Closing Thoughts

Scotland has truly been a journey for me--physically, emotionally, spiritually. I couldn't have asked for a more remarkable trip. Looking back it seems simultaneously to be an eon and an instant. In some ways it seems like I have been over there a long time (which I have, to a certain extent) but on the other hand it seems like I was taking off from the Newport News airport yesterday.

But, what a journey! I have seen, explored, and come to love and know an amazing part of the world; I have met amazing people from all over; I have had the opportunity to experience a culture different than mine; I have explored multiple types of worship from Iona to Coventry to Glasgow. And the list could go on.

It is of course impossible to document every thought, feeling, or stunning landscape. But, I have tried to do my best.

So, what do I bring home? More than I can say. I bring back new liturgy to try for worship, new understandings of what it means to be a Christian community, new understandings of our brothers and sisters across the ocean and around the world, and so on.

My own journey has had unexpected twists and turns, joys and frustrations, wonderful surprises and well-executed plans. But, it has all been an adventure.

As was said at Holy City by a reader who was doing a monologue as Peter, "...I do know that when you go on a journey, when you do move, even if you're not sure why or what will happen that things do happen, things change, you change. And you discover, that in unpredictable ways, somehow the world changes....I didn't have a clue what would happen when I started traveling." Amen.

It is no doubt hard to leave, and even as I write this it is hard to say goodbye. But, I know that as I return to the States, to Virginia, to my church and my home and my "real life," that God goes with me and will continue to speak in new ways even if I am not in a new location. As they said to us in Holy City, the journey has taken us up to this point, but God continues with us as we continue on. God continues to guide and lead and comfort and support. The key will be to continue to listen. It is, in many ways, easier to hear God's voice and sense God's presence on a mountain in the Highlands, by a Loch, or on the sacred isle of Iona. But, the truth is God is still speaking--across the whole world. The key is to make space to listen.

And now, as only seems appropriate, I will close with an Iona benediction:

Leader: From where we are to where you need us.
ALL: JESUS, NOW LEAD ON.

Leader: From the security of what we know
to the adventure of what you will reveal,
ALL: JESUS, NOW LEAD ON.

Leader: To refashion the fabric of this world
until it takes on the shape of your kingdom,
ALL: JESUS, NOW LEAD ON.