I miss Deane Park too, although I thought that today's Communion Service was perhaps the best since those Northamptonshire days....and the overcrowding didn't hurt, either....it only seemed to add to the spirit of excitement that was clearly in evidence.....the man behind me felt that it was probably a bit like the feeding of the five thousand in the way that food was just being distributed everywhere, in that the crowd were again, a colourful crowd, in the sheer numbers that were there....roll on Snogs of Praise - I can't wait to relive (part) of it again. I dunno, Aled Jones even waved to us!
After Ricky Ross last night, I was determined to get his new CD today, and to meet the man at his signing session at 3pm. Unfortunately, he'd been called back home to Scotland last night unexpectedly, so couldn't make it. However, I later on got to meet my all-time hero, John Smith, after his last talk today - that more than made up for it....he even gave me his e-mail address!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The thing I find most amiss in Greenbelt Modern, is the lack of a main stage. That is to say, a stage that everyone can gather round and enjoy what's going on. Although the Sunday morning service is a nice idea, not everyone can attend because the venue is too small. I miss Dean Park's natural amphitheatre .. it rocked.
(This thought for the day was brought to you by a Big Fat Man)
We too, caught Over The Rhine and they were very impressive. Ulster Geoff, who these days resides on Merseyside, told us of how he saw them in Manchester, supporting Cowboy Junkies, and of how in awe the crowd were : during the interval, there had been something of a rush to get their CD's and people had been asking him which ones to get. " Buy them all! ", was his recommendation!
After OTR, we bumped into Charlotte of Belljar, among others, and caught a bit of Steve Stockman's Rhythms of Redemption, with Martin Wroe and VoL's Bill Mallonee, before catching the end of Meta : morphic. Hello Mike Birtill!
Today saw me working in the Smacker Venue, where I managed the panel Pouring Over The Papers ; the Panel Kisses of Life, chaired by Gb Blogger Pip Wilson ; then author Catherine Fox came to speak. She was a smashing lady....the Canadian Wes Jaego, unscheduled, did a quick acoustic number just before, and yet she didn't mind waiting until he finished - in fact, as soon as she got underway, some impromptu world music got going, immediately outside our venue!!!!..... from musicians we know not ; but she didn't complain. I felt a bit of a party pooper, having to go outside and ask them to move along about twenty yards, so that we could hear ourselves think. They did, but more joined them, picking up maracas, bongos and the like and playing them, but Catherine remained professional throughout and never lost her patience, going on to answer every audience question. Nothing was any trouble to her.
The last hour of the afternoon in Smacker saw a Globalisation seminar, in which I managed to get someone's balloon from off the roof of the marquee, went and picked up the Peace Zone sign that had blown over near by and watched as an African camel was led past the venue (I kid you not). I went into the Jesus Christ Superstore after that, and ended up having my photo taken with the new Archbishop of Canterbury before queueing up to get Catherine Fox a nectarine, a ' Suffolk ' roll and a coffee, as she was now speaking in Between The Lines, next to the Angels and was famished!
But none of this compared to seeing Ricky Ross live tonight...ah, the memories of Greenbelts past, of Deacon Blue mainstage appearances cica 1990, of songs like, ' Love 'n' Regret ', and wondering about all that's happened in life in the years that have followed....it was great, just being in the general vacinity of the man....
Hi, I'm the 'lovely Fiona' that John just mentioned. I've just come to Greenbelt from Southend-on-Sea, in Sunny Essex. Drove down yesterday, and camped last night in a freezing borrowed tent. The weather here in Cheltenham is not as sunny and hot as in the past, so bring your wellies if you are coming along tomorrow.
I think that the campsite looks pretty full now - I'm looking at it from the window of the Fishtank. Looks like it'll be a good Greenbelt despite having to Blog again as the last one got stuck.....
This is my GB decade - and I can't stop coming.....I'm managing the Insurance Lounge (snappy title!!) seminar venue. I'm the one that's a girl (to distinguish me from Gavin!
Don't forget Radio Greenbelt 106.8 FM if you are anywhere on site or anywhere near to Cheltenham.
happy camping, have a good festival.
