We had a wonderful time together with the folks who came out for our community day this past Saturday. The rain held off until we had packed up and were heading out. We accomplished some tasks (burned three huge piles, put together more benches, spread wood chips), enjoyed a delicious meal together, and had the chance to get to know each other while doing simple tasks. But the most important thing we did was spend time praying and interceding for the capital campaign and the future ministry God has planned for Iona House. It was wonderful being together in prayer before the Lord!

This post is building on my earlier post about the vision of Iona House…

Broadly speaking, the Church in America is in a challenging season. A recent article in the Atlantic highlighted data pointing to the painful conclusion that, “30 percent of congregations are not likely to survive the next 20 years.” If that is actually the case, it is extremely significant. The pandemic has already left its impact on church attendance (it’s down across the board, but especially amongst younger people). The article goes on to celebrate the potential of the institutional Church’s demise in favor of new forms of spirituality. Basically the article is saying that religion is not going away… it’s just changing forms. I think this is largely true. However, contra the article authors, I do not not see this as something to be celebrated. It is simply the secularization and individualization of Christianity.

While there is plenty to reform about the Church, deconstructing the institutional, historical dimension will be the demise of Christian faith, not its salvation. The Bay Area is already been operating in this mode for decades. For one dimension of how this secularization / de-institutionalization process is happening, see the audio / video content from our event in SF this past fall: “Work, Pray, Code”.

The reason I’m highlighting this is to suggest that the Church needs all the support it can get right now! One of the central aims of Iona House is to be a vital resource to the local churches of Northern California (and beyond). Having spent the past 14 years in downtown San Francisco in church ministry, we’re quite familiar with the challenges, pitfalls, and opportunities - especially, of urban, post-Christian, secular contexts. The vision for Iona House emerged from this setting as a means of addressing the challenges inherent within such contexts.

How will we partner with the Church?

I could easily write multiple pages about each of these potential avenues of partnership and why they matter. But for now, I’ll just leave them as headers to be “filled in” sometime in the future.

• Retreats, workshops, conferences, writing / teaching - addressing the challenges presented to the Church in a post-Christian, secular setting. Iona House will be a place to thoughtfully and faithfully grapple with the most important questions of our time.

• Spiritual formation retreats for lay people - designed to give a vision for deep discipleship rhythms that can transcend the challenges of our era

• Healing retreats for lay people - churches often aren’t equipped to go deep with people to explore their wounds and trauma and bring lasting healing; healing takes time and a communal setting with resources beyond what a typical local church has to offer

• Pastoral / Ministry Leader retreats - both personal retreats via our hermitages as well as midweek group retreat options for clergy and staff; silence, solitude, stillness… sacred space and time (very difficult to find these days)

• Spiritual Direction ministry - we will offer individual and group spiritual direction and plan, eventually, to offer a training program to help unleash a wave of classically trained spiritual directors (who go beyond the “therapeutic” mindset often found in contemporary spiritual direction)

• Catechist training - Our vision is to offer a training program / community / resources for lay people to get trained and developed as effective teachers for their local church. Training a wave of lay people to know how to engage and address the challenges of our time is essential.

• Sabbatical / Restoration Setting - Iona House will offer a unique setting for people (particularly those in ministry) to recover and be renewed after taxing seasons

• Introduction to Great Tradition spirituality - Iona House will be a resource for those wanting to explore the Christian faith and practice of the first thousand years (before there was Catholic / Orthodox / Protestant divisions). This is a vital means of strengthening the overall mission and identity of the Church in our rootless / fractured era.

• Clergy Support - Iona House with our growing library of 2500+ books will be a phenomenal place to come for the day to work on a sermon or spend time in prayer in a beautiful and peaceful setting or receive spiritual direction or mentoring.

What I’ve expressed above is the just tip of the spear. Much of the value of Iona House to the Church will emerge from the distinctive, immersive ecosystem that we cultivate that allows strategic, purposeful margin from everyday life in an immersive setting of faithful Christian practice in order to become more attuned to the Father’s voice and reflective about how to live differently upon return to ordinary life. As a pastor, I’ve longed for this kind of setting for myself as well as for my parishioners. It is vitally important as a means of escaping the echo chamber of our culture long enough to know how to faithfully re-engage mission.

