The gap between our longings and aspirations and the way we actually live can be hugely painful and disappointing, especially if our spirituality is unnamed, unrecognized and unloved."

Kathy Galloway is a distinguished theologian and the leader of the Iona Community who has a long history of academic and community work. Based in Scotland and a single mum with three children, she has been working to enhance spiritual and cultural development for the last twenty years. She is connected with a wide range of local and global organizations, including ecumenical Christian centers and other social justice organizations. She has focused her efforts on issues pertaining to gender equality, poverty, and cross-religious and cross-cultural understanding.

Kathy Galloway is an academic, feminist, theologian, and, a social worker, writer and organizer of workshops on cultural and spiritual values development. She is a recognized consultant to a number of international bodies, such as the World Council of Churches. Kathy has set her goal in life to promote spiritual and cultural understanding. She believes that this goal comes from her strong Christian belief in a "God of action". When writing recently to the members of the Iona Community about the impact of the Tsunami of December 2004, Kathy explained her understanding of God and her relationship with him in the following words: "If I had to choose a description for the God I am in love with, I think it would be this: God is the Life of life. My being in love with the Life of life is mostly expressed in two ways. The first one is a kind of wordless gratitude, appreciation and mindfulness which is what prayer is for me. 'The turn of a leaf in morning sun and the catch in our throat drives us to our knees and into prayer,' as Yvonne Morland said. The other is in my very human and fallible effort to love people, to act justly, to live in the flow of life. Belief in God for me is a practice, not a proposition."

Scottish Churches Council Church Action on Poverty Joseph Rowntree Foundation