It’s time to be getting the garden sorted. Time to get down to your local garden centre and gather up those trays full of bedding plants (but don’t plant them out until the frosts are past!), packets of exotic seeds, and everything else to turn your little plot into a family paradise garden.

And while you’re there, look out for your friends from the nearest URC. Synod Moderator Dave Herbert is planning a series of Coffee & Jeans sessions in local garden centres, which are also being given the working title “Seeds of Hope”.

Why Coffee & Jeans? we asked. He explains “It’s just shorthand for an informal approach, with no agenda, other than to simply enjoy one another’s company and to have conversations around what seeds of hope can we plant in our churches and the communities they serve; or if already planted, how they can best be nurtured.   Seeds of Hope will provide a forum for the voices of local congregations looking for creative and new ways of doing and being church.  Maybe the conversations will cross-pollinate some great thoughts and ideas for the common good across our Synod.”

Update:

In relaxed mode, come along and share freely about our dreams and hopes for the future as church. Jeans & Coffee are informal gatherings in garden centre cafés on the following Saturdays:

July 8th 10.30-12 noon @ Wyevale Garden Centre, Yarm Road, Stockton-on-Tees TS18 3SQ
July 8th 1.30-3.00 pm @ Pity Me Garden Centre, Stank Lane, Durham DH1 5GZ
July 15th 10.30-12 noon @ Tyne Valley Garden Centre, Mickley Square, Stocksfield NE43 7BT
July 15th 1.30-3.00 pm @ Dobbies Garden Centre, Street Houses, Ponteland NE20 9BT
September 9th 10.30-12 noon @ Heighley Gate Garden Centre, Northumberland NE61 3DA
September 9th 1.30-3.00 pm @ Berwick Garden Centre, East Ord, Berwick-upon-Tweed TD15 2NS.

Be part of a think tank on the move, and let’s see if there are ideas to cross-pollinate some fresh thinking across our Synod. All are welcome. David, our Moderator, will help the conversation flow