Fiona
(c/o John Cheek)
For the first time, I arrived at Greenbelt the day before. The lovely Fiona and I took our time in travelling from Southend and had an enjoyable journey across west Oxfordshire.....it was great to meet up with old friends and to take things nice 'n' sleazy - there aren't too many on Site, Thursday afternoon, and being able to stroll around the place and soak in what is such a relaxing atmosphere, is marvellous.....then there was a God-moment. Before Gb, I'd prayed that I'd get the chance to meet my all-time hero, after Jesus - John Smith. On the way to the managers meeting, who should be coming across the main arena area, but.........what a friendly guy!!!
Lots of other stuff, too...meeting a Gb Forumite in Sainsbury's, Cheltenham. Hello Caroline Miles! Bagging some Cockburn rarities in the fringe area, before camping for a night and checking in to individual rooms in Pitville this morn. Since then, I've done my first Seminar in my venue, Smacker, which saw Jude Adam interview Kevin Max of dc Talk and helped Wes Jaego set up an impromptu acoustic gig, outside The Olive Branch - oh, and met a remarkable lady, Suzy, in the Racecourse Grandstand. God bless you, this emotional weekend..........
As Rachel says, we're all packed and ready to go. I've got a horrible feeling that the tent will flood or blow away or somesuchnonsense. It'll be ok, I'm sure. Travel safely tomorrow, and we'll see you in Fishtank!
Too much conversation is usually difficult for an introvert like me but it's manageable at Greenbelt. And so I look forward to four days of virtually non-stop interaction with various goths, punks, drunks, druids (yes, Rowan Williams is coming), queers, straights, ministers of the faith and faithless mysteries, peaceniks and techies, monastics, scholastics, guitarists, clowns, men in gowns, men in shorts, short men in big cars, journalists, optimists, soroptimists, children with painted faces, adults with painted faces, opera divas, comedians, community workers, advertising copywriters, young ladies, actors (on and off-the-stage), holy women, poets, protesters, storytellers, shopkeepers, each of them unique, each drawn by the open accepting nature of a Christian event where no-one's judging you, where whatever your faith or no-faith, you are very welcome.
So, to celebrate an enjoyable pre-GB blogging time and the weekend to come, here's a pithy GB02 poem - Kiss of life
When I'm washed up
Washed out
Beyond wishing
Beyond faith
Will you give me a kiss
of life?
When I'm knocked down
KO'd
Beyond help
Counted out
Will you give me a kiss
of life?
When I'm hung over
Nauseous
Out of sorts
Out of mind
Will you give me a kiss
of life?
When I'm set back
At a loss
Beyond motion
Paralysed
Will you give me a kiss
of life?
When I'm up front
Passionate
Wanting you
Heart aflame
Will you give me a kiss
of life?
.....I am ready to rock or should I say dance....I am a 'house head' really and ..........God is in the house !!
Do I tell you about today or dribble about gb?.....what do you like?....there is no audience feedback from Mr and Mrs Blog !......the Sheilas have just phoned after a night out in town and drinking in the same bar as' the strokes'.....west-end girls you know ! Just listening to Gilles my favorite dj and taping him downstairs for second listening in the car tomorrow. Tired but today was.......
Chapel on the theme of the touching Jesus
Staff meeting and big heavy about life and the issues of constant change
People....and how to love them
prayer.....that is fed by the above
More meetings and by 5pm have finished and just enough time to plan my 6 and 7pm ones
Then.............. a game in prep for the Sunday morning communion
Then a meeting about a visit to Bulgaria in September
Games?
Has Rowan Williams ever heard of' baked bean trifle'?
Then someone upset.....how do I love someone who is slagging me off?
Then a box of choclates given to Mechele on the y's diner
Visit to the dance studio to see the pumping
Pack my cd's for gb...... and laptop....... and that bulging green file and......outahere
A good old catch up with my hero webmaster
And my soul friend Joan with news of the cats escape attempt from a second floor window in North London!
The next blog will be on site....I have been asked to do a daily blog from the 'fish tank'
so see you there with your soul unzipped ready for insertion of new troublesome changes and a grain of sand to continue your transformation into a Pearl of great price
bhp
I've suddenly got that 'Greenbelt tingle'. Excitement. It happens every year round now and came today in the wake of a Soul Space potential personnel problem which prayer and God's grace will resolve, we're sure. We're on the cusp of something great and I'm in the mood for upping-sticks and heading south tomorrow evening rather than waiting till early the next morning, just so I can be there sooner!
