This guidebook with colour photographs takes you around the church and cloisters of Iona Abbey, giving you background information on the main features and providing suggestions for reflection and prayer at each point. Also included are some stories about

Historian and Iona Community member Rosemary Power tells the story of the small Hebridean island of Iona and its remarkable spiritual influence over fifteen centuries. Beginning with the earliest Stone Age settlements, she combines new translations of early Gaelic and medieval Latin prayers with original research to chart: the founding of the abbey in 563ADsix centuries of monasticism: food, lifestyle, work and the pattern of daily prayerarchitecture, the high crosses and early artmedieval Iona: the nunnery, women’s lives, and catering for pilgrimspost Reformation Iona: the rebuilding of the Abbey, the lives of the resident population and what visitors from the 17th century onwards experienced

For centuries, pilgrims have visited Iona in search of the sacred, inspired by the example of St Columba. Many modern-day travellers are also drawn to the island through work and witness of the Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian community working for peace and social justice.

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 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.

A bestselling prayer book that follows the pattern of daily worship in Iona Abbey.