jonnybaker

scooter caffe is no more

i was genuinely shocked today when i discovered the scooter caffe was shut. over the last twenty years i have had countless meetings with people there. i had a book launch of curating worship there. we held a resource weekend gathering in the basement in 2010. but mainly it was meeting people to dream and plot the revolution. it felt like it was the london base of the underground resistance aka emerging church. i have been trying not to read too much into it being shut by the powers that be for not meeting regulations!

cms twenty: mission shaped church and fresh expressions

this is the sixth of a series of short reflections celebrating twenty years at cms

see also  1. gold | 2. emerging church | 3. blah | 4. new forms | 5. worship tricks 

what age do you become mature? we certainly celebrated our two lads birthdays at 18 in crazy style as that felt a moment of transition into adulthood. i had an email this week inviting me to something to celebrate fresh expressions of church becoming eighteen - wow! where did that time go?

looking back on my time at cms it was couple of years in that mission shaped church was published. here is my blog post when it landed on my doormat. this was a church of england and methodist report published in 2004 which was in response to the wave of new things bubbling up round the edges of the church. two members of cms were on the group that produced the report - chris neal and gill poole and i am proud that cms were involved in what was a seminal report really. it is very rare that a church report becomes a best seller but it caught the moment and maybe even a wave of the spirit! it said it was catching up with what was already happening through the likes of the emerging church. it coined a new term - fresh expressions of church - drawing on the declaration of assent where the church says it will proclaim the gospel afresh in every generation. there had been an earlier report called breaking new ground so this was a build on that actually. graham cray chaired it and there was a foreword by rowan williams in which he wisely described a mixed economy of church to suggest that the new and the old were all part of the church's household and he came up with a pretty radical definition of church which has not been bettered since in my view. you can dig it out to find the content but it was generous in what was welcomed into the mix. and it was brave - there would be a lot of work to do in the church of england around culture change if this was to have legs.

the report had a series of recommendations and the then archbishop rowan williams gathered together some people who got behind resourcing it as i think he realised he probably needed to bypass the central funding structures to act quickly. he was an absolute legend, an authority dissenter who was loved to bits by the movement that followed. it's so fun to read the blog post of that evening at lambeth palace which I was at telling the story of grace as an example of a fresh expression and the blog entry is titled bring on the angliCAN church . a fresh expressions team was appointed and they got to work speaking, develioping training, sharing stories and setting to work on policy such as creating a pathway for ordination , changing the regulations around church planting across parish boundaries and so on. the tenth anglican church planting conference that june 2004 sold out. cms were one of the sponsors. but reading my blog post on it you get a sense of the energy that was around. along with notes i took on rowan williams wisdom. it's also weird how small photos were then on blog posts - but i loved this one of steve collins, ben edson and adrian riley . other denominations joined in (urc, baptist, salvation army) and it was picked up internationally. for example i visited korea where it was translated and inspired new expressions. the relationship with emerging church was interesting - if you know the diffusion of innovation curve emerging church was in the early adopters but fresh expressions was more working with the early majority - at least that is my sense of it and stephen croft and i had a discussion at greenbelt one year to that effect i remember. and it really did diffuse to a significant degree over 18 years thus far.

in july 2019 it was 15 years on from the mission shaped church report and at general synod it was reported that this had been the single most effective thing the church had done to reach genuinely new people (at least for a long time). it was also futuring the church in its forms. a motion was adopted to encourage every parish to consider a contextual expression of church (contextual means that it is creatively related to the culture of the place it is in). others would know better than me how theior denoiminations hgave responded.

the diagram above i sketched at one of the later fresh expressions gatherings and jotted down what graham cray reflected on as the facets of its charism.

