Our work over many years with the Chinook Learning Center and the Whidbey Institute has involved us with clergy who seek opportunities to renew their own spiritual lives and the life of their congregations. There are many places that offer the opportunity for spiritual or faith pilgrimage. Iona is only one, but we have found that a pilgrimage retreat on Iona offers rich gifts.

First, there is the power that comes from the intention to deepen personal spiritual life. For many clergy there is precious little time to think into their call to the ministry of Christ and how to bring a fresh spiritual message to the church communities they serve. Many hold so much on behalf of those in their care. They are asked to provide guidance, wisdom and prophetic counsel as their congregations face what may be unprecedented challenges in light of the global age in which we live and where it is crucial that people of faith find a way forward together. For ministry to continue to be vital and creative, it is essential that there is time away for personal renewal.

Responsibility for the spiritual life of others often means that the need for clergy to care for their own spiritual health and growth can be overlooked. A retreat participant said, “I finally realized that I’ve neglected my own spiritual life for too long. I’m not burned out, I’m just not lit!” Another who was recently ordained but quickly getting discouraged came to Iona for a two week retreat and after the first few days said that she just didn’t get it. She was tired out and there was no space in her heart for God to tell her to get up and try harder. But then something happened, as it often does on Iona. She came back after a day of solitude on the high hills of Iona and said she knew that the message of Iona was not about its history, but that women like herself had travelled here over the centuries and that because of their lives, and now her own, a power continues to go out from Iona. She said I know this is the power of the Spirit of Holiness to make our lives new and to give us all we need to serve our own time. She said I’m going back to my community no longer with a message of “You have to or must, but with my heart open to theirs and to ask them how can I help them deepen their own experience of God and together be a truly serving community where the power of the Spirit goes out and we have the potential of being a visionary church.”

From our experience over the years, pilgrimage retreats on Iona are about the longing of the heart for spiritual deepening and the power of remembering and re-choosing the call to ministry.

Second is the power of “making pilgrimage.” Over many centuries in the Christian, and most other religious traditions, men and women have “taken to the road” and traveled to sacred places where others before have bowed down in reverence and prayed on behalf of all they love and serve. Iona is one of those places where the “veil between the worlds is thin, “ where many encounter the presence of the Holy Spirit in surprising ways, through traditional forms of worship in the old Abbey, in the practices of daily life, and in the beauty and power of the natural world.

But the power of a pilgrimage on Iona is not only about its history but has to do with an often vivid experience of God’s Grace, a fresh meeting with the One who “knows you by name” and where a new understanding of the call to ministry can break through.

While on Iona there is time for solitude, for carrying on the inner conversation with God about spiritual life, faith and vocation and for deep listening to the inspiration of Spirit. For some who have been with us on these Iona retreats, this has been a tremendously uplifting time and has set the direction for their ongoing ministry. For others it has not been easy. It has brought them to face issues and concerns they have not had the time to deal with. It has given them the opportunity to probe deeper into their ministry and whether or not they are called to change direction, seek a new church to serve, or to recommit to their congregation and its future.

For those women and men who are studying for ministry the Iona pilgrimage is often a time of great soul-searching where the opportunity for solitude and prayer in a place of spiritual power is a needed change of pace from seminary and allows them to discern again their calling to serve the Church, particularly in this time when traditional roles are changing and the needs of congregations may not always match the vision of ministry many younger clergy hold.

Third is simply the experience of gratitude. This is one of God’s best gifts, the inner joy and the thanksgiving that comes from the privilege of wandering the heathered hills and shores of this ancient place, with your feet in the footsteps of the monks and the pilgrims who travelled here over the centuries with a shared reverence and love for their communities and their world. It is gratitude for the pleasure of meeting others on the path, literally on the road to the Bay-at-the-Back-of-the-Ocean, or having tea or fish and chips with new friends with whom you shared worship in the Abbey or compline in the Episcopal chapel. And we’ve found that a common, yet almost overwhelming gift of Iona, is deep gratitude for your life, how important each person is in the heart of God. There is something in this experience of being known and loved and honored that is at the heart of Christian faith and longed for by so many. This often happens on Iona, no doubt by the intent to “make pilgrimage” to this Sacred Isle and to be there with an open heart and soul to the fresh leading of God’s Spirit.

Fourth, is that we live in an unprecedented time. Iona is not primarily about the past, but about the power of a new vision breaking into our own time. For many who come to Iona, their lives begin to take a new direction because of something, heard, seen, intuited, or realized while on this island. We are never quite sure how this happens for so many people, nor is it ever the same for every person, but there is an impressive consistency that something happens. We know that Iona and the divine forces make an impression. Lives are changed. Courage rises and commitments are formed.

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While inspired by the long history of this unique place we are most interested in how a pilgrimage to Iona becomes much more about the future than the past. As is commonly recognized we believe that we are now deeply immersed in issues on planet Earth that humankind has not faced before in our long journey. We collectively face enormous and possibly overwhelming challenges. We are beginning to comprehend that we appear to have a relatively short space of time in which to bring a profound turning to how we live, think and make decisions that may forever affect the quality of life of future generations. This is a serious time to be going on a pilgrimage. Even the plane ride itself and its carbon emission into the skies is an issue. Going to Iona needs to be worth it.

In the sixth century Columba and his people lived, prayed, worked and traveled while evidently faced with severe challenges including how to exist on that tiny island on the edge of the world. They inspire in us that sense of being called to leave what we must leave, to move into the freedom of a new way of living, and to create the forms that embody mutually enhancing relationships with all other forms of existence. It is our belief that a new vision and energy are entering the world. We believe that a radical course correction is needed. We believe that we have access to all the vision and strength that we need to create the new patterns of personal, social and institutional life. We believe that the way forward is through community, which is why healthy churches are so needed. We believe that the power and guidance we all need can be summoned for our common work. If anything, time on Iona is often about guidance, a place to seek it and a place to feel its power. That is what people so often report. They are grateful for the mysterious way that they have felt upheld and guided into a vision of possibilities for their personal lives and for the work to which they are called. And this is why going to the edge through a retreat on Iona is an adventure of personal faith---a renewal experience that can touch and help the lives of many.