Gathering the threads: Assembly 2025

Gathering the Threads: Assembly 2025 – a Call to the curious, courageous and connected

by Johnny Sertin

19 May 2025

In November, the streets of Glasgow will hum with the quiet intensity of something sacred taking place – not in grand cathedrals or conference centres, but in the gathering of kindred spirits, drawn together by the same restless longing.

We gather not to preserve a memory of Christ, but to encounter Christ anew, alive and moving now, speaking into the complexity of today’s world, meeting us in the fluid identities, cultural tensions, and deep spiritual hungers of our time.

This is not the Christ of certainty and control, but of presence and pilgrimage, taking root in restless hearts and reimagined communities across these islands.

The Assembly has, over the past few years, become a vital touchpoint – a gathering space for CMS’s Pioneer collaborators, hub leaders, partners, and troubadours. It is a convergence of the unconventional, the hopeful, and the deeply faithful.

From London’s layered sprawl to Birmingham’s brave heart, from the windswept coastlines of the South West to the resilient cities of the North, we have watched this movement unfurl – quiet and steady, rooted and rising, deep-seated in place yet equally interconnected – each hub a local outpost of creativity and courage, bearing witness to the gospel in new and incarnational ways.

Last year, we stretched the tent pegs a little wider. We welcomed international voices – companions on the way from Aotearoa (New Zealand), the United States, and the global South – who have long inspired and challenged us in our understanding of mission. Their presence added a new thread to our shared tapestry: voices shaped by different lands, different struggles, and the same Spirit. This global chorus will join us again – their wisdom deeply woven into the fabric of the days we’ll share.

This year, we journey further.

In alignment with our vision to explore faith beyond the conventional norms of church life – and in solidarity with those who live on the edges of missional imagination – we ask a pressing, provocative question:

How can we decolonise our mission in practice and purposefully reimagine the landscape of faith?

Not just in the methods we use, but in the way we are – in our posture, our presence, and our shared spiritual life.

Together, we will explore this horizon by drawing on the grounded wisdom of Indigenous traditions, the prophetic edge of voices from the global South, and the lived experiences of pioneers who courageously forge new paths. We are grateful for the partnership of our friends at Acts 11 and beyond, who help us ask better questions – about power, about place, about what it means to be sent with rather than to.

This will not be a conference of experts. It will be a conversational art form – participatory, prayerful, and rooted in a learning community. You are invited not to observe, but to contribute. Not to consume, but to co-create.

And this year marks the beginning of something new.

We are launching a new initiative – a web of individuals and communities interconnected, cultivating new ground – a shared home for those seeking to live a life of faith, justice, imagination, and mission, without the need to squeeze into old structures that no longer fit.

This is for those who yearn for spiritual connection beyond the confines of closed systems and assumptions, and for those who can no longer pretend that the church as we know it is the church as it must be.

We’re building a different kind of table. And you’re welcome at it.

So, whether you’ve been walking this path for decades or are just beginning to name what you’ve long felt, come. Come with your questions, your longings, your wild ideas and weary hopes.

Assembly 2025. Glasgow. November.

The circle is wide. The invitation is real. The horizon is shifting.

Let’s walk our way toward it – together.

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