Looking Back: How can a Restored Cathedral of Iona be most worthily used?

From 1903

How Can a Restored Cathedral of Iona be most worthily used?

By C.F. Bearsley, MA, Old Meldrum

It is suggested that for a week annually there be held within and around the Cathedral walls a Convention for promoting the higher life; and that during the rest of the summer half of the year a retreat or residence for divinity students, ministers, and others should be held beside the Cathedral.

The first part of the scheme would be conducted on lines similar to those of the ‘Keswick’ and other conventions; very grand and impressive services being held in the Cathedral twice every day.

The latter part of the scheme may be briefly outlined as follows. There would be a residence for twenty to thirty students and the Principal. The latter should be a man of saintly life and erudite tastes – not necessarily of the very highest academic or literary distinction. His main duty should be to promote among the residents a spirit of holy living. If difficulty were experienced in making a permanent appointment, men possessed of suitable gifts might be released from their charges for a time to act in turn as Warden or Principal.

The life of the residents, while not monastic, should be sufficiently austere to guard against their visit degenerating into a frivolous vacation. Their time should be spent in meditation, prayer and study, and, if possible, in the acquirement of some knowledge of church music. A sufficiently comprehensive library should be provided. Morning and evening services, as far as possible choral, would be held daily in the cathedral itself. For indoor recreation, nothing less serious than chess or sacred music should be encouraged; and for outdoor exercise, walking or working in the college garden should suffice. The daily fare should be simple; the cooking and service being reduced to a minimum. The time of residence might vary from a week to the whole season. A charge sufficient to defray the cost of board would be levied on residents; and the rest of the necessary expenses could be met by an endowment to be founded by the liberality of the Church.

If such a scheme resulted in a deepening of the spiritual life of the clergy, and through them of the church and the nation, no more worthy use of a restored Cathedral of Iona could be desired.

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