Historic Churches 2020

BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 27 TH ANNUAL EDITION 17 observed that ‘since before the [Second World] War Iona has been a thorn in the flesh of the Ancient Monuments Board and the Ancient Monuments Branch and until fairly recently no board meeting was complete without a discussion on some aspect of Iona’. Getting agreement about what should be done, who should do it and who should pay for works to Iona’s abbey and related monuments bedevilled its history, stretching the patience, tolerance and trust of all parties. There was early and general agreement on the need for a proper lapidarium , a museum to display the stones. However, identifying a place for this was never going to be straightforward and that debate rolled on and on, complicated by sometimes irritable discussions about other issues. The nature and tempo of events had changed from 1938 when the Iona Community established itself on the island and began to rebuild the abbey. Led by George MacLeod – described by Alexander McCall Smith as ‘one of Scotland’s most charismatic and influential figures of the 20th century’ – the mission for this Christian ecumenical community was to establish a socially relevant church. MacLeod’s attitude to Iona’s carved stones is fascinating as a well-documented historical example that exposes the starkly different values of different communities of interest. CONFLICTING VALUES: ‘HISTORY VERSUS MYSTERY; SCIENCE AND ART VERSUS FAITH’ MacLeod’s burgeoning Iona Community needed space to live and work. While its earliest stated plans incorporated converting the ruined Infirmary building into a museum for carved stones, this was because they wanted the stones out of the church where they ‘would tend to give the visitor an impression that it is an antiquarian show place. If the abbey is to be the home of a living and vital community this is an impression which we wish to avoid at all cost’, noted the Community’s architect, Ian Lindsay. For MacLeod, for all that Iona was a ‘unique treasure of our Christian heritage’, and that its carved stones might be ‘lovely’, the emphasis was on restoration to create a living place. For MacLeod, there was also no difference between secular and sacred, and to be a living place meant that stone sculpture designed to be outside should remain there: ‘I belong to the other school which is horrified at gathering into museums, however hygienic, the living symbols of the Faith’; ‘the stones might well be allowed to decay in the open in God’s own time’. As far as MacLeod was concerned, the Ancient Monuments Board for Scotland was obsessed with dead things, summarising the argument as ‘History versus Mystery; Science and Art versus Faith’. The concrete replica of St John’s Cross in front of the shrine-chapel containing St Columba’s burial place, which was erected on 6 June 1970 in the position of the original. In March 2020 the replica was listed Category A, reflecting its significance on many levels. (Photo: Sally Foster) Reconstruction of the fallen St John’s Cross in 1957 as encountered by AC Phillips and DU Ratcliffe. (Artwork: Christina Unwin)