Cross from Iona

Today's Cross is one that I bought about twenty years ago on a visit of the Isle of Iona. Despite, apart from very early years, living in Scotland until I was 27, I have only visited Iona once and that was long after I had moved to England. The children were very small and we were holidaying near Oban and took a day tour, bus and ferry, to Iona. It was a great day, and the children were really good. Despite that minimal contact, I regard Iona as a very special place, what some would call a 'thin' place. It is a place where you have a real sense of God's presence. I have, of course, benefitted from the work stemming from the Iona Community, not least the Wild Goose Worship Group. 

I remember that day, landing on the beach, visiting the abbey, getting some small sense of that special place. The cross is, of course, a celtic cross, and was hand-carved on the island. It is a link for me with the celtic aspects of faith, which often speak to my spirituality. It is also a link with a much loved Scotland. I am not a Scot, having been born in Nottingham, but most of my childhood, my education and my first ministry were all in Scotland. Living now amid the flatness of East Anglia, memories of Scotland evoke the hills that form so much of the landscape.

I am thus reminded of Cecil Frances Alexander's hymn:

There is a green hill far away,
outside a city wall,
where the dear Lord was crucified,
who died to save us all.