It was such a delight last week to be with pioneers round the country.
Last weekend I was at the first weekend of the second CMS Certificate for the Northern Mission Centre. This is round two as it were and there are 18 people signed up from across the North of England which is so exciting. I love that CMS are part of encouraging mission in the North of England. It was also wonderful to have a really good number of Methodists. The weekend was an intro to pioneer mission and as part of it we heard from Paul Rose who led a taster session to explore spirituality outdoors. He leads and enables Mountain Pilgrims which is a network of people and groups exploring faith outdoors. They say this about themselves on the web site
Mountain Pilgrims is an emerging community of people that seek to re-imagine the outdoor experience. Mountain Pilgrims meet outside to discover the ‘thin places’ where the spirit soars and we are lifted out of the everyday. We invite those with different experience and fitness to join us as we journey together…
There was a real buzz about the weekend and it was my first visit for quite some time.
Then last week was a celebration of those completing the London Pioneer School – again this was on site rather than online. What was a bit surreal was that the group have done all their training online so this was the first time they had met offline. It was great to hear stories of community engagement especially with those at the edges, church plants and other creative pioneering initiatives.
This was the first time London Pioneer School have partnered with Missio Africanus. I really enjoyed meeting students who had come from that network.
If you want to join a hub to do the CMS Certificate get in touch – hubs are currently in London, Chelmsford diocese, Penrith, St Albans diocese, Bath and Wells + Salisbury + Cornwall dioceses(those three are collaborating together). And why not get a hub going where you are?! And of course we also have lots of accredited training at all levels run from Oxford of which quite a bit is now available online.