09/16/2026
Sunday, September 13, 2026 (Kirkin' of the Tartans, Youth-involved sermon)
In 1938, Scottish clergyman George Macleod was ministering to the poor in Glasgow and began to realize that the church had done a disservice in connecting to and offering either hope or support to the poor in the city and region. In short, the church was not living out the gospel or providing what Christ commanded it to offer. Discovering the abandoned abbey on the isle of Iona, which had been established in the 6th Century by St. Columba, but later put into ruin during the Protestant Reformation, Macleod restored the abbey. He then went to work transforming it into a place of worship and communal life for the poor and everyday Christians of Glasgow, as well as a training ground for clergy. It would later become a pilgrimage site for Christians from around the world. Of the place, Macleod said, “Iona is a ‘thin place’ where only tissue paper separates the material from the spiritual.”
Such “thin places” are known as liminal - meaning that there is very little which actually separates the world as we see it from the spiritual world as we seek and perceive it - the space the width of a bit of tissue paper. For almost 100 years Christians have made their way to Iona for spiritual renewal and connection.
In 1938, Scottish clergyman George Macleod was ministering to the p...
