The Iona Community Worship Book

The services and resources in The Iona Abbey Worship Book reflect the Iona Community's commitment to the belief that worship is all that we are and all that we do, both inside and outside the church, with no division into the 'sacred' and the 'secular'.

A completely revised and expanded edition of this collection of liturgies for morning, day, evening, Holy Communion and healing services and there are revised liturgies from the original edition. Aimed primarily at participative worship with shared leadership, it includes optional methods of scriptural reflection and prayer with symbolic acction. There is also a preface of comments on leading worship, dealing with all the issues which ordained clergy never tell lay people but presume they should know.

The services and resources in The Iona Abbey Worship Book reflect the Iona Community's commitment to the belief that worship is all that we are and all that we do, both inside and outside the church, with no division into the 'sacred' and the 'secular'.

Liturgies for Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, Transfiguration, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, All Saints', St Columba's Day, Father's Day; on hunger, economic witness, peacemaking, the environment, pilgrimage, welcome, hospitality and friendship. Includes a blessing liturgy for a marriage or partnership, a wedding/partnership ceremony and resources for a memorial event.Full communion services and shorts acts of worship; liturgies for small groups and all-age gatherings; worship rooted in church life and the Iona Community's resident group on Iona, in social justice and pastoral work. So - as always with the Iona Community - worship which is contextual, with a strong justice and peace edge.Originally published as single digital downloads by Wild Goose, these are now all brought together for the first time in the second of at least two Big Books of resources and liturgies.Contributors include John Harvey, Nancy Cocks, Tom Gordon, Jan Sutch Pickard, Joy Mead, Chris Polhill, Ian M Fraser, Thom M Shuman, Alison Swinfen, Annie Heppenstall, Norman Shanks and others.God of the rhinoceros and the midge,God of the Large Hadron Collider and the iPhone,help us to sense your presence in and through all things. God whose grace is sufficient for all our needs,help us to be people of compassion, justice and peace.(Norman Shanks, from 'A liturgy for the Feast of the Transfiguration')

This anthology reflects the life and witness of the Iona Community and is intended to encourage creativity in worship. Liturgies include: pilgrimage and journeys, healing, acts of witness and dissent, a sanctuary and a light, resources: beginnings and endings of worship, short prayers, prayers for forgiveness, words of faith, thanksgiving, concern, litanies and responses, cursings and blessings, reflections, readings and meditations.

The services and resources in The Iona Abbey Worship Book reflect the Iona Community's commitment to the belief that worship is all that we are and all that we do, both inside and outside the church, with no division into the 'sacred' and the 'secular'.

J. Philip Newell and his wife Ali were cowardens of the lay religious community of Iona Abbey in the Western Isles of Scotland. There Philip developed this book as an aid to daily prayer. Here is a weekly cycle of morning and evening prayers in the Celtic tradition, with gospel and psalm readings taken from the liturgical year. Each "day" reflects a concern of the Iona Community: justice and peace, healing, the goodness of creation and care for the earth, commitment to Christ, communion of heaven and earth, and welcome and hospitality.

The services and resources in the Iona Abbey Worship Book reflect the Iona Community's commitment to the belief that worship is all that we are and all that we do, both inside and outside the church, with no division into the sacred and the secular. The material draws on many traditions, including the Celtic, and aims to help us to be fully present to God, who is fully present to us - in our neighbour, in the political and social activity of the world around us, and in the very centre and soul of our being. Each year, thousands of visitors make their way to Iona and many are changed by their time on this small Hebridean island which has been a powerful spiritual centre over the centuries. The Iona Community believes that we are brought to Iona not to be changed into 'religious' people, but rather to be made more fully human. Our common life - including our services - is directed to that end.