Misc thoughts from Iona...

A particularly poignant moment for me this morning when I came across the very simple grave of John Smith in the Abbey cemetery. I wonder how different the last 11 years might have been if he had lived to led the Labour Party through a successful general election in 19971? That thought is a reminder perhaps that we can only live in the present, and that this is the true purpose of a memorial - to help ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated and the dreams of yesterday never forgotten.

The weather is not good which has meant much of today has been spent inside reading although Liz and I did make it onto the beach this morning. We also had lunch in the Heritage Centre (the old vicarage), visited the parish church (designed by Thomas Telford) and had an interesting discussion about beekeeping with one of the local artists who is contemplating it as a new hobby.

And we've been to worship too of course. Both at Bishop's House, the local Episcopal Church retreat house where we participated in the Eucharist and at the Abbey for the weekly Healing Service led by members of the Iona Community.

I am reading all sorts of things this week as you might expect. I will shortly finish Take This Bread by Sarah Miles, an amazing story about Christian conversion and the importance of food as a central tenet of Christian community in the broadest Eucharistic sense. It has interesting parallels perhaps with Barbara Glasson's 'bread church' in Manchester. Both raise challenging questions about the extent to which churches should and can be inclusive. They are also both intensely contextual in the way that mission emerges from a process of theological reflection - visions of what might be are not our ideas but God's and we need to be open to being dragged into things and places that make us feel distinctly uncomfortable.

More tomorrow perhaps, especially if we manage to climb Iona's only hill...