A retreat on Iona with Mark S. Burrows and Deborah Lewer

Art and Poetry in Dialogue

“The Four Seasons of Life”

A retreat on Iona with Mark S. Burrows and Deborah Lewer

27th October – 1st November 2025

Join us on the beautiful Isle of Iona for a retreat bringing the visual arts and poetry into dialogue. This year, we’ll be exploring the earth’s seasons—with their energies and patterns—as metaphors that reflect deep experiences of life, love and death. What we learn from this rhythm often startles us with unexpected insights into our own lives and the lives of others. As the days shorten and the shadows lengthen, this is a chance to encounter these seasonal dynamics and how they shape our bodily and spiritual experiences. Mark and Debbie, experts from the US and the UK, respectively, will open a range of contemporary poems and vivid works of art from many eras, probing their gestures, surprises and silences. 

This is a retreat for anyone seeking inspiration, rest and connection—with the arts and with each other. No experience or expertise is necessary, and all are welcome. There will be two main sessions each day in the beautiful new Village Hall,  delicious shared meals, plenty of time to explore Iona and options for joining with worship at Iona Abbey.

Dr. Mark S. Burrows is an award-winning poet, translator, and scholar. An historian of medieval mysticism, he is well known for his work on Meister Eckhart. The third of his collections of meditative poems inspired by Eckhart, Meister Eckhart’s Book of Darkness and Light, was recently distinguished with a Gold Medal from the Nautilus Book Awards (2024). He is also widely acknowledged as one of the leading interpreters and translators of Rilke’s writings, with translations that include Rilke’s Prayers of a Young Poet (2013/2024) and his Sonnets to Orpheus (2024). His most recent publication is You Are the Future: Living the Questions with Rainer Maria Rilke, cowritten with the Australian writer Stephanie Dowrick (2024). He is a member of the Iona Community and much sought-after as a retreat leader in the US, UK, Europe and Australia. He lives and writes in Camden, ME.  www.soul-in-sight.org

Dr. Deborah Lewer is Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Glasgow. She is a specialist in modern German art and in the rich relationship between art and theology. She is a Senior Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and is known as a historian of the radical, subversive Dada movement, in particular. Committed to enabling people of all backgrounds to access, enjoy and engage with a wide range of art, Debbie also works extensively outside academia with clergy, ordinands, retreatants, festival-goers and others to explore visual art from broad faith perspectives. She enjoys new and innovative ways of doing art history, such as research by practice, making, and performance.

The retreat is facilitated by and will include input from Dr. Pat Bennett; Pat is a writer, scholar and liturgist based in Glasgow and the former programme development worker for the Iona Community. She works at the intersections of the humanities and sciences fostering conversation, exploration and exchange.  She is a member of the Iona Community.