Meanwhile, here's my incomplete list of moments at Greenbelt when my heart has either melted or exploded: the reasons why the tingle's here today:
- Taking bread and wine for the first time ever, among 15,000 in 1979
- Standing metres above the Odell site, watching all the lovely people, the year we had the 'observation tower'
- Laughing with 1,000 big top punters from an onstage armchair the year I co-hosted the Baddiel/Skinner style "God's Game"
- Many, many, many deep and meaningful 2am conversations around the messy tables of the 24-Hour Cafe
- Moby's manic onstage energy the first time he played GB
- Watching teenagers I'd brought to the event open up to embrace a speaker's words or sing a worship song
- Hearing Yaconelli for the first time and realising God probably thought I was ok after all; hearing Tom Sine / Jim Wallis / Ron Sider / Jim Punton for the first time and realising God had a future, and I was in it
- Reading poetry with Paul Cookson in the open-air with my 5-year-old nephew running in circles around my feet, to everyone's amusement
- Last year - eating cheesy Wotsits with my goth mates high up the terracing at Sunday's lovely messy communion
- Always - that rush of recognition whenever I meet Pip and am reminded, without needing words, that we are in the presence of hundreds of ... yes ... beautiful human persons.
This is my last Blog before I leave for Cheltenham tomorrow. I'm helping Gavin Hall to run the Smacker Venue, so please do come and say, hi!, to either of us, if you end up in there, at some point over the weekend.
...and don't forget to listen to RADIO GREENBELT as well, so remember to bring your radios and your walkmans...and thanks for taking the trouble to read these daily diaries!
I can't resist it...five more things that Jesus never said, following on from several things he never said were published on the Blog a week or so ago...(with thanks to Wroe, Reith, & Parke)
1. see above
2. As my followers, you must wear sensible clothes at all times.
3. My straitjacket I leave with you.
4. Earn as much as you can, buy a big house and a nice car. Go on, you're talented, you deserve it.
5. Always use a condom.
Returned to the fold on Monday evening after my other summer festival (Big Chill) to find our car jam-packed full of stuff - most of which appears to be a gigantic role of fake grass, which we're transporting to Greenbelt. Perhaps I should leave it there as I don't want to spoil the surprise - but no doubt you will find it somewhere on site over the next few days.
So today is my final day in work (actually only my second day in work this week!) as we're off to Cheltenham at about 6am tomorrow to get site vibing. No idea what I'm meant to be doing but I'm sure my better half and her fellow vibers will be bossing me about - just hope the weather is OK ...
On the Big Chill - it was interesting being at another festival so close to Greenbelt. Although I've been to V and Essential festivals in the past I've never camped for the weekend at a non-Greenbelt festival - so it was a bit of a compare and contrast exercise.
As you'd have guessed with such a title the Big Chill is about chilling - music on 2 stages and in 2 tents from 12pm through to about 12am. All fantastic stuff and a good time was had by one and all, but something was missing (despite storming DJ and band sets from Norman Jay, Gilles Peterson, Cinematic Orchestra, Gotan Project, Koop and many many more).
Where was the intellectual stimulation? Where were the deep conversations about how to relate one's faith to our jobs, our friends, our social lives, our communities, our world and our churches? Where was the worship or the great feeling of community, that's more than just jumping up and down together as Plaid drop a great piece of electronica or a whole field of people chill in a field listening to some uplifting jazz?
Of course it wasn't there - I wasn't expecting it to be there - but it has made me realise even more what I'm looking forward to this weekend ...
Mind you they had great food stalls and superb showers (so I'm told) ....
