or to be strictly accurate - a whiter shade of pale. Eagle-eyed readers with 2o/20 vision may just be able to identify the faint blobs in the water as puffins. When the time came, and after one posponement of the trip - from Iona to Staffa, the sea was so rough that the boat owner decreed that it wasn't possible to land. Happily, we were still able to circle round the coastline to view Fingal's Cave and umpteen types of seabirds, including these cheerful little stripey chaps, with the emphasis on the little.
So, yes, I did fulfil my ambition, albeit not quite in the way I'd expected. In the event, I spent most of the trip down in the hold throwing up, as did a growing number of passengers as the trip went on. At one point I raised my head for air to find myself surrounded by silent, grim-faced teenagers, (we were sharing the trip with a school group staying at the McLeod Centre), paper bags held to their mouths, looking for all the world like some new and weird species of elephant. You'll have to forgive me the hyperbole; after downing enough travel sickness pills to fell your average pachyderm, my imagination was running along strange lines indeed. Never mind, in true Blue Peter tradition (Here's one I made earlier), Mr GP rose personfully to the occasion and conducted a mini-photoshoot with one battered 'Old Teddy,' who, after the best part of 200 miles spent stuffed into my rucksack, was brought out to strut his stuff and model his owner's original Puffin Club Founder Members Badge .
We rolled back home to Iona after that, and, this (still somewhat wobbly) seabird was plunged straight into lunch duty, followed by daily chores - cleaning the loos!
Was I glad I went on the trip? From a safe distance of over a week...yes. And the whole holiday/pilgrimage - a hefty 200 miles or so winding our way from Durham to Oban on foot? A definite yes! Which is just as well, after three years in the planning. (It's amazing what daft things one can think up on a rainy week in Cornwall over a pint!). At time of writing - over seven days since we returned home, I'm still processing it all.
To the last section of the trip, one of the gathering weeks spent with the Iona presence in the Abbey, again, I'm still pondering what was (for me anyway), a very new, and often challenging experience of living in and building community. If you're not familiar with what staying there entails, this blogger here gives a good account of a typical week. [would have commented, but this Puffin is technically challenged and wasn't able to get my id to work].
As a member of a dispersed community myself, (TSSF), I was particularly interested in the various takes on living out the Iona Community's rule and purpose out in the world, particularly as to how this works out in practice, and, in retrospect, would have liked to have asked far more questions on the topic: Does it really operate 'as it says on the tin?' Like TSSF, the community has a small, local group structure which is intended to serve as a member's primary support structure. What are different peoples' experiences of these? On paper, we appear to have a good many similarities, with maybe a slightly different nuance placed on some forms of service. Overall, I got the impression that that Iona membership is more of a tough call than TSSF; it's ecumenical in name as well as in spirit, and, that concerted (and unlike tertiaries, group ) social and political action is more than just an obligation for Those Who Like That Kind of Thing , it's an imperative.
Both communities are growing, evolving and constantly trying to work out how to live as an example of authentic Christian witness 'in the world.' Both are - or should be, profoundly countercultural. Tertiaries share a common spirituality; but looking at the order through a more sociological lens as in the examples here it's plain that members' experiences, expectations and sense of vision vary enormously. As I expect will be the case for any community or association. With the rapid growth of dispersed communities of all kinds today, I guess we can all learn so much from each other.
Little did I know, over forty years ago that I was effectively, making out a community rule of life!