We believe God has called us to be a resource center for churches (definitely not a replacement nor a mere supplement). We have an extremely high view of the local, institutional Church. We want to see it built up and unified and empowered to be what God intended it to be. It is the Bride of Christ, the place of Communion eternally willed by God as the means of our salvation (see Ephesians). Our deep and abiding prayer is that Iona House will be a great gift to the Church… and Lord willing, your church.

As you know if you live in Nor Cal or if you’ve paid attention to the news, we’ve had incessant rain and wild weather the past 3 weeks. The rain is welcome. We need it… maybe not all at once, but we need it. Iona House has a stand of around 15-20 Ponderosa Pines that died this past summer due to the bark beetles that ravage trees during seasons of drought. The land is crying out for water. And now it’s getting what it asked for. We praise God for this.

Along with the rain, we’ve had some serious wind action as well. I don’t remember storms like this with wild wind when I was a youngster growing up in this area. Elizabeth and I are particular dialed in on the wind right now because we have the large canopy tent set up on the land which is intended to be a safe haven from the weather. We had no idea when we set it up in November that this winter would be as rainy and windy as it has been. Multiple nights we have woken up at 4 in the morning to howling wind and instinctively moved to prayer. In the greater scheme of things it’s a small thing if it is destroyed… several thousand dollars and several days of work. But for us, it is a symbol of some kind. So each time we go out to the land after the storm and see if it is still standing… and each time it has still been standing. A few parts are being strained, but the whole thing is intact and has survived. It’s truly remarkable considering that it has now withstood as much as 60mph gusts. Nearly every night when we pray together for Iona House, we thank God that the tent is still standing. It’s become for us a sign of steadfastness and hope in the midst of adversity.

May He sustain you and bless you and make you steadfast, anchored to Him - the rock of our salvation.

PS - The land has held up quite well under the storms so far. No real damage to report… just lots of down branches from the wind and some big-time mud puddles.

Happy New Year from Iona House. It was a wet weekend with more than 7 inches of rain. This is welcome as a means of escaping the drought… but everything is soggy and muddy.

In other news, below is the giving update for the Phase II capital campaign as of New Years Day. We’ve had 35 different giving units (households) make contributions so far with a tally of just under 600k. We’re off to a great start. We’re giving God thanks and praise for a fantastic 2022!

Merry Christmas from Iona House. Yes, it’s still Christmas. In the Christian Tradition, the Feast of the Nativity (Christmas) lasts 12 days. We’re only on day three.

It’s actually raining cats and dogs today at Iona House. However, I took the picture above a few weeks ago when we got a dusting of snow. :)

The PHASE II Campaign is gaining momentum. We had another batch of gifts come in. Truthfully, we’re going to need an enormous amount of generosity from the widest possible community to achieve our goals. Would you join us in praying for an outpouring of generosity?

This is a reflection I wrote up for our newsletter, highlighting some of the reason why we believe Iona House is vital.

We are deeply social creatures. We overlook this in discussions of Christian formation to our peril. Perhaps the greatest hindrance to real, in-depth Christian formation is simply the inability for individuals to imagine a life ALL-IN with Christ in EVERY area of their life. Imagination is a much more communal thing than we usually acknowledge. What we can imagine is shaped most powerfully by what we have seen in the life of someone else... and even more powerfully by what we see transpiring in an entire community of people.

We often set our internal "benchmarks" for Christian life by simply looking around to see what seems "normal" for most other Christians we know. This is an unconscious experience for most people and often produces less-than-desirable results. The reason is that, sadly, the degree of maturity and depth in much N. American Christianity is simply too weak and shallow to provide anything other than a Christian veneer over the top of mostly mainstream American values and ideals. What is actually forming N. American Christianity is mainstream culture absorbed socially in the lives of those around us and reinforced through media, entertainment, technology, etc.