the weird thing is that it is at a funny moment right now. covid has been difficult for lots of things which is one factor. another i think was a change of archbishop so the funding changed perhaps rightly to things he was passionate about. but several people used language of it being embedded as if to say we've done that - which i think was pretty naive looking back. my own take is that the church has always needed a combination of its structural way of organising and a movement way of organising (the jargon for this is modal and sodal). if you just leave something like fresh expressions to the structural it will likely slide back into more internal agendas. you need those groups with particular focus and energey to help and continue to call the church to its edges. i also think that the nature of fresh expressions was broad church and ecumenical and it worked hard at that with book series in the sacramental tradition as well as the low church end. the more recent developments are located in a much narrower stream or at least that is how they are perceived. that inevitably means some people get on board but others simply won't. the church of england also stopped its central funding contribution to fresh expressions. it is now an independent charity. it's still doing good things but much smaller. i actually feel we're at a bit of a critical juncture to see what the way forward will be for the mission of the church in this regard. i am not saying we should turn the clock back, but in retrospect i think the church has not made the most of the huge opportunity that it was on the cusp of in july 2019 because it thought this was embedded enough. 

the good news is that all sorts of newness has bubbled up and multiplied. the church is most definitely looser round the edges. and cms and church army and other groups who were there before fresh expressions are still here and passionate about and involved in encouraging the mission of the church. we (cms) always seem to be perceived at the more radical end of things (which i don't mind) but actually we have been engaged front and centre in lots of ways. it has honestly been an absolute privilege to have been able to be part of that era and movement and i think cms was great in encouraging and helping resource it. we funded a couple of people on the fresh expressions team (bob and mary hopkins) for a good season as well as carving a furrow in the pioneer end of things (more about that later). fresh expressions is still going in a smaller format and we will carry on! i am so grateful to have been part of cms that has kept investing, kept at the table, kept drawing on lessons learned about contextual mission elsewhere, and shared stories internationally to help fuel this adventure of the imagination. ht to everyone involved. it has been a huge joint endeavour. 

cornwall and exeter pioneer practice next week!

i am excited to be back on the road next week again from 20-22 september. we are headed to falmouth, looe and exeter for the final leg of tbe pioneer practice tour. if you are down that way do come along, tell others. the details of registering are here - just click under the relevant location where it says ticket link.

i looked up photos of cornwall and it made me realise i have not been there for quite a long time so a visit is clearly due. here is an old one from the tate at st ives

cms twenty: worship tricks

this is the fifth of a series of short reflections celebrating twenty years at cms

see also  1. gold | 2. emerging church | 3. blah | 4. new forms 

as well as being at cms twenty years i had another twentieth anniversary this year which somehow passed me by. that is how long i have been writing a blog. i was persuaded by andrew jones that i should write one and began on blogger and my first entry was in april 2002. one of the first things i started was a series of worship tricks. the name is a bit naff but they were creative ideas, installations, rituals, liturgy, videos that i came across that could be shared. back then search engines were not so good so having linkages was helpful. it also helped me catalogue things i could return to. there are 4 series - see the sidebar for links to them on the right. they have completely slowed down over the last few years (or decade even) but occasionally i add another. the thing that interests me about them looking back is that i have always loved creative, soulful, artful worship. i have published more in that area than anything else i think - alternative worship, curating worship, chapters in other books, labyrinth kit, the pocket liturgy series with proost, various albums and so on.

fresh expressions and pioneering (more on those in later posts in this series) rightly brought different start points from alternative worship - listening, being present, getting involved in community things. growing a community of disciples and finding ways to express worship come a lot later. so it interests me how i have carried that thread right the way through. i still think it's important - there is something magical about an experience or expression of worship that feels like it is on the inside of a culture, that you can be totally at home in. and at some basic level i think i have also been passionate about it because i struggle with expressions of worship that are done by the book or have blocks of singing with songs you can predict and make no connection imaginatively with the context, or that simply feel alien. the added value at cms has been learning from the global church and seeing places where indigenous expressions of worship and liturgies emerged as opposed to imposed western ones. the description of the mass with the masai in vincent donavon's christianity rediscovered blew my mind i seem to remember.

