IONA ORTHODOX RETREATS

under the Patronage of
 His Eminence Archbishop Gregorios of Thyateira     and the
 Chairmanship of  His Excellency Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia.
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2011

Last opportunity to make your Pilgrimage/Retreat:
 
                               10th  to  17th  September;     (A priest will be resident for part of this week)
            and            17th  to  24th  September;     (A priest will be resident for part of this week)
            and            24th  Sept.  to  1st  October.        THIS  WEEK  IS  NOW  FULLY  BOOKED.
 
                             at  the 
 
                             IONA  ORTHODOX  CENTRE  located  temporarily  at  CLACHANACH

N.B. We cannot guarantee that there will be any I.O.R. opportunities after 2011

Colum Cille - St. Columba - came to Iona from his native Ireland about 563 A.D.
From Iona, Columba and his monks spread Celtic Christianity through North Britain.

They were in communion with all Orthodox Christians.

If  you  would  like  to  become  part  of  a temporary  Orthodox  Community  on  Iona
for  a  week;
to  make  a  private  retreat  or  an  individual  pilgrimage,
or  simply  to  enjoy  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  Iona

...   where  the  veil  between  Heaven  and  Earth  grows  very  thin ...

      then please contact   as  soon  as  possible:

Reader Ignatios Bacon, Oratory  of  the Theotokos  and  St.  Cumein, Kilchuimen/Fort Augustus,  Scotland   PH32 4DG Telephone:   01320 366457 Email: ionaorthodox@gmail.com

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RECENT EXPERIENCES OF IONA

It has been more than one year since we came to Iona in April 2010. We stayed only for five days but long enough to stamp the stay in our hearts forever. In the middle of nature with the ocean on the west side with its blue water, and sheep and cows in the green pasture happy to enjoy a rich meal free of chemicals. That was a perfect stay far away from so called “civilized” places.

From a spiritual point of view we came back enriched by the participation for the first time in our life in a unique religious activity offered by the small chapel close to the Iona Abbey. We still remember tourists who popped in to have a look at our small congregation and left their contribution on the plate.

Thanks to Father Raphael’s devoted activity and yours, Ignatios, thanks also to Father Columba who sacrificed an evening for the discussion in Clachanach and other hours to participate in the Liturgy, also to Presbytera Elisabeth for singing in the choir - we were blessed to live such unforgettable days.

Too many words sometimes are useless, so I would like to recommend the place and to encourage other Orthodox Christians to visit Iona. They will have a unique experience in their life.

Thank you again Ignatios and long life! We hope that you will hold the flame alive better than any Olympic Games participant!

Mihaela, Maria, Daniel
Edinburgh
08/08/2011

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May 7 2011, having made a late decision to take a post Pascha vacation 10 days earlier than I had originally intended, I found myself crossing the Sound between Mull and Iona, some 18 or so years after my first visit on a pilgrimage led by the then Bishop Kallistos Ware.

Now, I couldn’t but help noticing how the very light itself seemed to change about half way across the Sound, becoming somehow more intense and yet more ethereal.

I was met by Reader Ignatios Bacon at the quayside and soon made very warmly welcome along with another guest ……at our hermitage overlooking an ever-changing sea (ever sure!) with its deep purple-red hues, and an earth-pink cliffed Mull on the far sometimes ‘rusted’ horizon.

What was it that made the place and time so special? The family we pilgrims, albeit so briefly, constituted? The warmth and friendliness of the other visitors and folk from both near and far whom we encountered? The unfolding days, which were predictable weather wise only in so far that there was a daily round of sun and at times, heavy showers—eagerly anticipated by this particular pilgrim, as I watched with awe, the skyscape and landscape perpetually changing its mantle of light and dark, now opaque and then so deeply transparent—the ‘ordinary’ shot through with, even, what seemed to me, at times, like glimpses of the Numinous…?

Knowing that there was a warm and prayerful home to which to return, I happily ventured out to meet each days’ ‘gifts ’in what appeared as ‘ordinary’ language; seen landscape and its creaturely inhabitants; at times, a sense of an over-arching Presence brooding, shining over , through all; gentle ‘intimations’ of something eternal and forever bright…

Matins and Vespers, faithfully led by our Reader, Ignatios Bacon, each day, whatever the weather, and the noon day prayers in the house, (the latter brief but somehow warm and sweet), saw various visitors taste albeit briefly, the clarity and depth of Orthodox worshipful prayer, as we gathered (privileged to be present in this, the first and original chapel, so imbued with prayer and worship from those early times) with St. Columba, the pilgrims and saints. Till now even, resonant voices beckoning for Christ--- the jewel of their fervour and trust. We, somehow privileged to take part in the day’s worship, as we took turns to sing or assist Ignatius Bacon - listening to the poetic words from the Pentecostarian, for example, their light, wisdom, and healing love, and their evocative imagery imbuing our inner landscapes with wonder and Mystery. Somehow, the veils separating us from the Beyond appear ‘thinner’ here and can allow a finding - deep, still, spaciousness in the very air and climes we breathed, and even in, above, and below/around, the words given each day for us to share and ‘take in’ and ‘break’ (metaphysical) bread (meaning) with, during the set times of communal prayer.

So for me, this time especially was given to exploring some of the depths of the Near and Far - the ‘near’ being very present in the sharings of being in community, however small, and in the near details of the landscape and or its inhabitants about one at any given moment; the ‘far’ came to me at any rate as the Beyond, that ever present but usually only dimly sensed Presence within our deep heart and within the beauty of the created world about us calling to us, calling to be known, and loved - and in what the prayer life in the little chapel could and would stir in the heart - inscapes which were also near and also far.

Ignatios , himself, very alert and present to each moment, whether in the formal worship or in the attention to detail and delicious home-cooked food he prepared and lovingly produced for us, and for the guests who visited during that week together.

Rich fare indeed. Do come and taste, and see for yourselves.

Nina Manston