Columba's Island
There must be something sad in completing a life's work, but no doubt George MacLeod will still have plenty on his plate when the last touch of restoration is finished at the abbey on Iona. The work was started by his Iona Community twenty- five years ago and completion is now in sight, in this the fourteenth centenary of Columba's arrival on the island. MacLeod, more properly the Very Reverend Sir George F. MacLeod, Bt., is still formidably, electrically energetic twenty-five years after launching the Iona project. He is a big man physically, and gives an instant impression of solid brute vitality. He has a natural histrionic talent which he somewhat despises, is unshakably a Socialist and will not willingly be described or addressed by his hereditary title. A few years ago he was cast by the Daily Express as the villain of the dark conspiracy to introduce bishops into the Church of Scotland, and this experience has left him with a mild diffidence towards journalists. In fact, MacLeod was never a bishop man, but was elected as Moderator of the General Assembly in
the year when the celebrated 'Bishops Report' had already been accepted, and became official spokesman for it willy-nilly. He actually believes that he should love everybody, admits that some cases are more difficult than others. No mean Scotsman.
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