More about Greenbelt

There was just so much going on that it is hard to give a flavour of Greenbelt. The timetable means that there are always things that you miss out on just because you go to something else. And as one of the great things is to meet up with people you know who are also there it is just impossible to do everything you would like to do.

So, having said all of that, I managed to participate in a number of organised worship experiences - Night prayer with nChant, Iona Worship, Suwarta Sangat leading a Satsang (Indian style worship gathering of singing), Matt Redman on the mainstage and the Festival Communion with Ann Morisy speaking.

Talks wise I managed to hear James Alison (as recommended by Barbara in a comment on this blog). I really enjoyed him on exploring the New Testament clobber texts but found another session called "Stand up and be Godless: on receiving the gift of faith" interesting but not as easy to get my head around. I also went to hear Billy Bragg on "Can Britishness be defended in a new bill of rights" and Mona Siddiqui on "Does theology matter for peaceful coexistence?" which I got a lot out of. A couple of things which I missed but were highly recommended by others who went were "Towards the practice of freedom:black theology and the slave trade" by Anthony Reddie (5* recommendation from my husband) and Morna Hooker on "Stars and Angels".

From the performing arts I went to "Cargo" by Paul Field which uses contemporary music, words, dance and images to tell of the Abolitionists' campaign to stop the slave trade 200 years ago and also raises awareness of the many forms of slavery that exist today. It is a difficult subject for this kind of media in some ways (not a feel good event) but it is done very well and leaves you with a challenge. The performance of "Return to the Forbidden Planet" put on by the youth theatre company "Faith, hope and gaffertape" was excellent.

On the mainstage I listened to music from Billy Bragg, Over the Rhine and Kanda Bongo Man and in the Performance Cafe to a range of artists including Esther Alexandra, The Queensbury rules and After the Fire. I also watched the children who had made kites in a workshop (including my godson) fly these from the mainstage area and that was great.

Even just going around the information stands could take the whole weekend - including of course the Methodist Church stand! Then there was the book and music tents and the stands with a very wide range of merchandise.

There were so many other things that I just happened along during the weekend that it would be impossible to write it all here. (Including bumping into Anthea Cox dressed in costume to raise awareness of the anniversary of Primitive Methodism and giving out copies of "Prayer in your pocket"). But the whole festival atmosphere was just fantastic and apart from rather more queuing than I would have liked, I can honestly say that I really felt something of the theme - "Heaven in the ordinary". Highly recommended.

What were other people's experiences? Any thoughts?

Greenbelt was great

Just back from Greenbelt. Work tomorrow meant I didn't feel I could wait for the end and listen to the Christian band Delirious which would have been good. However, the discerning reader (you probably need to be over 40 and British as well as discerning to understand about this) will be pleased to know that I did manage to hear "Chas and Dave" on the mainstage this afternoon! This was a deeply spiritual experience with those wonderful worship songs "Snooker loopy" and "Rabbit, rabbit" to inspire us. I still haven't quite worked out the connection with the Christian arts festival which is Greenbelt but it was fun to be out in the sun and the open air with people singing along. And there is definitely something spiritual about having fun. I will try to post something about my more deep and meaningful moments at Greenbelt later in the week including worship, talks and a range of music and meeting lots of people. But for now it's enough to say it was fun and I felt closer to God which for me has a lot going for it.

Book Review and looking forward to Greenbelt

Back to work this week so doing a bit of reading on the tube. Working through Richard Dawkins "The God delusion", have been meaning to get to it and it seems better in short doses. Don't think this blog will turn into a book review site - won't be much time to read once we get to September, won't be time to breathe! But for now just wanted to share about a book I was reading whilst I was away. It's called "Take this bread - a radical conversion (The spiritual memoir of a twenty-first -century Christian)" by Sara Miles.

I can't remember who recommended it to me but when I went on to Amazon before I went away I had put it into my basket so I went ahead and ordered it. I think it's amazing. As Sara says on the cover; "Mine is a personal story of an unexpected and terribly inconvenient Christian conversion, told by a very unlikely convert". A lesbian left-wing journalist who covered revolutions around the world, Miles talks of being forced to deal with the impossible reality of God who she meets in communion after wandering into a church in San Francisco. She says "..as well as an intimate memoir of personal conversion, mine is a political story. At a moment when right wing American Christianity is ascendant, when religion worldwide is rife with fundamentalism and exclusionary ideological crusades, I stumbled into a radically inclusive faith centered on sacraments and action. What I found wasn't about angels or going to church or trying to be "good" in a pious, idealised way. It wasn't about arguing a doctrine - the Virgin birth, predestination, the sinfulness of homosexuality and divorce - or pledging blind allegiance to a denomination. I was, as the prophet said, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. I found it at the eternal and material core of Christianity: body, blood, bread, wine, poured out freely, shared by all. I discovered a religion rooted in the most ordinary yet subsersive practice; a dinner table where everyone is welcome, where the despised and outcasts are honoured. And so I became a Christian, claiming a faith that many of my fellow believers want to exclude me from; following a God my unbelieving friends see as archaic superstition."

It links a lot to what Martyn has been saying about personal and social holiness for me, and it certainly is good preparation for reading Dawkins. There are also links with what we see in the "Somewhere else" expression of Church in Liverpool. That inclusivity, the personal journey of conversion and growth and the radical action of sharing through food. If anyone else has read this I would love to hear what you thought. And if you haven't - give it a go.

Anyone else out there going to Greenbelt this year? I'm looking forward to it. Not least Billy Bragg on the Friday night. Any recommendations for speakers or bands to listen to? Hope the ground is dry for those who are camping - as ever I will be ensconced in the local Travel lodge. Look out for the Methodist Church stand and for Twelvebaskets among others. Still, nearly two weeks of work to do first. And more of that reading on the tube.