Welcome to Gathering Gates Online Community

We are Jenny Haycocks and Liz Day, and we've put together a project called the Gathering Gates. It's an offering, and a foundational vision, which we hope can be of service as together we find ways to respond to the multiple crises of our times.

The mission we've embarked on, and that we're inviting others to join us in, is to foster collaborations and to set-up and nurture physical locations in East Anglia where we can grow community, all the while engaging in a living inquiry into how we can 'do it differently'. We are 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.

This platform exists to support this mission (check out our website for more). We envisage it as a small-scale, local alternative to the dominant mainstream – and increasingly toxic – social media platforms, a small way of resisting the encroachment of corporate media monopolies and the surveillance culture they foster.

Broadly speaking it is for anyone who shares our passion for a more beautiful world and who would like to join up with others for inspiration, for solidarity, to tend our wounds together, and to light the fires of our imagination. 

• Perhaps you identify as a climate activist, or simply as someone who cares deeply for the natural world and who wants to take action to restore what has been broken.
• Maybe you are somewhere in the conspiracy theorist camp, or just concerned about the way our politics and corporations seem to be converging towards centralised control.
• Perhaps you are a lover of freedom, and want to nurture the emergence of new and renewed forms of local, grassroots democracy.
• Maybe you are involved with local or parish councils, and are seeing how our current institutions are not sustainable, and want to help facilitate community solutions. 
• Perhaps you are part of the business community in East Anglia, and want to offer some of your expertise and resources to the common good. 
• You could be part of a third sector organisation, wanting to make connections into the community, and to innovate in new ways. 
• Or perhaps you are a parent concerned for the future of your children, or a young person burning with desire for a better world...

All this and more is welcome here.

We may be looking at our collective challenges through different lenses – of politics, culture, of age or class, or of educational background or religious belief. And we may have diverse ways of understanding the causes and conditions of our common predicament.

But we believe, ultimately, what unites us is stronger than what divides us, and that we can, and indeed must, join together in these times to co-create something new. Standing together, shoulder to shoulder.

The idea is to keep it local to East Anglia, running parallel with face-to-face encounter. We also want to plug in to global consciousness and solidarity, so if you feel drawn to connect from further afield, that's welcome too.

We are offering this as a support for what is already happening and wanting to happen. It's an online self-organising ecosystem of sorts, to support the on-the-ground ecosystem that we are coming into alignment with.

We hope it will facilitate: 

• Mutual care and aid. 
• Communication and exploration of common ground.
• Sharing of resources and ideas. 
• New collaborations and synergies.

It's a place where we can focus in on what matters to each of us – from the practical to the philosophical, from the personal to the political, the ecological, the relational, the spiritual... and everything in between.

Ultimately, it's about building a new story of what's possible, and encouraging each other to come more and more into a place of service towards that which is our heart's deepest knowing, as we navigate new thresholds of human becoming.

You have complete control over which groups and conversations you join and the notifications you receive. 

There are community-wide groups, and special interest groups. You can also create your own group if you would like to. 

Here are some of the ways we can use groups, there may be others... 

• Conversations on particular themes.
• Sharing and messaging before, during, and after events and workshops.
• A gateway into an event, with a fee for joining.
• Announcement-only channels, a bit like a mailing list, with communications coming solely from the host/moderator.

You may want to join just one group, and not get involved with anything else. That's totally fine. Or you may opt to join in some of the community-wide conversations. 

You can receive email notifications on your computer – either every time there's a post for something you've signed up for, or a digest of one per day max (less frequently if there's no new content).

You can download a mobile app and link in through your device, turning notifications on or off. 

Only hosts and moderators can post to the whole community, and we will do so sparingly.

And, by the way, it's free. If you would like to make a financial contribution to the Gathering Gates, that will be gratefully received. But there's no paywall to join. 

Ready to jump in and give it a go?