i haven't checked but i expect many of the links in worship tricks are broken or disappeared (and i have no intention to fix them) and the worship tricks are dated though no doubt some still ring true. but the delight of those creative moments and offerings is still there and i hope to stumble across many more going forward and i long for more people to have the courage to create. i have taught the worship module for pioneers at cms and that has been a great joy too seeing them explore what worship could look and be like in the communities they are among.

it has been incredible to be a part of a small creative church all the time i have been at cms - grace in ealing. there are so many beautiful prayers and liturgies and rituals that have nurtured my theology and faith that have then made their way into worship tricks, been shared at cms with pioneers, been picked up round the world. what a gift that has been. i have always thought the church's liturgy should be open source - downloadable, able to be remixed and uploaded for others to rework. i hope that's what people do with the worship tricks. the availability of communication technology has certainly made that possible though on balance i find the church still seems to prefer control to trusting its people and the creative process.

cms twenty: new forms

this is the fourth of a series of short reflections celebrating twenty years at cms

see also  1. gold | 2. emerging church | 3. blah 

my memory of dates is somewhat hazy but greenbelt festival played significant host to creative engagement with new forms of worship and church going back quite a way. i picked up the baton from doug gay in the early 2000s round the time greenbelt landed at cheltenham racecourse and took on co-ordinating it as a volunteer with help from a host of other people - sue wallace, gayle findlay, sonia mainstone, ben edson, ian mobsby and others. doug had co-ordinated worship for the festival hitherto and was one of the pioneers of the late late service which was truly ground breaking back in the day. bear in mind alternative worship had a decade under its belt by the time i picked up the role.

it's probably worth a pause to recap how movements worked back then. if you wanted to get involved in alternative worship there was a photocopied magazine -  i think it was called re:sonate with stories and articles but crucially it had a list of groups, people and phone numbers on the back so you could get in contact and go and visit them. there were a few weekend gatherings too but it meant meeting at greenbelt was very precious because it wasn't possible to just chat online and visit someone's web site. one of the first online forums i remember was an email list called postmodern christian which subsequently morphed into other things. hardly anyone had web sites or knew how to access them. it was oldish tech but there was something magical about dial up that connected you into this other world of conversation with people exploring theology and practice in postmodern culture. i can still hear that dial up sound in my head!

but back to the early 2000s and by then it had moved on a bit. cheltenham racecourse had lots of indoor rooms and as long as you could kit them out your self it was easy enough to host a venue or two. we ended up for a good run of hosting two - new forms and new forms 2. the latter was more of an installation venue where the labyrinth made its appearance. 

cms were gracious enough to let me do this as part of my job in those early years. cms had been partners themselves at greenbelt for many years anyway.

i was reminded recently of new forms by paul northup, the greenbelt programme director. he interviewed nadia bolz weber for the greenbelt podcast and she said how significant new forms had been for her and others visiting from other parts of the world. he was musing on that. with the new connectivity it became host to people and groups from round the world - new zealand, germany, america, australia, ireland, scotland, england. greenbelt was the perfect host because it loved new ideas, art, theology, practice, risk taking and so on. i bumped into alex and kat at this year's greenbelt and we were remembering the cyber feminist eucharist that they led - where else would you get that?!. 

steve collins site smallfire has plenty of photos of that era - this photo is from a grace service on the theme of desert where we suspended a block of ice from scaffolding as you do! he describes the move to cheltenham and what ensued as follows:

This enabled the creation of 'New Forms', a dedicated alternative worship venue with a full sound and audiovisual setup and a rolling programme of worship events and related talks. Many of the events on this site took place in New Forms. During the 2000s Greenbelt was a major showcase for creative worship and a place for practitioners from all over the world to get together.

it was a fun time for sure!

the reason it's been on my mind for a season now is that i think we could do with making visible new forms still. i don't mean the venue and those groups. but i think it would be valuable to see and hear more stories from the edges. i was thinking who i could think of and there are a quite a few in and around the edges of pioneering - new forms such as revs , sacred bean coffee, church gathered around boxing, mountain pilgrims, the table and so on. there must be lots more. i came across a new form called grace notes through chatting with jed at greenbelt this year which i did not know about (i'll blog about that another time and hope to pay it a visit). i still really like the name new forms too....

