Out of Iona

Words from a crossroads of the world

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• Publisher: Wild Goose Publications
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN: 9781901557770
• eBook ISBN: 9781849521468
• Topic: Theology & Religion

Poems, readings and reflections which capture not only the wildness and beauty of the island of Iona but also the pressures and gifts of living in a community on an island of pilgrimage.

The work of worship

– Biblical reflections –

The Word

(GENESIS 1 AND JOHN 1)

In the beginning …

Silence

(silence)

darkness, void

formless, empty

(silence)

or again

chaos

(random noise)

the big bang

universequakes

rushing mighty winds

(sound behind words)

great balls of fire

primordial soup

out of control

out of order

incoherent

cacophony

meaningless

(silence)

and then

the still small voice

a glimmer of light

pattern

structure

dialogue

meaning

creation

(singing bowl)

But in the beginning …

from before the beginning

in the void

underlying the chaos –

the creating Word

(singing bowl)

Women at the riverside

(EXODUS 2:1–11)

A. I am a Levite woman,

wife of a Levite man.

I carried his child

safe in the secret cradle of my womb

for nine months, afloat

in the waters of life,

until the day the waters broke

and he swam out into a dangerous world.

For three more months I hid him in our hut,

but his little voice grew stronger

so one day I took a basket

woven of rushes that grow at the water’s edge;

I daubed on tar to make it watertight,

a little coracle, then took it down,

to float where the river lapped among the reeds.

B. I am his sister,

a small solemn child

standing by the side of a big river,

to see what will happen.

I see the river, wide, lazy, slow-moving, life-bearing,

with the sun glinting on its smooth surface.

I cannot see our little cradle-boat

but I know it’s there,

hidden among the whispering reeds,

with my baby brother.

I am a big sister, with a huge responsibility.

I see strangers coming down to the beach

to play, as though they haven’t a care in the world,

to bathe in the river.

I see a great lady, one of our enemies.

Can she see the baby? What will she do?

My legs turn to water;

my eyes fill with tears.

C. I am Pharaoh’s daughter.

I left the stale air of the palace,

the baking courtyards and colonnades,

the passions of politics,

the hard facts of life, the reasons of state.

I walked with my women

on the bare earth,

down to where the river offers

another way of being,

with its cool flow, its gentle caress, its feelings.

I wanted freedom to be myself

in another element,

and I fell for a baby.

D. I am a slave girl.

All I did was wade in deep

and fetch an ordinary basket

from where it was hidden in the rough reeds.

Did I guess its secret?

What did I feel

as I held it, trembling,

and heard the hungry cries?

Who hears my voice?

C. I was moved with pity

by the tears of the baby.

I knew it must be a Hebrew child,

and suddenly, there at my elbow,

was another child:

not asking for money

like your normal urchin, but offering help:

‘Do you want a nurse for the baby?’

The child has sense – a wise child.

I suspect there’s more in this than meets the eye:

a story I don’t know, an alien experience,

a strange and powerful torrent of feeling.

I accepted her help.

B. I called my mother, like a stranger.

A. I came and nursed my child, who knew me.

D. I found him, as lost as myself.

C. I adopted him, and called him Moses

because I drew him out of the water.

We are the women: a wife

A sister.

A daughter.

A slave –

women without names.

All. But we are the ones

who trusted the child to the strange and saving waters,

and drew him out alive –

and called him by name.

Encounter

(1 KINGS 17:8–16)

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Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword by Norman Shanks
• Out of Iona
• Introduction
• Words from a small island – poems
• The work of worship – biblical reflections
• The Word in the world – three sequences from beyond Iona
• Using the biblical reflections
• The Abbey – a prayer