I always enjoy Baptist Assemblies, and I was really glad to be down in Peterborough for this year's one day BUGB-BMS Assembly.  A long way to go for a day conference, for sure, but well worth while.

The photo above is from the Big Picnic Communion where we were invited to gather on the 'green grass' in groups of about ten to eat our picnic lunches and share communion... gluten free bread and alcohol free juice.  I sat with friends from "the church that never called me" twelve years ago and it was good to do so.

(Minors covered with blobs for child protection reasons)

The wall of boxes symbolises the house made of living stones (1 Peter) and the bottom few layers bore the names of the ministers and missionaries recalled in the In Memoriam.... among them my successor at Dibley... and I was glad to be sat next to the minister who "preached me in" at the Gathering Place, as hearing the tribute paid to him (he should have been there at the end of his NAM period) left me in tears... way too close to home. 

On the foundations of those already named, the  newly commissioned Mission Partners (including ours from the Gathering Place) and end of NAM ministers placed boxes with their names on them.  Finally everyone in the auditorium was invited to add their name to a box (per row) which was then added to the wall.

Towards the end of the gathering we were invited to send one person per church to receive a box to take home with us.  I got this one:

Had these folk not added thier last names (I only put my first name) I would not have realised that these were folk I have known since I did a summer placement at their church back in 2000.

As we sat with our boxes, two older women in front of us started to chat to us.  I explained that these names were folk I knew from Manchester and how... Yes, they said, and the new minister there came from our church in Sheffield.  The conversation progressed and I discovered that these two women grew up with a member of the Gathering Place whose father was their minister at the time.  (And if memory serves, a church where I know the current minister).

So I have brought back a box already rich in connectedness, and it will finds its way into worship in the near future.