[update: since writing this i found i had listed in 6 blog posts the various worship things happening which is quite an incredible read - what a feast in one year - see greenbelt worship part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 - that was 2004! part 2 and part 3 are the new forms venues.]

cms twenty: blah...

this is the third of a series of short reflections celebrating twenty years at cms

see also  1. gold | 2. emerging church 

conversation as been at the heart of all the explorations and adventures in mission i have been part of. that conversation has been with all sorts of people round the world pondering the changes taking place and wondering what god is up to and how to join in. stimulating that conversation have been some amazing pioneers, practitioners, thinkers who have published articles, blogs, books. in many ways the movement co-incided with the ability to communicate via technology across the world. initially that was through email lists, then web sites, blogs, social media and so forth. back in 2003 we hosted an event called blah... which we described as follows:

liquid church on tap with pete ward

CMS presents the first in a series of open conversations reflecting on mission, worship, church and christianity in today's rapidly changing culture. the series kicks off with pete ward, discussing 'liquid church'. pete's recently published book is wonderfully provocative and argues for the need to 'liquefy' congregational life and ministry. in london this is the first major forum where those who have read the book can react and discuss it with pete and those who haven’t can find out what all the buzz is about.

thursday march 6 2003
6:30-8:30pm
drinks and refreshments provided
admission free

venue: CMS partnership house, 157 waterloo road

i love that the first one was pete as he has been such a great friend and had such significant impact on me through his thinking and writing. i think we did blah... simply because pete got in touch to say he had a book and could we do something. it went well so we did another. the second one was a book launch of alternative worship with me, doug gay and jenny brown. and it just kept going for several years with people passing through london. blah events also  started in other places like nottingham, sheffield, birmingham, oxford, manchester. in those days i got to go to lots of them and meet people, drink and chat. that was my job!

i don't want these reflections to simply be nostalgic. so i am trying to pick themes that have something about them that is of lasting value. the thing about blah... that was so valuable was it was a conversation - people sparking off ideas and sharing them. there was also wonderful thinking about mission and theology taking place and it was a delight to have people sharing from round the world as well as the uk guests chipped in from new zealand, australia, usa, france and so on as they passed through. i hope that everything now is still a conversation where we are curious, exploring, theologising, sharing practice and learning from it and one another. we still host an annual pioneer conversations day so in many ways blah... has never really stopped. 

cms twenty: emerging church

this is the second of a series of short reflections celebrating twenty years at cms

see 1. gold

my very first day in 2002 at cms i was picked up by my new boss paul thaxter and taken to a meeting in nottingham to discuss the creation of a web site to try and get a sense of the new things emerging in and around the edges of the church. this subsequently became emergingchurch.info designed by adrian riley who did a great job. it launched a year later in september 2003. it was a great space to collect and collate stories of what was happening at the edges and engage in thinking and reflections around it. we released a monhtly update which sounds kind of strange now. we still have the archive of the site and i hope to come back here to link to it. there was a lot of energy around the idea of emerging church. i liked it as a term because it conveyed the idea of a relationship to the emerging culture but also that it was about a process of emergence. it was also bold at the time in that previously it had been a conversation about worship but the realisation was that much more needed to change and emerge. a scroll back through the category emerging church on my current blog has a lot of entries. it was an exciting time - genuine newness, experimentation, and connections across the world for those in western contexts at least - canada, new zealand, australia, usa, denmark and a few others joined in. the friendships across the world were so enjoyable and they were enabled really because it co-incided with so much opportunity to connect through digital technologies, blogging and the like. it is interesting reading back through as the usa took a much more branded route with Emergent (capital E) which was surprising to those of us across the pond and i wrote several bogs about it such as this one. i won't rehearse the story of emergent here but the early years were great - see for example hopeful news from emergent when brian maclaren was involved but it kind of blew up eventually.