PHEW !! what a day.....out early yesterday to be at someone's house in time for her new bed to be delivered. She'd had to go to work because of an important meeting, and so I wait until they finally deliver it at 10.20am.....by 11.00am, I'm at a local Nursing Home, where I regularly visit a member of our church, and where I've also got to know many of the other guests, including James, who at the age of 83, has started coming to church, when I can get him there : usually once a fortnight. I'd been asked to chair/ take the minutes at the first meeting of the Residents Committee, who wanted someone who wasn't a relative, or staff, to steer things. During the proceedings, we took nominations for, and elected a chairperson for the group, from it's ranks - the next stage is to involve the relatives, and then the staff, then the social workers, etc.....by three I'd lunched and was off to Freda's : a few weeks ago, a local lady wrote to our church, requesting that someone visit her semi-housebound mother, Freda, if they could. It was passed on to me and I went there for the first time on Saturday, and now I returned to take her for a half hour ride in her wheelchair. During the trip she talked, among other things, of both wars - she's 96 - and of the period in-between. Reminded me of a Billy Bragg song....then in the evening, returned to the aforementioned bed, with my Dad, to assemble it....no rest for the wicked...
Had dinner tonight with three young bhp men.
You should have seen the stack of food they eat.
All sat next to me in the YMCA Dining room. I often sit on my own rather than with someone natural.So many people just gravitate to the comfortable....will happen 'big time' at geebee. This gives others a choice to sit with me or not. It is always interesting to observe who does and what mood they are in. I always have a little prayer about this,at conferences too,still believe God guides people together.
All three are smashed with not one cent,waiting for their giro. Did you know that in their pocket they will get £20 a week for two weeks = £40. Danny said he owes a tenner and he usually blows the rest in the next few days and lives on' nott-ing' for the rest of the fortnight. Pause here. What sort of feelings do you have about this? You will have feelings.
read something I did called " £3 " on a sililar encounter on
www.romfordymca.org ..........go to 'Pearls'
.
All three have been through hell in terms of family nothing,prep for life nothing,parent support nothing,life skills nothing. If you came on rough times I guess you would know where the handles and switches of society are and you can turn them handles. They are like little children when it comes to life but are coming on AND a sign of that is them being secure enough o come and sit next to the boss rather than a gang of mates. (are you secure enough to go and sit next to your boss at work and treat her/him like human rather than a role??) We are all about giving support during these couple of crucial years so they can pull through to bhp-ness,stability,wholeness, completeness............ like I am not !!
Tell you the truth,I love em and I know they feed my soul without knowing it. A couple of them will be at Greenbelt so hope don't treat everyone there as a raving sussed out "I like seminars" Christian. Greenbelt has a massive impact on humans like these because they can feel that climate of trust you create and the acceptance which is beautifully evident
I wanna kiss em..........but that is just a love feeling...............................................kiss of life......how exciting a time we will have ?!
bhp
www.romfordymca.org
www.pipwilson.com
Many things are reminding me of the thrills to come this Greenbelt weekend: among them the latest Wild Goose mailing with news of friends and excellent insight from John Bell; finding a Juliet Turner cd in Borders; and especially this poem, stolen from the current LGCM magazine which I hope Rosie Miles won't mind me reproducing here because it could almost be a deliberate description of Greenbelt's raison d'etre...
GODAWFUL BITS
For all the Godawful Bits of the Bible
(For Sara Maitland)
For the texts of terror:
For the rape and the pillage and the shame
Of these sanctified words;
For the whatthefuckdowedowiththis verses
That make no sense at all
To us, now;
For their endurance in our lives;
For the utter brokenness
Of God's human words;
For knowing how these words have
Prevented love,
Stifled life,
Stunted growth;
For still somehow reading on.
And yet,
In spite, or even because of all this,
There are theologies
Or irreverence and mischief
Winking their way into our lives;
Playful theologies of craft
Weaving the weft against the warp,
Shuttling untold designs
Into new patterns;
Theologies of art and lies
Telling us stories we never knew.
These painful words will endure,
Or maybe be forgotten.
How we inhabit their shadow
Is no longer a question
For those who think they know,
But for the loving potters,
the waiting poets,
the holy clowns.
Relax blog,in the midst of busy day.
If you have followed this for a while you will recall a visitor I had from a grant making trust and how it was a drag amongst other priorities.Got a letter! We have £45839 coming to cover beautiful work with needy people over two years. I am pleased. Not good at grants. Time much with people who don't wear suits. Must learn.
Just put together the y'sTalk Magazine in half a day! ( www.ymcaaps.com ) from little with lot of energy and desire to communicate to 7000 staff in the local 4 Nations of ymca's. It is great to do but pressure amongst the rest of it!
