Peckwood Forest Space is a new Christian community that is being created in the ancient woodland of Peckwood. The vision for the NPNP is to provide a space for people to connect with God and others in nature.
The community will offer a variety of gatherings and activities, including:
- Forest church services
- Wandering and wondering sessions
- Seeds and saplings (for children and families)
- Installations to provoke reflection
The community has these core values:
- Invitational: open and welcoming to everyone.
- Experiential: focus on providing opportunities for people to have a personal encounter with God in nature.
- Inclusive: open to people of all ages, backgrounds, and beliefs.
- Intentional: creating a space where people can grow in their faith.
The community is currently in the early stages of development, but it has already had a number of successes. In late spring 2023, the community hosted a soft launch event and explored different themes of forest church, such as encountering God in nature, green social-prescribing, well-being, and climate concerns. In the short term, the community plans to continue hosting and developing a variety of forest church worship experiences. They also plan to build a core team to help facilitate these experiences and to raise awareness of the community in the local community.
In the mid term, the community plans to continue a regular pattern of gathering and to develop opportunities for people to be involved in the care and management of the woodland. They will also explore creativity opportunities in the woods, such as painting, photography, and woodcraft. In the long term, the community hopes to be financially independent and to be an ecclesial community that will continue despite inevitable changes in leadership, personnel, and volunteers.
The community will measure its success by two main metrics:
The soft metric: The impact on the lives of those who engage in the community. This will be measured through stories and anecdotes.
The hard metric: The reach of the community. This will be measured by how many people know about Peckwood, how many people have been to the wood, how many people have returned for a second visit, how many people have got involved regularly in one of the small communities, and how many people have got involved in the wider life of Peckwood beyond their initial contact point. In the longer term, as sustainability becomes more of an urgent question, the community will also measure its success by the number of self-sustaining small "cell" communities that exist.