The most potent form of deep Christian discipleship (the only form powerful enough to counter mainstream "norms") comes in being immersed in a community of people who are all-in for Jesus and drawing their common life from something other than mainstream norms. Put a person in the midst of an intensive communal experience where the culture of the group is grounded in deep, historic discipleship, and faithfulness to Christ and something happens that can never be produced by simply reading a great book or by doing individual practices. I've seen glimpses of it happen with retreats, mission trips, and other immersive social experiences in the context of our ministry in San Francisco over the course of nearly 14 years. It's a powerful thing to see!

We shouldn't be surprised by any of this; a social model is exactly the method that Jesus used to shape disciples. He gathered 12 men and formed a distinctive community that did life together in reference to Himself and His teaching over an extended period of time. Note: He did not give them a stack of books and send them off; He did not merely give them some spiritual disciplines to try on their own. No, He forged an immersive life together. Beyond these 12 men (apostles), there were others - a number of women and those who spent only a season around Jesus, and those who provided hospitality to Him (i.e. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus). What is clear is that the basis for Jesus's formation "curriculum" was the formation of a social group embodying a distinctive culture - one centered around Him, His way of life, and His teaching. This is the pattern that the Church relied on to form people in the first three centuries in the Catechumenate of the early church. It continued in the Desert Fathers and Mothers and has been ongoing in the monastic streams of the Church. It is the same pattern that emerges whenever there is renewal in local churches across the world. It all comes back to a socially reinforced identity shaped by a practicing community, consciously living in an alternative pattern to the world around them. 

So, here's the question: Where can an individual or small group go to experience a deeply immersive experience of this kind of all-in Christianity in a thick, immersive social setting living according to an alternative pattern from the world? Or, said differently, where can an individual or small group of people go to have their imagination captured by a life of deep discipleship rooted in the entire history of the Church? 

This is the question that has shaped the vision of Iona House. When we picture Iona House, we see it as a place of deep, immersive, communal formation that offers an alternative to mainstream cultural norms. We imagine it as a place that is spiritually potent and relationally thick enough to give people a new imagination for what a new normal life in Christ could look like. Iona House is a place to experience a holistic, social formation that touches all aspects of who we are: body, mind, spirit. But it's not simply a location or a clever curriculum or some new spiritual practices; it's a communal experience rooted in the Great Tradition of the Church that transpires in an intentional ecosystem designed at every level to be holistically transformative (from the beauty, silence, solitude, animals, agriculture, structured times of prayer, communal eating, emphasis on the Church calendar, art + architecture, music, and more). 

Where does this currently exist in Northern California? It doesn't. This is the reason for Iona House.

To put it bluntly: We believe Iona House is desperately needed, right now. We're living in a time when the Church needs individuals and, more importantly, entire groups of people to discover a new imagination for what faithfulness looks like. We need a thicker, more rooted, and more robust version of life in Christ to become normal across an entire region. To imagine this, people must experience a taste of it. Thus, Iona House. This is something that has the power to bring renewal to the Church and unleash a new era of mission. We believe, Lord willing, this could be the legacy of Iona House.

If you resonate with this reflection, join us in prayer and financial partnership to see it happen. Come Lord Jesus!

We’re thrilled to see folks partnering together with us to see Iona House step into this new phase! Many folks have told us they’re prayerfully considering their year-end gift as part of this PHASE II campaign. Here’s the progress to date:

We’re sooo excited. Another piece of the dream is coming together. Praising God this evening: After many months of conversations with our lovely neighbors, we all sat down today and signed a purchase agreement for the remaining 40.5 acres, which includes three homes, a horse barn, and much more.

Now: roughly 120 days to gather $1.5 million.

Learn about what’s happening at our Phase II page…

In order to offer a dry and warm place to meet this winter, we recently purchased a large party tent (40x20 foot) to put up on the site of the future Abbey. We’ve dubbed this the “Tent of Meeting” (with all of its Old Testament echoes intended). It’s a great temporary measure. It was a more challenging job than we wished constructing the tent. And, in order to endure the 40 mph gusts that were predicted a few days later, I spent many hours adding extra cables to secure it. Praise God, it survived the most recent gusty storm without any damage!! It’s absolutely wonderful to be inside with the heaters going… downright magical.

