(a recently hallowed brother spills the beans....)
In the liminal space between associate and full membership of the Iona community lies the arduous and testing new members programme. The most important part of this process is designed to thoroughly explore potential new members Celtic credentials. It takes place at Camus on the bleak and barren Hebridean west coast of Scotland following the ancient traditions of Saint Columba.
The brethren and wimmen who believe themselves destined for membership rendezvous for a week of trials at this remote location on the island of Mull. There they live close to the soil in the spirit of the ancient monks. No lights do they have for their bedchambers nor heating, nor even hot water. The food they eat is grown in a nearby vegetable patch and the freshly picked salads are rich with the proteins of wee crawling beasties from the fertile earth. No other meat will pass their lips for the duration of their stay and no hot water will bathe the stinking sweat off their steaming bodies after long days of toil digging at the peat bog, track building and garden drain excavating.
Hours will have been spent in a prone posture in the chapel of the nets: nets in which according to ancient tradition the fish of the sea were once caught. Now in this place of detritus from a working past they reflect on their own tasks in the world today on the hard unyielding floor. The suffering and subsequent aches being counted as righteousness and virtue.
As well as living close to the soil and meditating on the nets they also engage in the ancient Celtic craft of boat-building. Making use of technology not available to the original coracle builders they create vessels which they have to sail through the streaming brine as if on a missionary journey across the ocean with the urgency of bringing a saving message to the wild folks on the other side. Part of this raft building and voyage adventure is very likely also to involve an experience of total immersion, dipping into the near freezing waters of the north Atlantic. This experience re-enacts the early Celtic baptism experience to be interpreted as rebirth from the womb of the earth.
The Colombian spirit of courage and faith is encouraged as new members can gain extra righteousness through testing their bodies to the utmost. They do this by throwing themselves off a nearby high clifftop, trusting their lives to a single rope. Immense courage is required for such abseiling especially when taunted by the hoards of fellow novices below. It is one of the ultimate tests of faith.
Colomba's spirit of cheerfulness is not ignored as, en vino veritas, there are opportunities for giggling and chortling and even baiting one another in friendly west of Scotland style banter. Music and jocularity abound for the night of the Camus challenge. This spirit of cheerfulness must be be reigned in and kept under strict control before the initiates are allowed to return from this wild raucous place back into the real world of dour Presbyterianism that dominates the rest of Scotland.
The new members initiation comes later with the imposing ceremony of the deathly hallows which is a welcome and blessed release after the arduous trials of the Camus experience.
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