"…a thin place where only tissue paper separates the material from the spiritual." ~ George MacLeod, founder of the Iona community, describing this holy isle

A smaller passenger ferry…
map source:  www.sandymckay.com
 transports visitors to the wee island of Iona west of Mull,
unless you are one of its 177 residents 
allowed to drive their vehicles on and off the island.
During the Early Middle Ages
 a monastery is believed to have been built in 563... 


by an exiled monk from Ireland…
Columba, or Colm Cille.
Iona survived multiple Viking attacks with its Celtic crosses still in tact
and continued its spiritual history when the abbey was built in 1203, 
until its destruction during the Scottish Reformation 
when the Duke of Argyll gifted the ruins to the Church of Scotland.
Services are still held in the Abbey.
 A few years after the abbey, a convent for Benedictine nuns was built in 1208
 and its ruins still remain.
A small portion of the Bishops House, 
believed to have been built in the 1630's is located north of the abbey.
This unique community has been flourishing since 1938
when George MacLeod led a concerted effort to rebuild the abbey.
Over the years, Iona, has been and is today…
"a dispersed Christian ecumenical community working for peace and social justice, 
rebuilding of community and the renewal of worship." 
iona.org.uk 
A beautiful, peaceful island 
where people have lived and visited and worshiped for many centuries.

  
  

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