greenbelt went wonderfully well…

as ever most spare time was spent chatting with old and new friends. lots of bloggers were there. most of them are probably listed here. the global zoo and round table were good chances to meet other people and groups. camping at greenbelt is always a chance to hang out with friends from grace but this year we seemed to end up in an area where lots of alt worship groups were camping which was great.

i think my personal greenbelt highlight this year was meeting the guys from ikon. i went to a seminar given by pete rollins and then two ikon worship services all of which were stunning. i have put three photos of the black saturday service in the greenbelt 04 photo album. i may say more about this at some future date but i am sure pete will get some of his thoughts published anyway (i hope so). the group are wonderfully creative and resource rich in terms of artistic talent – poetry, theology, philosophy, music creationa and performance, painting, etc etc.. the overall aesthetic/vibe was incredible and packed with content.

as you know if you follow the blog i help co-ordinate worship at greenbelt and this year we had so much going on – a lot of it was amazing too. it is actually now the single best space i know of where you can go and experience such variety in worship and if you want to encounter alternative worship there are two venues pretty much given over to it… it was good to meet several friends from round the world who had taken the opportunity to experience what was going on (and hopefully having been sparked take that back to start a small fire in their own context). i am so grateful to all the volunteers and groups who do it for love not money (because there isn’t any money).

we did three grace things:

. a shrine – these were dotted around the site for people to interact with on the festival theme ‘freedom bound’. ours involved people writing on the shrine in chalk. it got a bit out of hand when people spread their messages onto the walls and floor next to it for which we got a ticking off! mark waddington has a nice photo of a piece of the graffiti.

. a 20 minute silent worship piece. this actually turned out pretty well. along with three other groups this was supposed to be shown on a big screen outside at night but the screen never materialised so it ended up in a cinema venue. but i think all four groups efforts were great – and there is talk of puitting them all on a dvd – i’ll let you know if and when it happens.

. a worship service in new forms. i confess i was worried about this as it was a bit of a rush planning it which is ironic given that it was called ‘slow’. i didn’t get any photos of it but hopefully someone did… the basic set up was a screen in the middle and depending on which half of the roomk you sat you would have seen images of speed or slow (and some the same). the service was packed with over 100 people being turned away which shows we need bigger venues for worship next year… a wonderful moment was a video i showed of a slow moment in time along with a reading by steve collins. we hadn’t rehearsed the two together before but the fit was unbelievable. steve suggested i should make that combination a worship trick which i will when he sends me the words. if you are in london we will be doing this same service at the next grace – sept 11, 8pm.

tlb did a couple of stencil banners round the site. the monkey was fab and sadly got stolen – so if you see this monkey stencil anywhere let tlb know… the other was the banner freedom bound on the front of the stage for the communion service.

other things i was involved in were a couple of panels – on the rite stuff (ritual) and mission shaped church. i thought both went really well. then we had a blah… at the CMS tent with karen ward – again that was good. and i am looking forward to spending time with karen in oxford over the next few days (see the next post to come).

i am sure there will be lots of posts elsewhere, lots to link to over the coming days, but thank god for greenbelt – such a wonderful festival and such an important space for so many people.