cms brought a bit of a global flavour i remember with stories of a bus stop church in kenya and jacob isaacs cafe in bangalore. the risk of it was always it wasn't missional enough - it could easily be an internal conversation but i think my boss at the time kept challenging and pushing outwards which was healthy. we did a couple of tours - the first with alan hirsch and michael frost following their book shaping of things to come. that was such a helpful book as it pushed the practice away from worship and more into being present in third spaces to see what emerged. that tour was a lot of fun! two years later we followed up with a tour with karen ward and ryan bolger sharing stories of emergence from the usa - that tour was labelled as emerging church. 

fast forward to this year 2022 and the church of england has self described as emerging church in terms of where it is headed. it's a free country and they can use the language of course. it often happens that language gets co-opted and the meaning shifts in the process. on the one hand it shows that a process of diffusion can take a while. but on the other, the idea that the church of england is emerging as we understood it is pretty hard to see - it sounds like a spoof. at the last general synod martin poole stood up and made this point about language but i am sure he will be duly ignored! 

the early years of my role at cms were very involved in that whole conversation and space. in fact my initial role in youth ministry only lasted two years because there was so much interest in the emerging stuff. so after a while i focused on that and we appointed others to lead on the youth. i really think we are still exploring and building on the adventures and discussions that were taking place back then. in 2004 mission shaped church was published. this was a church of england and methodist report which was very influential. it was the church playing catch up with what was already happening at the edges. the report wanted to use a term for what was going on that did not draw on any one term that already existed such as emerging church or church planting. drawing on the declaration of assent (the gospel being proclaimed afresh in every generation) it came up with the term fresh expressions of church. that movement was so widespread that i think the language of emerging church eventually faded as so many of us were pulled into the diffusion of  innovation into the next phase, the early majority if you like.

a wild time

i have been so busy i have just realised i have not posted yet about gather wild-erness on anglesey. it was an event not to miss. liz dunbar has posted a review here and there are some lovely photos in it from mark kensett. i have a very simple theory that movements need spaces to collide - that's how connections get made, ideas shared, emergence happens, and you get encouraged. all of that and more happened. the content was amazing too. people keep asking me what's next - i have no idea at this point! but i am sure we will gather again. a few of my photos are here but i didnt take that many so go look at mark's.

this year's conversations day - a new sort of hybrid

every year at cms we host a conversations day. we pick a theme relevant to pioneering mission and practice and invite a bundle of contributors to explore it through workshops, talks, conversation and art. the very first one was on the pioneer gift out of which we published the book of the same name and every year since we have either published a book or edition of anvil. last year's was the wonderful and crazy gather online festival in which we explored pioneer practice.  it's been a great space for colliding with other pioneers or those interested in pioneering and having a chance to reflect together and dig deep into something.

this year has escalated into being hosted simultaneously in penrith and in oxford on tuesday april 5 so you can attend either one in person. the places are inevitably a bit more limited than previous years due to social distancing requirements in venues so book early if you are craving that on site experience. but there is also an online option and in that you will be able to choose any of the sessions from either the north or south versions! so it's new kind of hybrid which should be fun. and for those of you in more remote locations it makes it accessible.

the theme is exploring issues related to flourishing in pioneering mission and sustainability. see the link below where that is expanded on and there is a list of contributors.

register for oxford, penrith or online here

for those of you in the cms pioneer starfish network (i.e. you have done some training with us in oxford or in a hub) make sure you select the reduced starfish ticket. and if you are a current student select the free online ticket option.

change - last in the pioneer practice webinar series this thursday

on thursday it is the final in my pioneer practice webinar series. i remember last year the series i did took over my january and this year's been no different but it's been fun and so many people have turned out! i have three guests - ed walker, betsy blatchley and tina hodgett. we'll be exploring change both in terms of how you create change in the world but also how you navigate systems or the powers that be which seem resistant to change. i'll be interviewing the guests and doing some exercises - one of the exercises will be trickster's wheel of ruses that i have created for a photo group i'm in but it's so good i want to try it out on the guests! 

it's not too late to register and if you do you'll get sent links to the first three webinars to watch. hope to see you there. 

