Departing Iona on April 21, we travel north past Loch Ness (hopefully stopping there along the way so we can try to spot “Nessie”J) to Moray Bay and the Findhorn Foundation, “a spiritual community, ecovillage and an international center for holistic education, helping to unfold a new human consciousness and create a positive and sustainable future.”  We’ll spend a couple nights there, observing how the people of Findhorn combine a zeal for Earthcare with spiritual commitments.  Then, it’s back on the train to Edinburgh, where we’ll pick up a car for the next leg of the journey.

The second leg on our pilgrimage arc in the UK takes us to the Iona Community on the Isle of Iona.  Erik first heard about the Iona Community in the late 1980’s and the music, worship life, and approach to Christian practices struck a deep and sympathetic chord within.  (Five hymns composed or arranged by Iona’s John Bell are included in our Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal, including three of Erik’s favorites: 721, 798 & 814.)

The opportunity to spend this sacred time with the Iona Community during Holy Week and Easter is a dream come true.  We are on the island for nine days, from the Saturday prior to Palm Sunday to the Monday after Easter.  We are staying at the Macleod Centre, a spacious and light-filled building especially suited to families, which has a well-stocked craft room. In 563AD the Irish monk Columba (Colum Cille) established a monastic settlement that evangelized large parts of Scotland and the north of England and became an important center of European Christianity. In the Middle Ages it became the site of a Benedictine abbey, and over the centuries it has attracted many thousands of people on their own pilgrim journeys.

The current Iona Community was founded in Glasgow and Iona in 1938 by George MacLeod, minister, visionary and prophetic witness for peace, in the context of the poverty and despair of the Depression.  From a dockland parish in Govan, Glasgow, he took unemployed skilled craftsmen and young trainee clergy to Iona to rebuild both the monastic quarters of the mediaeval abbey and the common life by working and living together, sharing skills and effort as well as joys and achievement. That original task became a sign of hopeful rebuilding of community in Scotland and beyond. The experience shaped – and continues to shape – the practice and principles of the Iona Community.

After a brief return to Edinburgh, we travel by train to Oban, on the west coast of Scotland.  From Oban, we board a ferry to the Island of Mull, and from Mull another ferry to Island of Iona.

The first stop on our pilgrimage arc in the British Isles begins in Dublin, Ireland, adopted home of St. Patrick (5th century), who, kidnapped at age 16 from his family in Roman Britain by Irish pirates, was kept as a slave/shepherd for six years.  During this time, the seed of Christian faith, part of his family upbringing, took root within him in a new way.  During his 6th year of servitude, Patrick heard a Voice tell him he was soon going home and that his ship was ready.  So Patrick escaped, fleeing 200 miles on foot to a port where he persuaded a ship’s captain to allow him on board. He later returned as a missionary to Ireland, bringing the Christian gospel with him.

During our sojourn in Ireland, we look forward to connecting with Augustinian priest Father Martin Nolan, whom Chris and her family first came to know when they were serving as missionaries in Nigeria in 1968-1969.  We also look forward to renewing acquaintance with the Davis family, whom Chris met during a college study program abroad in 1984.

Other hoped for connections include deeper exploration of Earth-bound Celtic spiritual roots that found expression in the early forms of Christianity that emerged from Ireland.  They also look forward to beholding the Book of Kells, circa 800, and other ancient manuscripts which were products of the scriptoriums associated with monasteries and abbeys of the region.  It was the careful work of these scriptoriums, which helped preserve the patrimony of classic Western civilization after Rome fell in the 5^th century and the great libraries were set to flame by the invading barbarians. (Read more about this in John Cahill’s masterful book, How the Irish Saved Civilization.)  The place of origin of the Book of Kells is generally attributed to the scriptorium of the monastery founded around 561 by St Colum Cille (St. Columba) on the Island of Iona.

Departing Boston on the evening of April 1, we cross the Atlantic by night.  Flying via Amsterdam to Glasgow, we catch a train to Edinburgh, our “home base” in the UK.  There we take time to adjust to a new country and time zone, and perhaps have our first taste of “haggis.”  (Haggis, not for the faint of heart, is a Scottish dish made of the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep or lamb, combined with oats, suet and other herbs and spices, and then cooked in a casing traditionally made of the animal’s stomach. Thus, haggis is essentially a form of sausage.)

Reunited after Erik’s retreat at Weston Priory, we continue connecting with extended family, visit people and sites in Vermont and around Boston, and read up and prepare for the next leg of our sabbatical odyssey.

This week, Erik goes on a weeklong solo retreat at Weston Priory in Weston, Vermont, while Chris and kids continue their journeys of connection and discovery.

Our journey begins with a flight to Boston on March 4.  Our base for the month of March is the home of Erik’s sister and husband, Randi and Albert Siu, in the town of Carlisle, Massachusetts, where we will mark Ash Wednesday and the beginning of our sabbatical journey at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sudbury.  This is a time of decompression, disengagement, and recreation as we establish our new sabbatical rhythm.  Visits to friends, exploration of early American historical sites, faith communities, and other activities will be the focus of these days.