Digital download: Poems about finding our own paths to hopeful spaces. ‘Hope is a dimension of the spirit …' 8 pages.
Meditations & Reflections
Poems written during an emotional time of absence and loss. Out of the shadows, the darkness, and often the injustice, the need to lament and mourn goes hand in hand with the special significance of small moments and ordinary occasions.
Meditations & Reflections
Poems written during an emotional time of absence and loss. Out of the shadows, the darkness, and often the injustice, the need to lament and mourn goes hand in hand with the special significance of small moments and ordinary occasions.
Healing
Digital download: Poet Joy Mead imagines what the world would be like if we all concentrated on the positive aspects of life. 4 pages.
Digital download: A personal and poetic meditative reflection on ageing, with an emphasis on a sense of wonder arising from the seemingly small but immensely meaningful things of life. 18 pages.
Books
A new collection of poems from Joy Mead. Her poems celebrate what it is to be alive and also, perhaps, what it is to contemplate death.
A new collection of poems from Joy Mead. Her poems celebrate what it is to be alive and also, perhaps, what it is to contemplate death.
All-age resources
Digital download: Prayers and poems by and for children. Whether you're a kid or a kid at heart, we hope you'll find them helpful, comforting, moving, entertaining, fun. 38 pages.
Creation & Environment
Digital download: A liturgy about the joy of seeing holiness in the ordinary but also for the sadness of the world and the possibilities of transformation. 6 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: Joy Mead contemplates the nature of the soul, interspersed with some of her poems. 15 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: A poetic exploration of prayer as a diverse, open, imaginative, exciting journey - the complete opposite of hands together, eyes closed. 13 pages.
Creation & Environment
Digital download: This meditative look at climate change, the sacrednesss of all life and human responsibility inspires us to be attentive, caring and empathetic with all beings with whom we share the sacred space of the earth. 4 pages.
Books
A collection of favourite Joy Mead poems, many of them selected by the author's readers and friends, who ask 'Where can I find -?' when they want a poem for a special occasion. Also includes some new works.
A collection of favourite Joy Mead poems, many of them selected by the author's readers and friends, who ask 'Where can I find -?' when they want a poem for a special occasion. Also includes some new works.
Daily life
Digital download: A poetic exploration of the experience of laughter and the essential, liberating role it plays in all our lives. 5 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: A short liturgy for Pentecost. 'Pentecost isn't a once and for all happening but ongoing and energising hope here, now, in this world, in this place. It's about that which sustains us, enables us, provokes a just anger and arouses compassion. It's about spirit-filled life bursting out of encounter with darkness and suffering ' 4 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
A Reflection, Prayer and Pledge for International Women’s Day (PDF download)
Digital download: All the evidence is that gender equality leads to better decisions, fairer policies, more participation, prosperity and peace. International Women's Day presents a challenge to us all - let's reflect, pray and pledge for a radical transformation of the current world order. 12 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: A reflection for Mothering Sunday on the nature of mothering. Encompassing waiting, cherishing, birthing and sustaining, watching and trusting, mothering is a universal way of being which is at the heart of life and nurture. Taken from the book A Way of Knowing, by Joy Mead. 6 pages.
Creation & Environment
Digital download: A service for celebrating Harvest with an emphasis on the importance of seeds and soil, and reminding us that hunger isn't caused by scarcity but by injustice. 11 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
A Reflection on the Story of the Transfiguration (PDF download)
Digital download: Poet Joy Mead takes one of her usual insightful looks at a biblical event, this time the Transfiguration. 3 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: A service for the dawn of Easter Sunday, ideal for the open air rather than inside a church building. A special time of the morning on a very special day. From the book The Cross in the Marketplace. 11 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: A service of waiting and hope, built around the prophecies of Jeremiah and also linked to the theme of water and baptism. From the book The Cross in the Marketplace. 8 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: Meditations for Good Friday based on experiences of Iona Community island staff who have worked with people on the edge socially, economically and emotionally. Each meditation includes reference to a Bible passage and can be used for personal reflection or as part of a service. From the book The Cross in the Marketplace. 16 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: A simple service of lamentation for Good Friday that can be used by groups of 10 or 12 people in various locations such as people's homes or in different parts of a church building. From the book The Cross in the Marketplace. 8 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: An extensive Stations of the Cross with, at each station, a Bible reading and a testimony from a person who witnessed one of the events in the story. This is very much a community event in which everyone can be involved. Taken from the book The Cross in the Marketplace. 40 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: A ceremony of foot-washing, Agape or Communion, the stripping of the church, and a vigil for 'the disappeared' and for prisoners of conscience. Taken from the book The Cross in the Marketplace. 13 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: A service for the day when Jesus demonstrates what his claim to messiahship really means and what his Kingdom is really about - for committing ourselves to the values of the upside-down Kingdom of the unlikely Messiah Jesus, who stands today in the heart of the military-industrial complex and declares: 'Peace.' Taken from the book The Cross in the Marketplace, by Dave Broom. 7 pages.
E- Liturgies & Prayers
Digital download: A pilgrimage for the start of Holy Week, mainly in the form of dramatic scripts for each stopping point. Although based on the weekly Iona pilgrimage, it can be adapted for any local environment, including urban ones, or even be used within the church itself. Taken from the book The Cross in the Marketplace, by Dave Broom. 34 pages.
A free download providing an updated version of one of the poems in Glimpsed in Passing.
Poems from Iona Community member Joy Mead. They come from the beauty of the glimpsed moment - a precious jewel held for a short time amid the pain and sorrow of the world, then let go into the bigger picture - The beauty is what we remember, what gives the moment its significance.