i apologise that i have not managed to get my act together for any other blog entries since starting the webinars but i'll get back on it including an exciting announcement.

see - week 2 of pioneer practice this thurs evening

thank you so much everyone who came along to last week's webinar and especially the guests. the chat was buzzing! in the poll of which of 5 things best described those present in relation to pioneering the top answer was 'seeing and imagining new possibilities'. so i am delighted to say that 'see' is the theme of week two where we will be exploring how you see possibilities, come up with ideas and use imagination. i have four guests this week related to three projects. susannah baker and khadeja, sue steer, and anna hembury. come and hear their inspiring stories of practice. i am looking forward to it.

if you missed week 1 you are still really welcome. register here and you will be sent the webinar info the day before. and you will get sent a link to week 1 so you can catch up should you wish to though no pressure to do so. hope to see you there. the series is a partnership between church mission society and heartedge.

be you - pioneer practice webinar week 1 this thursday

i am really looking forward to the pioneer practice webinar series. week 1 is exploring the idea of be you (and as it's the first an intro to pioneering and how you might get started). i have three guests joining me. it will be informal, chat show style. it's free to join - register here and if you do register you'll get links to any weeks you miss. 

the series will follow the four themes i explore in the book pioneer practice - be you, see, build, change. it's a partnership between cms and heartedge.

webinar series is back in january - pioneer practice

last january i ran a series of four webinars just imagine exploring creativity and imagination which was a lot of fun. i am pleased to say i am hosting another series this january on pioneer practice. it's a partnership with heartedge and the guests and conversations will explore the themes of pioneer practice and the areas heartedge focus on. register here (it's free). the dates are

• 13 January: Be You
• 20 January: See
• 27 January: Build
• 3 February: Change

here's the blurb...

As a pioneer, you see something — a possibility, an idea, a way that things could be better or new of different. Then you make something happen out of what you see.

This webinar series explores over four weeks how pioneering happens in practice. Its focus is how things happen on the ground. Each week Jonny will have two or three guests and get into the gritty day to day of how they pioneer. It’s ideal for you if you have started something or if you have an inkling or an idea you want to explore and get started. It would also be really useful to attend with a couple of others who you might pioneer something with. If you are a church leader it would be great for you too and do think of people in your church who might have the pioneer gift, whether they know it or not, and encourage them to come along.

That idea might be starting a new Congregation — the Church of England, for example, is encouraging every parish to pioneer one. It might also be an idea related to Compassion in your community. It might be related to Comerce as a way of making good in the world through enterprise. Or it might be related to Culture. These are the four Cs of the HeartEdge network.

recordings will be made available for those signed up to the series so if you can't make a session you can catch up. hope to see you there!

register here

woodland ecosystem + church mixed ecology

the church of england vision has mixed ecology at its heart which i really like - it's a rich evocative metaphor. i was invited to write a blog post for the church of england on that idea. i have learned a lot about ecosystems over the last three years through managing a piece of woodland. so perhaps inevitably that's where my thinking went. have a read - what i learned about church as an ecosystem by looking after a woodland

i first had this idea and develop it in imaging mission with john taylor. i think that chapter might be my favourite thing i have ever written.

turning a dream into reality

fresh expressions have revamped their web site. as part of that i contributed an article turning a dream into reality. drawing on pioneer practice i offer some very simple steps for how to see a possibility for a fresh expression and give that idea legs. if you are unfamiliar with the term fresh expression it is a new form of church formed primarily for people who don't go to church hopefully done in a way they can feel at home in. 

church for people who want to punch stuff + first review

it was great to read a first review of pioneer practice from russ bravo at inspire. he says 

Pioneer Practice manages to both provide inspiration and motivation for the pioneer, while being hugely pragmatic and realistic about the cost, the struggle and the challenge of doing things differently. Full of wisdom, deep questions and electrifying examples of what God can do when people who don’t fit the established order get stuck into changing things.

you can read the full review here. 

