Preface

These are the voices of a few people living through the Covid19 pandemic, and what government and media called ‘lockdown’, the restrictions imposed in European countries in March 2020. While using a word that many people will recognise, we acknowledge that it is abhorrent to some. None of this material was commissioned; it represents what a handful of people were moved to write, often with urgency, from the common ground of this crisis, which isn’t over yet.

Much is still being written, in many languages, about experiences which people all over the world will recognise. There is so much powerful writing out there, right now, being published in different ways. What do we have to offer here that may be unique and useful? These writers are members and associates of the Iona Community, a radical ecumenical international movement with a down-to-earth approach to theology.

Putting together this collection is an example of our ‘engaged spirituality’. It explores shared experiences and asks tough questions. Faith for these writers takes different forms, but doesn’t find easy answers.

For the most part, because of length, we haven’t attempted to include prose, although from the Community and wider society we’re aware of reports, articles and reflections, which are well worth reading. Instead we focus on poetry, psalmody, prayer. There are repeating riffs on themes that touch us deeply. You’ll find here, however, two pieces of prose, written

with care in all its senses, about the similar ministries of a hospital chaplain in the Netherlands and someone working in a hospice in the UK. These twin pieces give a glimpse of the ways that those who are part of the Commun ity have responded to this crisis, using professional skills in medicine or counselling, and giving pastoral support. Others have been teaching children, giving on-the-ground neighbourly support, shopping, working with food banks, supporting campaigns for justice, reaching out to the lonely and helping folk to keep singing even when in isolation, producing online liturgy, and communicating, from podcasts to postcards.

In this we are simply responding as so many other people of faith – and those who say they have none – are doing. Many positive things are happening in our communities at this time, and the Iona Community is learning from these as well as from the crisis and – at this crossroads – both taking action and reflecting. May the reflections that follow help all who read them.

Some of these pieces first appeared in e-Coracle, the online magazine of the Iona Community (Neil Paynter, Ed.). My thanks to Neil for his patient, persistent and sensitive work in helping to bring together this collection at such short notice.

Jan Sutch Pickard