During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in spring 2020, many people turned to writing: diaries, letters, cards, poems. Human words, sent out across the void of our isolation, shouted into the storm over which we had no control. What we could do was communicate with each other, raise our voices against the silence of separation, argue with our own doubts, call out to God, express our fragile hope.
Here are the voices of just a few – members and associates of the Iona Community – with poems, psalms, songs, affirmations of faith and prayers written during a full and fraught ten weeks.
We offer these human words believing that when the darkness seems overwhelming, light dawns; that into the silence of our worst fears God speaks a living Word.
Jan Sutch Pickard is a member of the Iona Community, a former Warden of Iona Abbey, a storyteller, liturgist and Methodist lay preacher. She has twice served as a peace monitor with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. Her other books include Out of Iona, A Pocket Full of Crumbs, Walking Through Advent and Sing But Keep On Walking.
Also contains the song ‘We Will Meet’ by John L Bell & Hans-Olav Moerk.