welcome to the village -- as in, the episcopal village gathering

I'm sitting in the kitchen with my friend Ian Mobsby, priest to the Moot community, our sister church in London, and the big speaker for this

our friends @ moot

weekend's big ol' Episcopal Village conference at the Cathedral. Ian and I are co-editors for the slammin' book Ancient Faith, Future Mission: Fresh Expressions in the Sacramental Traditions. But we've just finished shopping at Trader Joe's (he's amazed at these American stores), and now we're eating soup and talking the future of church on our respective continents. I can't

wait to welcome everybody else into the conversation this weekend. It's gonna be good!

The Background: The Crossing is helping to throw a Spring Learning Event/Episcopal VillageMission Event on Saturday, March 5, from 9am to 4:30pm. Presenters are coming from all over the country (inc. Karen Ward, exec. director of Episcopal Village; Tom Brackett, staff officer for Church Planting and Fresh Expressions for the Episcopal Church) and around the corner (including Jack Jenkins on Social Media; Isaac Everett on Emergent Psalms; Rev. Steph Spellers on birthing a fresh expression in a conventional church; Jason Long and Arrington Chambliss on intentional Christian community; Nicholas Hayes and Marisa Egerstrom on organizing for the earth). Think of it as one big village gathering of practitioners and dreamers and activists and lovers of God's dream.

Many of you are volunteering, providing homes for out-of-town guests, presenting on your own work and visions, and I'm so grateful for this outpouring! Even if you're just tuning in now, get registered and come. Cuz it takes a village to embody the dream of God.

• You can register for Saturday here.
• You can check out and print or share the flyer here.
• You can attend the Saturday event plus a pre-conference talk with Ian Mobsby in a cozier setting on Friday at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge (same registration site).
• You can experience worship Moot-style at EDS' Thursday 12:15pm Eucharist (no registration necessary).

That's one piece of the news, but click here for the whole weekly news blast.