my dear friends from Guildford there, when I had no idea he would be there nor him, me!), joining in with leading musical worship by playing recorder, squeezing in a quick lunch with my husband, together with additional times of worship and session planning - yes, it really was as exhausting as reading that paragraph makes it sound!

Glimpses of actvitity

So, what was it all about? Our themes for the week were focussed around St Columba - Celtic Christianity and St Columba’s own story, the Psalms, and Beauty; indeed, we shared the celebration of the Feast of St Columba together on the Monday. In my preparation, I had been reminded of a phrase that had been given to me during a previous visit to the Abbey, that of "uncertain journeying". It seemed to me to sum up that characteristic of St Columba's own journey as he set off from Ireland - perhaps by choice, some say by force of circumstance and others, that he was sent against his will. He and his twelve companions set off in their small boat for they knew not where and they landed on Iona, at what is now known as St Columba's Bay. I had prepared a series of mixed-media pieces to take with me, each one incorporating pages from an old Bible telling of the Exodus, the wilderness wanderings of God's people. So this phrase, UNCERTAIN JOURNEYING, filled my thoughts, even subliminally, as I led the week. After all, I had journeyed the length of the country to work for free with someone I had never met, to lead a group of forty-two pilgrims, none of whom I knew previously (though as it turned out, there was one person I knew among them!), and where all the usual structures of forward-planning and careful preparation from which I derive comfort and protection had been denied me. How was I to make sense of it?

Uncertain journeying Mixed media using acrylics on Bible pages

I returned from Iona on 16 June and my first priority was simply to rest and try to recover some energy. Ordinarily, that would have been the time when I would take the opportunity to reflect on my time away and what significance it might hold for my path in ministry and for myself. That opportunity has still to come. Over the years, I have become somewhat familiar with the idea that different incidents take place for a reason that isn't always obvious at the time. It is only with subsequent reflection - sometimes, many years later - that we can reach some tentative understanding of their purpose in a larger picture. It is an invitation to trust in God that the threads are being woven together, even when we cannot see the pattern. Alternatively, it feels a bit like being given a random jigsaw piece, no box or picture to follow, with the simple instruction to hold onto it carefully until it is time to place it in its rightful spot, without knowing when or where that might be. That is where I am right now. My time on Iona was so full, so demanding, and in many respects, so different from what I have done before; in Simon, they had an experienced retreat leader who knows the island intimately, who they knew well and welcomed wholeheartedly. So all I could voice during that week was to repeat the question: “Why am I here?”. Yet, Iona has been such a significant place for my journey over the thirty-three years that I have been travelling there, I am in no doubt that this latest venture is a precious piece that will someday reveal its significance.

So I wonder whether you are facing uncertainty in some area of your life at present. Or perhaps there are parts of your story that feel like mismatched jigsaw pieces and you're not quite sure where they might fit in. The answers, I am convinced, will be revealed in time. This blog may just be the prompt you need to make space in your schedule over the coming month to reflect and to ask God for direction. Or perhaps lessons in patience are in order for this particular season. For me, right now, I am still too tired and "distracted by many things" to make sense of what took place within me in Iona. For the time being, therefore, my "uncertain journeying" is set to continue.

Almighty God,

who filled the heart of Columba

with the joy of the Holy Spirit

and with deep love for those in his care:

may your pilgrim people follow him,

strong in faith, sustained by hope,

and one in the love that binds us to you;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen

If you are interested in finding out more about Simon's ministry as an interspiritual minister and sacred musician, check out his website here. And you can find his music on the usual music streaming platforms. In addition, Simon has shared something of his own reflections on our time in Iona during his most recent online worship, Chants & Prayers.

News

Just as I returned to the studio, life threw me something of a curveball, which has meant that I am not able to work as diligently as I might have hoped. Add into the mix the fact that the icons that I am submitting for the Westminster Abbey exhibition in September need to be completed NOT by September as I had originally thought, but by the end of this month, and the "uncertainty" of St Columba's journey definitely seems to be writ large right now. But work is continuing slowly, and as I make progress with another icon of Julian of Norwich, I am being reminded daily that "All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."

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