We also added a lot more gravel and expanded the road to create a loop that takes you pretty close to the tent for drop-offs and for closer parking for those who are disabled or have mobility limitations. Woohoo!!!

Fall has come to Iona House. There is an incredible golden glow that jumps out against the rich dark greens of the evergreens. It’s hard to capture how beautiful it is on the land right now.

One of the most wonderful parts of this place is that it experiences all four seasons while still being livable and usable all year round. That being said, some seasons stand out as superior; of all of them autumn is our favorite.

“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:12

So much has been happening that I have been too busy to put up any new blog entries. Here’s some of the rundown:

A couple of Saturdays ago, we had a very exciting (and noisy) community day. We had six guys working with chainsaws, a couple of tractors running, and a crew spreading wood chips in our parking area. As usual, we enjoyed a delicious lunch together, midday prayer, a time of silence & solitude, and a lot of time for fellowship (amidst the sounds of giant dead trees being cut down with a gigantic, earth-shaking crash).

This was just the beginning of a week of very productive work on the land with the two tractors we rented. We had a father-son crew fly in (one from Seattle, one from South Carolina) to operate the tractors all week. These two men volunteered an entire week of their lives to serve the mission of Iona House!!! And they made great progress. This kind of serving heart and generosity is the very essence of the Iona House spirit. Three cheers for Steve & Stephen Lanford.

We had another retreat this past weekend with a group mostly from the Bay Area (and a couple from Portland OR). It was a great time of fellowship, prayer, contemplation, and formation.

Earlier this week we had a very powerful storm come through (high winds + rain). Unfortunately, some of our shade tents were destroyed. :(

This coming weekend is another Family Faith Formation retreat with 6 families from San Francisco.

What an adventure!!

Last Saturday a wonderful group came together to enter into a day devoted to the ancient practices of silence and solitude. These practices are as old as the people of God. If we look at the life of Moses, David, Elijah, and many others we see that God used extended times of silence and solitude to shape them and to teach them to listen to His voice. Jesus, of course, famously began His ministry with a 40 day experience in the wilderness.

What we experienced this past Saturday was truly a gift. It was perfect weather - high 70’s with a gentle breeze. Just the sounds of birds and the wind in the pine needles. The group dispersed with each person finding a comfortable place to be still. And, from what people shared at the end, the Lord showed up! People heard from the Lord; they sensed Him leading them and comforting and challenging them. As the Psalm says of the Lord, “Be still and know that I am God”. The challenge for us is that we often struggle to be still or quiet or alone. Sometimes it’s easier to approach these practices with a community all doing it together.

I look forward already to our next day of silence! Perhaps you’ll be able to join us.

We had a fantastic time connecting with new folks and catching up with old friends at the event. We estimate that about 200 people came out to join us, which was so encouraging. Elizabeth’s food / aesthetic vision was a huge hit (evoking a farmers’ market). Our volunteers were amazing and we’re so grateful to the five churches who helped us co-sponsor the event.

For many folks, this was the first time they’d heard of Iona House. We kept hearing over and over again: “Iona House is so badly needed! We’re so glad you’re doing what you’re doing.” That was encouraging for us.

Content: We got great feedback on the content of the evening. Dr. Carolyn Chen is the real deal. She is articulate, extremely perceptive, as well as prophetic yet gracious. If you’ve not read her book, it’s worth getting a copy. She provides a valuable (and often missing) perspective to many of the ongoing “faith & work” conversations.

For more about the event, check out our Work Pray Code event page (with follow up questions, etc.)

Here is the audio recording of the evening. Note that the panel portion of the evening was not recorded in order to allow panelists to speak freely without concern for what might be said.

