Editorial: Movements, communities and sodalities | ANVIL volume 41 issue 1

by Jonny Baker and Cathy Ross

Welcome to a bumper issue of ANVIL. The idea for this issue was prompted by the launch of Aspen in November 2025. Aspen is a spread-out community, set up to look after the charism of pioneering mission (or whatever name you prefer to use) and to generate more of that practice. It is a response to the movement in mission we have seen grow in Britain and other post-Christian contexts over the last 30 years.

We have included in this issue the founding Aspen document that describes the purpose and charism of Aspen, and I (Cathy) have written a reflection or commentary on the process of setting it up. It’s a particular kind of community, a sodality to use the mission jargon. That community is a contribution to the ongoing movement in mission in post-Christian Britain and beyond. We thought it would be interesting to explore further the combination of movement and community in mission. It is of particular interest to us in CMS as we have been through a refounding process over the last six years or so. Our participation in mission globally has pivoted towards catalysing, co-creating and contributing to mission movements as we seek to notice and join in with what God is doing at the edges. This issue is focused towards post-Christian contexts (one of CMS’s areas of participation in mission). We hope a future issue might be able to build on this by exploring the theme further for other movements in mission.

There is a lot in the issue so do take your time with it but we are really thrilled with what has come together. ‘Movements’ is a slippery concept and I (Jonny) have written an article on some of their contours. I fear this may not be tight enough for some people who want to pin down what movements are but the very nature of movements is such that they keep moving and evade definition! And as I say in the article, attempts to pin them down often end up feeling more like descriptions of pyramid selling. Mission community and movement are nothing new so it’s great to have Ade Green’s article on being a Franciscan, one incredible movement that has been running for over 800 years. It makes quite a good ‘compare and contrast’ with Matt Richards’ article on new monasticism and mission.

We all need friends for the journey and at CMS, as we have been networking with others involved in mission in similar spaces to us in post-Christian contexts, we have really enjoyed the friendships that have emerged. Street Psalms and the Parish Collective, both of which are based in the US, are sister communities. Tim Soerens and Kris Rocke both share lots of wisdom in conversation with Tina Hodgett and Johnny Sertin respectively. Katharina Haubold reflects on the Fresh X-Network through conversation with others who have been part of the movement in Germany around mission and fresh expressions. We have had good friendship with Katharina and others in Germany over many years now. That in itself is illustrative of how movements work, though making connections, sharing ideas and friendship, and mutual encouragement and learning. Common Grace is a movement in Aotearoa/New Zealand that is focused on activism and justice, seeking to transform unjust structures in society. Alex Johnston tells their story in a way that we found very compelling. We hope that international flavour is helpful. We’d like to deepen that further.

There are further articles reflecting on practice. Idina Dunmore reflects on her experience of being part of a mission community, Servants Southall, London. Kairos is a new movement and community in Yorkshire catalysed through the Methodist church’s New Places for New People work. Liane Kensett tells their story and how they have developed a rhythm to the community’s life as they seek to reimagine what that might look like if we become future-facing. Harvey Kwiyani and Nuam Hatzaw have a conversation around Harvey’s book Decolonizing Mission. This conversation took place at the Assembly which is our annual get-together with people in the network. This is also movement, through a slightly different filter – exploring mission practice and the contours of a missiology after empire, after colonisation. The reflection on Aspen and its founding document, as mentioned above, also feed into this focus.

At CMS we have been pondering what sort of spirituality enables a life lived in mission. Ian Adams has been conducting lots of conversations with people about their own practice under the header “Presence”. Together with a couple of others, this has been distilled to a pattern of five principles to aid a life of prayerful presence, a mission spirituality if you will. This is being offered as an invitation across CMS to live a life of prayerful presence in mission. It seemed a perfect fit with this issue of ANVIL and we are grateful to Ian for letting us include it, to invite you into that too.

To top it off, there is a series of book reviews. Several of those are books that accompany this issue particularly well so do enjoy those too. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this issue. Everyone does so voluntarily as a gift of their time and energies, which we really appreciate.

About the authors

Jonny Baker is the director of mission in post-Christian Britain at Church Mission Society (CMS).

Cathy Ross is a lecturer on the MA Programme at CMS. Her research interests are in the areas of hospitality, feminist theologies and missional practice.

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