it was so wonderful last week to get to spend a few days in scotland with pioneer practice tour packing in 5 gigs in 4 days along with gav mart. we were hosted by steve aisthorpe who had helped pull together the itinerary. he even had a van so it was like a proper tour bus 🙂

each location was different but my biggest takeaway really was that in each location the start point seemed to be us being told that there's not really a lot of pioneer practice going on, but by the end of the session when we had invited stories to be shared it was clear that all sorts of things are happening and bubbling up around the edges. it feels a good time (at least from the outside) in that networks are forming, there is a pioneer scotland facebook group, and so many good people involved across the board in encouraging, networking, training across denominations and streams. and crucially imaginative practice. scotland you have enough in your hand.

we bumped in to various scottish phrases along the way – it reminded me of kate fox's watching the english book where she explores phrases to get at englishness. i wish i'd written them all down. but one that stayed with me was 'who do you think you are?' – which was some peoples way of saying it is a hard culture to stick your head above the parapet. and yet when we did a poll on pioneer practice the top answer in every location was it's about seeing and imagining. so those gathered really seemed to embody something different, or at least their answer to that question was 'a possibility people' (for those old enough to remember that is a nod to a late late service rant which of course was a scottish liturgy).

thank you for having us! this is a rare moment when we had a minute to catch our breath on montrose beach – thanks to gav for the pic

no gigs this week, but back into the fray the week after with newcastle and bristol – yes i know not exactly good planning on my part!