On September 14 every year the Church around the world celebrates what is called “The Feast of the Holy Cross”. The date of this feast comes from the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which occurred on Sept. 14, 330AD. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains both the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and his resurrection. In April of this year Elizabeth and I led a group of pilgrims to experience this church (alongside a lot of other amazing sites in the Holy Land). We had the unique experience of being able to soak in the mystery and wonder of that place with relatively few people with us (due to the downturn in travel related to COVID). It’s a place, if you haven’t been already, that I hope you get to visit one day.

The feast, of course, is not actually about a building or an object (i.e. the cross). It’s yet another celebration of the wonder of God’s immense love and generosity toward us as expressed in the mystery of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s about the shocking twist of how the central symbol of shame and humiliation and exclusion in the ancient world became the sign of grace and forgiveness and hope. It’s not accidental that the cross is the very symbol of the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul was the first to write about the irony of how “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to use who are being saved it is the power of God” (I Cor. 1:18). Ever since the earliest times, the symbol of the cross has had a central and visible role in the faith.

It would be hard to articulate with any measure of satisfaction in a blog post the meaning of the cross for Iona House. The theological meaning of the cross is nearly inexhaustible: it is the source of our hope and joy, the means of our salvation, and the shape of our life in Christ. Perhaps that last phrase is a place to say a few words today.

At Iona House we believe we are called to a cruciform life because that’s what Jesus told us: “If you want to be my followers, take up your cross and follow me.” Christians since the earliest times have understood Jesus to mean that they must endure suffering as part of their Christian journey. Life in Christ is not an opportunity to escape or avoid suffering. It is an invitation to enter into the sufferings of Christ. And it is in this participation in Christ’s sufferings that we are also able to experience the great joy of hope in the resurrection. The author of Hebrews exhorts us in chapter 12 to look to Jesus “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” The irony of the cruciform life is that it is the only path to true joy. Sure, you can have pleasure without the cross; you can probably experience a degree of “happiness”. But if you want lasting joy, then the cruciform life is the only way. The “joy” we’re talking about is the joy of union with Christ… a joy that cannot be taken away from us.

So, today, let us say a prayer of gratitude for the very real and tangible sign of God’s love toward us. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for the cross!

PS - Earlier this year we received this amazing gift of a handmade olive wood cross from the Holy Land. Check out the video below.

Last weekend our family spent several days with seven other families (from the Bay Area) who came up to visit Placerville / Iona House who are in our exact same season of life (married with small children). It was quite the weekend: 16 adults + 15 children all under the age of 7!!! The weekend was sort of a “beta” version of a retreat experience that we have been imagining. It was a great weekend filled with joy and lots of what you’d expect with small children. There were structured activities, times of worship, lots of family fun and adventure. One of the highlights was the evenings together with the adults (after kids had gone to sleep). It was strangely comforting to hear everyone share their struggles (and joys) about the same things.

This past weekend crystalized for us what we had already been intuiting: people in our season of life have particular spiritual needs. Parents in our situation do not get much solitude and silence. Spiritual disciplines are especially difficult. We’re tired and we long for a sustainable rhythm. At the same time we long for adventure. But the idea of a vacation with small kids often sounds more exhausting than restful.

Hopes and dreams: If you’re like us, you long for your kids to have deep, formative, spiritual experiences that will shape them as Christians for the rest of their lives. But church can feel like one of the most challenging times of the week. Bedtime worship routines can be great… or a total meltdown disaster depending on the night and the exhaustion level of the kids (and parents).

The more we’ve thought about it, the more we’ve come to believe that Iona House is well-suited to minister to folks in our situation. Our vision has been marinating around this question: What might it look like to uniquely minister to young families at Iona House?