i also wrote up one of the 'electrifying examples' from the book for an article for inspire too - church for people who want to punch stuff 

sacred cows and sweet teeth - interview on v12 podcast

i was interviewed recently by david cotterill for the V12 podcast. it was good fun and the topic we were talking about was worship and the adventure of making that in creative ways that relate to the culture(s) of those outside of the church. you can find it on whatever your preferred podcast podcast app is - but here's a link on google or here's one on spotify

i got an email this week from someone asking me about how you navigate the liturgy and rubrics of your denomination or church in relation to pioneering with groups who won't relate easily to that - i sent a link to this interview as an answer. it made me realise that whilst some of us who were involved in alternative worship back in the day - navigating the contours of faith in the postmodern turn, these questions are still very pertinent and new to others. in some ways worship has been backgrounded or at least put layter in the mission process but it is still an essential component to explore. hope this helps if that is your question.

preview of gather programme

gather is next week and there is now a full programme available to see here. ticket sales end monday night. it looks incredible and it's been put together by volunteers co-ordinating various venues and spaces. hope to see you there - i am so looking forward to it. it's not very often you get involved in planning something that is so new that you can't quite visualise what it is going to be like!

gather festival - what to expect

i blogged about gather, a virtual festival-in-a-day celebrating and exploring pioneering mission practice. it can be hard to imagine what exactly that looks like. so if you are wondering here is an update which has been added to the booking page but it should help you imagine what to expect. we are really looking forward to it. the image above is one of the venue entrances.

Spaces and Venues

• Goodmakers - a venue hosted by Cathers from Goodmakers Society exploring all things pioneering related to making good in the world. If you have an idea and want to know how to work with it to make it real, this is the venue for you.
• Toolshed - hosted by Richard Passmore and Gavin Mart this workshop space will showcase and explore tools that help with pioneer practice on the ground. A tool helps you do something better, more easily or quickly than you could without it.
• Story - hosted by Sarah Clarke and Luke Larner. A storytelling tent to hear and share stories of pioneer practice.
• Starfish networking space - hosted by Andrea Campanale with the starfish team. Meet others that share your passion for pioneering around a related theme. Just drop in.
• Panels - hosted by Jonny Baker, Shannon Hopkins and Harvey Kwiyani. Four panels creating lively conversation on themes related to pioneer practice.
• Mind The Gap - hosted by Tina Hodgett and Paul Bradbury. A venue for reimagining church and missional community.
• Breathe Prayer Space - a space to get away and slow down and pray. It includes the wonderful St Paul’s millennium labyrinth respun by Grace for gather.town. Close by will be some one to one spiritual direction sessions.
• Wild Wood - hosted by Johnny Sertin, Rachel Summers and Gillian Traverse. There is an outdoor woodland ‘The Glade’ and the funky ‘Treehouse’ where you can dive into pioneer practice, biospirituality and the outdoors. Rewild your soul!
• Research lounge - hosted by Cathy Ross and James Butler. Grab a sofa and hear from students and researchers exploring the contours of pioneer practice.
• The Oratory - a programme of talks and presentations to inspire and reflect on pioneer practice.

As if that wasn’t enough there are some social spaces to explore. As well as the main site which is a greenspace, there is a beach, a garden, and the moon where you can go and hang out.

Programme

We are organising the programme by inviting hosts to create programmes in the ten spaces above. There will be slots running for about 45 minutes at 11, 12, 2, and 3.

Worship

At the start and end of the day there will be a choice of 4 worship slots ranging from maranatha yoga to creative liturgy.

Evening entertainment

After a break where you get away from screen or hang out with friends in gather.town there is an evening programme as follows:

• Quiz designed and led by Harry Baker.
• Performance cafe - a mix of music, spoken word and artistry compered and curated by Katy Partridge and Tim Watson.
• Cocktail lounge with tunes from DJ Steve Leach.
• Campfire in the Wild Wood to hang out and share songs and stories.