The cat/zig is going on his Greenbelt holiday tonight.Staying in a North London flat, rather than his Romford Garden, is not ideal but he will get the hugs. The Sheilas are looking after him. These are the grown up daughters of Joan and Pip who we seem to love more than ever. Sometimes I ache when I don't see them for a while.
I have just deleted a line.Too stinking open that's me.
I'm off......will speak soon and......thanx for being there
"anatowa su bar la she".......which means ........."you are a beautiful human person ".......in Japanese
bhp
..........hope you are grooving all the way to GREENBELT and you are all prepared. Well me ?
Life is........yes....... it is so many things to do,people to love,situations to sense,inadequate surges to turn to positives,sleepless nights to understand.
Geebee will be upon me and us before we know it and I will be busking the things I will be doing at the Festival. The wonderful thing is,when I get away from here I will leave all the undones,the unloved,the unsensed,behind. The gb bits I am involved with will have 100% concentration because Greenbelt is life for four days..Then I will return to this incomplete life,with so many people with so many needs, REFRESHED. (One of my questions is.... "5 words to describe your life at the moment?".......the word 'incomplete' features in my list........what abot your x 5???? )
@greenbelt..........
I will drink in the creator through the art. Wash my soul in the music. Tingle when I meet people who accept me and love me,give the old geezer John Smith a hug (he is younger than me). I will delight in the multipe new contacts through just having a cup of tea somewhere or a Nuts lunch!!I....... will delight in so many ymca contacts from all over the world. Not only in the ymca24hourcafe (only place for toast on site you know) but also sat on the grass being stirred by that seminar which is not coming up to expectations but.......way behond....in that it troubles the soul. I want to be troubled.
Tomorrow I have to produce a Newspaper from an empty desk,mail out to my Board with stuff which has been building for six moths,compile another newspaper to launch our new September programme,produce the final copy of the 'three year plan',chase the final proof of the new leaflet needed in 7 days,and they are the first thoughts without looking at my list.
.............and my 5 words.........
incomplete
excited
troubled
unzipped
volcanic
...............................................................................bhp
Phil is a middle-aged, former North London hippy from the sixties. Phil is also a collegue of mine, seven weeks into my new job. A week or so ago, he asked me if I could recommend a good singer-songwriter. I replied, " Have you ever heard of Bruce Cockburn? "
Phil was on the more radical, political, arty side of counter-culture back then, as opposed to the hippy drippy end of flower - power. So someone who is roughly the same age, who was Canada's answer to Bob Dylan, would be right up his street. And so it came to pass that he borrowed the last three studio albums of, plus the recent mini-live album from, the Greenbelt legend and Toronto Blessing. How have they been recieved?
" It's right up my street! ", said Phil. Great musicianship, good songwriting, versatility of playing, relevant lyrics....it's good to see that some Christians can cut it in the big world of rock. Phil now wants to hear more ; time for a greatest hits package methinks....I wonder where I put those lions, those rumours of glory....
Greenbelt's always got its eye on the bigger picture; it's not an event in a capsule, insulated against the wicked world outside. It's always played out against the backdrop of events with which its participants have been engaged, and will return, committedly at the end of the festival. At my first GB we grappled with the news of the IRA's Lord Mountbatten murder. I can recall ones where various wars (Falklands, Gulf 'war', Kosovo) dominated.
This year at the festival we will doubtless help each other discuss and deal with issues around child abduction, paedophilia etc, the media's top agenda just now. Without in any way wanting to sideline those questions, I hope we'll also put them in wider perspective. I hope when we meditate on RAF Lakenheath, where Holly and Jessica's bodies were discovered, we'll remember it's the US Air Force's primary and most important tactical bombing base in Europe, home to 5,000 military personnel tooled up for destruction.
Over recent years one of Lakenheath's prime activies has been bombing the people of Iraq. The Lakenheath Action Group reported last year that "F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets and crews from the USAF 494th Fighter Wing from Lakenheath continue their three monthly rotational operations to enforce the unlawful 'No-fly zones' in Iraq." This is everyday stuff in that slice of Suffolk. See yesterday's blog for perspective on that.