THREE CORE IDEAS:

Family Spiritual Formation Retreats - We would offer unique family retreats designed to give both children and parents a deep, faith-inspiring experience of God’s goodness in a rhythm that is sustainable for everyone. The kids would get to experience the adventure of agricultural / farm activities (interactions with animals such as chickens and goats; learning about planting and growing things in the children’s garden; nature hikes, etc.) and connect these activities to spiritual truths and practices. Parents would get to experience many of the same activities alongside their children, while also being given support and freedom to go off and spend time in much needed solitude and silence or meeting with a spiritual director (for example). Meals would be family-friendly, healthy/local (made from our own gardens!), and delicious. There would be a rhythm to each day that orients life toward worship of God. Children would learn about contemplative forms of spirituality (as opposed to, perhaps, the hyped up, loud, and rambunctious types of experiences we often think of as children’s ministry). There would be adventure, discovery, and wonder - hands-on learning in God’s great creation. There would be practical teaching for parents about raising children as Christians (in an increasingly secular, post-Christian culture) and realistic guidance on how to be spiritually formed as adults through this unique season of life. Evenings would include times of worship and teaching for adults along with much desired adult social time with those in a similar season of life… and hopefully lots of sleep! The overall pace would be one that is designed in order to not add to people’s existing exhaustion. To this end, during these retreats we would offer additional staffing support with safe, background-checked, experienced staff members who are able to assist with kids and families. We would offer these retreats perhaps 4-8 times a year at times especially advantageous for family travel. Structured retreats would be 3-5 days in length - long enough to get into a rhythm, but not so long as to be inaccessible for those with work and full schedules.

A space for families year-round - We have also envisioned the campus of Iona House such that there is a part of the campus that is designed with families in mind and available for self-directed family retreats year-round. This is a place that a single family or a group of families could come up together and could experience a place of renewal and formation. It is a space where kids can be kids without disrupting adults doing retreats with contemplative practices seeking silence and solitude. Staff could be available to assist parents with activities designed for multi-generational spiritual formation. While this isn’t the full-scale structured retreat mentioned above, it might be exactly the low-key thing that many families need.

A space for parents to find spiritual renewal without their children - We have also envisioned the campus of Iona House as a place for adults to come and experience formation, healing, restoration, deep silence, rest, and solitude without their children. This might be a place where one parent at a time can get a 1-5 day spiritual retreat. We have hermitages (fully self-sufficient 250 sq ft cottages) designed for individual self-directed silent retreats as well as ongoing, repeated, structured, guided retreats along the themes of formation, contemplation, and restoration designed for adults. We see this as an important part of supporting parents in their goal of growing as disciples who can disciple their own children.

We can see benefits to all three of the above. There may be other ideas that emerge as well. All we know is that Iona House needs to be a place for Christian formation for families with small children. Pray with us that God will guide us into a full expression of this vision!

A friend recently sent me a link to an article that is a reflection about the story of the Irish monk Columba coming to Iona, establishing an abbey, and about the island’s ongoing legacy into the present as a place of spiritual vitality, mission, and transformation. I learned some interesting things from this article. If you’re curious, it’s a quick but thoughtful read.

Here’s a link to the article: Celtic Christianity on Iona

On June 18, we enjoyed incredible weather, a wonderful group (only partially pictured), delicious food, and an all around great day on the Iona House land. We made significant progress on our parking area - spreading the wood chips in order to suppress unwanted plants and keep the dust down. It looks so good! We also cleaned out a new storage shed that we had donated. It’s a 10 foot section of a shipping container with a rollup door on it. It works marvelously. We recently had some other valuable things donated as well: kids toys, a campfire pit, storage racks, and more. Go team!!!

We compiled a short video showing some of the progress on the land. We’re so excited about what has already happened. Come visit for a full tour!

Today we celebrate the life and legacy of St. Columba. He was a man who was mightily used by God. But it didn’t start out that way. After accidentally inciting a minor civil war in his native Ireland in which 3,000 people lost their lives, Columba and 12 companions, in a state of penance, exiled themselves to the remote island of Iona off the coast of what is now Scotland. The purpose of this “exile” was to form a distinctive community of prayer, discipline, and deep faithfulness to the Word of God. The monastery / abbey that these men formed went on to become one of the most significant centers of Christian mission the world has ever seen. Much of modern-day Scotland and Northern England were converted from the missionary efforts launched from Iona and the monasteries that were established from this center of contemplation and Christian formation.

Looking back 1500 years, nobody would have ever expected that this remote, beautiful but desolate island on the edge of civilization would go on to have such impact. But this is how God works: He so often takes what seems insignificant to the world and uses it to His own glory. (Nazareth? Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth?)

