at the assembly this week we had a great time! we met in glasgow at the social hub. i had not been to one of their venues before but that was a perfect setting. i’ll do a separate post about the synergy between their values and vision and pioneering. but by way of example this is from the story book about the social hub and it being a group of people with the crazy idea that they can change the world. sound familiar?!

the big focus for me personally was launching aspen, a new community that i have been working towards for the last year (probably more like twenty years if i stop and think about it) together with a wider group. i have written a piece about the launch on the cms pioneer blog – new pioneer community launches . aspen is a community whose purpose is to accompany change makers, pioneers, fringe dwellers and midwives of the new to join in god’s unfolding movement to heal and renew all things. we launched with around 90 founding members and friends which was exciting. we now have lots of work to do to live into it and develop how it will be structured going forwards. phil hoyle had made an amazing tree from cardboard which was a great centrepiece. with some help from my grandaughters i had collected and painted with matt medium (pva glue)120 aspen leaves (that strengthens them). people wrote their names on and we added them to the tree. aspen is a pioneer species of tree that seeds in desolate spaces and seemed to be a name that has found us this year. anyway go read the article… here’s people adding leaves to the tree!

the assembly itself including a flow that explored the themes of decolonizing and then reimagining, with main sessions, an artist in residence who made an amazing installation, the acts 11 team, workshops, international friends, liturgy, reflection, storytelling, a tour of glasgow exploring its imperial legacy, great food, drink and chat. i don’t think we have dates for next year yet but if you are in the pioneering zone you’ll love it.