The Music Of The Iona Community

From its location on an island off the coast of Scotland, the Iona Community has done much to influence the music of the world church, especially in North America. They have done this by providing the music used in their own worship services and by collecting songs from the church on every continent. The History of the Iona Community The Iona Community was founded in 1939 by George MacLeod (later Lord MacLeod of Fuinary), a prophetic minister of the Church of Scotland from both aristocratic and ecclesiastical stock. At the time when the church, as much else, was in the doldrums due to mid-war depression, he tried to engage the worship of the sanctuary with the life of the street. After a successful church and community experiment in rebuilding a disused mill to become a children's holiday center, he was motivated to embark for the island of Iona with 12 men, half of them trainee clergy and half unemployed workers. Thus, the Iona Community is not a monastic order. Members, with ver…