When Elizabeth and I set out to encapsulate the vision God gave us with a name that captured its vital essence, we were led to St. Columba and the abbey of Iona. It’s an incredibly inspiring story. In so many ways we believe the world needs a new Iona.

Our personal story is that after ministering in a place of major cultural significance (San Francisco) for over a decade, we felt God leading us to a place that some people might think of as the edge of civilization. Placerville? (Can anything good come out of Placerville? - I can hear someone saying). Oftentimes God uses the margins and the overlooked places as locations for vitally important formation for His people: Mt. Sinai, the wilderness, the Jordan River valley (John the Baptist), the region of Galilee, etc., etc.

This is our prayer - that God would use the margin / separation / rugged beauty offered by Iona House in Placerville to cultivate a unique and particularly potent place of Christian formation for those who come. May God grant us the spirit of humility, contemplation, faithfulness, and zeal for Christ’s Name that shaped the life and ministry of St. Columba and his companions on the Isle of Iona.

By Elizabeth Jones

Iona House is best understood as a “house” of formation. I believe horses have a key role to play in this mission.

While obtaining my masters in counseling psychology, I learned that an incredible amount of critical formation happens in the first few years of our lives. Before we even have the capacity to think in words or communicate in words, we are forming our emotional sense of self. We are learning the attachment patterns which will guide the course of our relationships through out our lives. We are forming intuitions about our place in the world and establishing our emotional baseline sense of safety. All this is already beginning, and in some cases, rather firmly established, before we even have the capacity to verbally articulate what is going on inside of us.

Horses have a unique way of connecting with us in these non-verbal, embodied places. Horses are incredibly sensitive to what is going on inside of us – what is really going on inside of us. Even if we are blind to our own carefully guarded anxiety, grief, or anger, horses are herd animals whose survival is predicated on knowing the non-verbal cues of their herd. Their bodies pick up on the tensions within our own bodies. They mirror to us what we are feeling, even when we do not know what we are feeling ourselves. In fact, because horses are so big, they actually amplify to us what we are feeling. When we learn to address the feelings being displayed in the horse, it can in turn address the feelings that we are feeling in ourselves.  

I experienced this recently while I was spending time on the parcel adjacent to Iona House a couple of months ago (this is the parcel we hope to purchase). There is a barn on this parcel with a 21-year-old mare who is the last of her herd. She was raised on this land with her mother, but now all the other animal companions (horses, donkeys, llamas and goats) are gone. She is well cared for in every way physically, but her relational world has been largely emptied.

The first time I went to visit her (after the horse’s owner had given me permission), I was a bit of jumbled mess. I didn’t quite know what to do with myself in the wake of losing all that had formerly occupied our lives in SF. I was irritable and blamed it on an exhausting move with two toddlers, but I didn’t necessarily have a conduit to access what was happening more deeply within me. When I went to visit the horse, it took a while for the horse to even let me halter her, but eventually she allowed me. It took a while for the horse to even let me pet her (she isn’t used to much human handling), but eventually she let me touch her. Importantly, what was happening between us was an intricate, embodied building of trust. In the midst of an uncomplicated, bodily felt trust, I found myself crying to this horse who could understand no reasonable words. But in the midst of our interaction, I felt safe to acknowledge my grief (having moved away from our community in SF). Somewhat mysteriously, I simultaneously experienced a feeling of understanding, since this horse also knows what it’s like to feel alone. I have experienced and witnessed unique connections like this many times from when I have volunteered in therapeutic riding, worked as a horse expert in equine assisted psychotherapy, and from when I previously owned my own horse.

As a house of formation, Iona House intentionally cultivates places of non-verbal, embodied formation, and part of this will be through care of our animals at Iona House, including the horses we hope to have one day. I look forward to the day when we can utilize horses at Iona House as an intentional way to access some of the non-verbal, embodied aspects of our souls (that are sometimes wounded, guarded or numbed) in order to bring ourselves more fully into the presence of Christ as embodied, integrated creatures who are more fully worshipping and trusting their Creator.