We will add details of the programme ahead of time and send to everyone who has booked so you can plan ahead.

book tickets here

editing and remixing - jesus and the powers take 2

i seem to be on a liturgy theme this week. so in that vein one of the most natural things to do when crafting prayers, liturgy, a service is to play with the words to make them fit well with the context and with the moment. with technologies of cut and paste this is of course so easy to do. so i was delighted when martin wroe who is a wonderful poet and writer and crafter of words sent me a rework of the communion prayer jesus and the powers that i wrote in july - st luke's holloway have used it in their worship.

if you want or need a practical theology frame of reference or two for this doug gay in his book remixing the church has a brilliant schema of audit | retrieval | unbundling | sampling | remixing and pete ward in introduction to practical theology talks about the processes of remembering | absorbing | noticing | selecting/editing | expressing.

that's not to say everything needs to be messed with - some things are beautifully made and crafted and are artful in their own right. but in the tradition i am in there is not enough play - there is an assumption that there are the 'right words' to use which often ends up being one more area of defendedness rather than open source gift of a tradition that is alive. the reality i suspect is that everyone gets on and remixes anyway - i hope so. most weeks i listen to craig charles funk and soul show on bbc 6 music which is an interesting comparison. the tradition, the old classics get played again and again but they also forever being played with, remixed, reworked, resurfaced. the tradition is a living thing.

martin's email ended by saying

I’ll probably remix it more as time passes… probably you’ll remix it too

exactly! anyway all that to say here is martin's latest remix of the eucharist prayer i wrote back in july. see what you think and by all means download, edit, remix, sample and upload/share...

The Prayer of Thanks 

The Lord be with you.
All And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.
All We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
All It is right to give God thanks and praise

We give thanks for your life, on this earth, walking by our side.
How you announced a new heaven and a new earth, found at the margins of this world,
an offensive against the strongholds of oppression, the dawn of liberation.

With signs of healing and deliverance
You proclaimed news of another commonwealth,
you chose a life of nonviolent confrontation with the powers of the age.
You restored wholeness to the sick
and those called impure.

You tore down the boundaries of tribe, gender and sexuality
of black and brown and white,
All the walls we build to exclude those whose difference makes us uncomfortable.

You overturned the dynamics of status and honour,
insider and outsider.

With you there is no longer male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile.
Patriarchy, slavery and racism have no place in your new world.
All are made in the divine image,
Everyone included in the revolution
where the last are first.

The powers that be opposed you
We still do.
You chose love over fear.

You were put to death,
lynched and hung on a tree.

In the great reversal of all history,
on the cross you overcame the powers of this world and broke the power of death.

You sang a song of a new heaven and a new earth.

And with angels and saints and all who walk your way.
Still, we join with you, in that song...

Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth
are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

When we forget this song, remind us of the tune.

When we lose sight of your way, guide us.
When we despair and are overwhelmed,
send your Spirit to comfort us.

You call us to a conversion of heart,
to turn away from the seductions of empire,
To turn towards a new heaven and earth,
a community of resistance and healing,
gathering at a table where you promise to meet us.

God of all life,
lighten our path to your new commonwealth,
when there is bread and wine, shelter and security,
for all people in all places
when the good earth breathes easy again
and violence and greed are made history.

May our homes be open, our tables welcome,
May this table today be such a place.
May we live from love and not fear.

Gracious God, present with us now in every place and time,
bless this bread and wine with the presence of Jesus.

Great is the mystery of faith:

Christ has died:
Christ is risen:
Christ will come again.

Among friends, gathered round a table,
Jesus took bread; and when he had blessed it, he broke it and said,

‘Take this and eat it. It is my body. It is given for you.
...Do this to remember me.’

Then later, during the meal,
he took a cup of wine, and when he had given thanks, he said,
‘In this cup is the new relationship with God made possible because of my death.
...Take this, all of you, to remember me.’

We break this bread
To share in the body of Christ.
Though we are many, we are one body because we all share in one bread.

So come to this table,
you who have much faith
and you who would like to have more;
you who have been here often
and you who have not been for a long time; you who have tried to follow Jesus
and you who feel you have failed;

All Welcome.
It is Christ who invites us to meet him here.