Everyone who came to Flower Model last weekend in London gave amazing input, ideas and thoughtfulness. Flower Model is our participatory forum for developing national events and themes across the network - including Prayer, Campaigns, Arts, Groups & Links, International, Sharing Faith & Discipleship. Our planning for the next year has come along really well and we’ve drawn out some important themes to focus on.

Below is a initial summary of the main issues discussed and developed...

Vocal Training 08

Vocal Training is back this year as a 5 day event in Quinta where we’ll camp and meet inside our very own yurt – the Little Big Dress! The theme is around equipping us to find our voice, our place in the kingdom of God and to grow in our gifts and skills. Helping people to be confident in themselves and delve into what they are really passionate about was a strong feeling in our discussions. The structure will be something like…

• Beginning with giving us the tools to find our skills and how we operate best (using existing wisdom and formats).
• Testing out these things practically in workshops etc.
• Evaluating them with each other to see what we’ve learnt.

This will cover skills, our values and we’ll also go ‘behind the scenes’ on our issues.

Soundcheck 09

Everyone was in agreement for the theme of Response:Ability - our responsibility for the world, our response to injustice, and our ability to make a difference! It’ll follow on really well from Vocal training and there were loads of creative ideas about how to develop it through interactive pod areas (a safe space for people to be nurtured and grow in each area of Speak's values - check out the amazing natural design of a pea or bean pod to get the idea!), the décor, the workshops and worship.

Big Dress

We discussed the need for ths Big Dress to help SPEAK develop, not just be a big event that we put all our energy into. What we do together has to equip the local groups and Links so next year, also in line with the theme of finding our voice, we’ll take the Big Dress to existing festivals rather than run our own. This’ll give the network the chance to be more involved in preparing the content of what happens in the Big Dress.

Campaigns

Into 2009 we’ll continue campaigning on corporate accountability particularly focussing on European lobbying and the opportunities that will be available in the next year. We’re also hoping to link the next Pray & Post card to climate change campaigning. The main action is the Unfinished Business MP3 petition.

Once again, thanks to everyone for their input and commitment. It’s a real pleasure to spend time fleshing out our vision and values with such brilliant and passionate people.

The next Flower Model forum will meet in November to review Vocal Training and develop ideas for Soundcheck 09 - if you would like to be involved or get more information you can contact any of the petal leaders on the Flower Model pages, or email the Network Support Team or call 0207 249 4309.