Our Mission
The mission of the Gathering Gates is to foster collaborations and create communal spaces where together we can face the challenges of our times – turning crisis into opportunity, and taking bold and imaginative steps towards a more just and beautiful world.
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Along the way we want to invite a living inquiry into how we can do it differently; drawing on collective wisdom, both ancient and new, and seeking to re-align our own human nature with the regenerative cycles of the natural world around us.
Welcome
Thanks for visiting our website. Our hope is that, by coming together in the intentional way we have envisioned here – in community, in connection with the breathing living earth, and attuned to the spirit of the universe – we will be better able to contribute creatively to the rapid adaptation that we (and many others) believe is being called for in these times.
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We hope you will feel inspired by what you find here, and perhaps encouraged to take a step towards connecting with us, and with this evolving vision. Together, may we play our part in this movement of movements, as we unleash a wave of grassroots innovation and transformation such as the world has never seen before.
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Come on humans, it's time.
Primary Driver
The driver below is a short statement of the core motivation behind this project, the why that is moving us to act. In the aims that follow, we set out the essence of how we plan to respond to what we’re seeing. We then offer an initial vision of what we want to bring about as we take steps towards achieving these aims. All of this is interspersed with questions – an invitation for you to consider what these words evoke for you, and to engage with this foundational vision in a spirit of collaboration.
Multiple Emergencies
Our understanding of current world events is that they are the manifestation of a long-term state of crisis in the ecological, social and spiritual realms that has been unfolding for many years. As a result, the health and wellbeing of humans and all species appears to be in jeopardy and economic collapse seems all but inevitable.
Does this resonate for you? What are you seeing in your world that might indicate we are facing dangers and perils in our evolutionary journey as humans? What does the word ‘spiritual’ mean to you?
A Window of Opportunity
Many of us are also sensing at these times an unprecedented window of opportunity to radically re-evaluate and restructure our way of life. This is accompanied by a growing desire to realign ourselves with the land and with natural and universal cycles of regeneration, to restore our communal bonds, and to withdraw our consent from the structures that are destructive of life.
Do you experience a unique sense of possibility at this moment in history? Do you have a sense of something seeking to align in you? How are you connecting with the natural world and with your community at this time?
Creative Responses
We feel there is a need to provide spaces where we can gather together in person, in community, to take the future into our own hands and to set the tone for positive change. We also need to consider ways in which we may recover from what is evidently an epidemic of burnout and overwhelm, and to address the unnecessary suffering in our midst. In all this, we sense the need to invite ways of knowing (and unknowing) that go beyond the usual approaches that are no longer adequate.
What would it look like to you to invite a collective focus on kindness, connection and gratitude? How would you name the things that deplete you? And how do you connect with what energises you? How can we think outside the box, invoking our powers of imagination and ingenuity in order to protect what we love?
Towards a New World
We believe that attending to these needs, and addressing the questions they raise, will enable us to move from fear and paralysis and to fulfill a vision of freedom, abundance and liberation for all. This will involve, amongst other things, confronting an endemic loss of power and control at the grassroots level, and activating our innate authority to discern and decide, and to act together for the good of the whole.
Aims
Community
To grow a community based on shared purpose, collective meaning-making and connection with nature, tuning-in to the collaborative, mycelium web that is always-already here.
Sustainability
To become increasingly resilient and sustainable on all levels: giving priority to questions, not jumping too quickly to solutions, seeking wisdom in the spaces between, and looking to the regenerative cycles of nature to guide us.
Culture
To evolve a culture of integrity and creativity through collective learning and unlearning, seeking common ground, establishing bonds of mutual trust, exploring the gift economy, and activating the innate goodness of human and non-human nature.
Foundational Vision
The invitation with all of it is to be playful, to conduct experiments, and to bring on board all our capacities as well as the many different approaches we have come to trust. We also want to encourage a culture of active curiosity, of living with questions and uncertainty, adopting a practical humility and allowing space for what we don't know we don't know to emerge.
Community Hubs
As well as simply gathering together in temporary transitional spaces, we envisage establishing one or more community hubs in this region. The Beloved Earth Community project is focused on procuring land, and we're also working with Norwich Eco Hub to find a place in Norwich.
A Shared Platform
As well as offering projects of our own, we are opening a field of intention for developing a platform where we can share resources and support other like-minded projects. We envisage this will grow slowly and organically, and that it will support our collaborations and foster new synergies.
