I suddenly realised that whilst I’d enjoyed Greenbelt and deliberately listened to and interacted with quite a variety of topics and artforms, could I say I was touched by God through it?

My first response was negative. We didn’t land up getting to the worship events we’d hoped to, except Aradhna, and that felt to me more like a concert as the words were all in Hindi or Punjabi. We deliberately stayed away from the huge communion service this year, having felt more frustration than blessing by it over the years. Though I slightly regret that now; I now remember feeling God’s touch both through the simple act of holding it outdoors, and by being just 1 amongst 10,000 others. Like the rest of Greenbelt it reminds me of the multitude of believers out there, that very few of them look or think just like me, and this again points me to how good God is. So, whilst sharing communion with complete strangers feels partly wrong — and James Cary goes further to say its a mis-use of its original purpose — I think occasionally it can be a good thing. (Incidentally, follow-up comments on his blog make similar points, and James does back down slightly.)

Paul Vallely as ever makes an interesting thought in his Church Times piece looking back on Greenbelt:

Camping undoubtedly adds to the spirituality of the experience, I thought as I lay awake at 3am one morning, with the wild wind whipping at the tent above me.

OK, but I do like the home comforts as well!

Possibly the most interesting conversation over the weekend was one I’d not mentioned before: sitting in CMS’ Blah… tent being part of a Spirited Exchange. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what the purpose was until after the session had started, but it then became clear that was for those experiencing faith and its struggles at the edges of or beyond Church. Last year I’d read and was much struck by A Churchless Faith, exploring the unreported phenomenon of the people leaving churches (notably evangelical and charismatic ones) that haven’t lost (all) their faith. The conversation was very much on this topic, with people in all sorts of places on the spectrum. One lady describe how she’d left her church, deliberately not found another, but after 3 years of deconstructing and reconstructing her faith, was able to become part of a church again. Most remarkably she rejoined the same one! The Exchange was designed to let people find support during an often very painful time of their lives. This whole topic is one that few churches take seriously, but more should. Another small cheer, then, to Greenbelt for being the environment in which people felt safe enough to be honest …

Just read Jonny Baker’s take on Greenbelt, and was interested to hear about some of the things that I missed. Including the Grace service they did, where they created a ’small in crowd’ and a ‘larger out crowd’ that didn’t get special treatment. No surprise that some of the latter got rather irate until they realised it was all part of an unusually visceral exploration of hospitality.

I also echo Jonny’s closing thought:

it always feels like summer is over once greenbelt is passed and a new season looms once september kicks in…

Continuing the rather random nature of Greenbelt life, here are 3 other things I or we did.

Firstly, some ethical shopping, picking up a very nice cotton shirt for me from From the Source. Apparently all their items come from Laos using natural dye techniques.

Next up, I listened with Alister and Heather to Rt Hon Douglas Alexander, Minister of State for International Development. Quizzed by Simon Mayo, and a few from-the-floor questions, he didn’t get to cover aid/development much, other than to say it must be about the only ministerial job where lots of foreigners continually say “thank you”.

He was mostly making the case for people to be involved in party politics at local level, arguing that the letterbox stuffing was the necessary local component of national-level politics that can and does land up making a difference in this country and abroad. I wasn’t completely convinced by his arguments.

But I did see the question about Scottish independence (and other nationalist movements) in a new light after one of his comments. He pointed out that core belief of Nationalists must be that they believe they’re better off apart from some greater country. In our time, he continued, surely this sends the wrong signal. WIth a shrinking planet through globalisation and facing planet-wide issues, the imperative must be to work together not try and be separatist. It’s a similar argument that he uses to support Europe - better to work together on things that will affect us all.

And, last, but no means least, we listened to Philip Yancey affirming that with faith you should also expect to find times of doubt. All fairly standard stuff to me, but he is a very able communicator. And here’s a silhouette of him speaking just for the sake of it …

Time for Sunday’s update.

After the damp communion service, I stayed swaying to the beat of the Bombay Baja Indian Brass Band as they played in the Arena. Very funky rhythms, and catchy tunes. No wonder they’ve played all across Europe.

I listened to Aradhna play again, this time lying on the floor in the Centaur with Martha. Some wonderful wonderful music, this time from their 5 piece (which added tabla and female vocals to guitar, sitar and violin who I heard yesterday). Their website says:

Aradhna means worship. The group captures the beauty and dignity of india’s bhajan devotional melodies with music that blends east and west.

This is what Greenbelt excels at: reminding us how narrow our view of Christianity often is, and showing what else is around. There must be millions of Christians (Anglicans even!) in India and around that region who no other than music with some of the same flavour.

On a completely different note, the culinary find of the festival was the distinctly upper crust pieminister: pies served with posh mash, gravy and/or mushy peas. My favourite was the “PM Pie”, which was their name for a steak and kidney pie. Yum yum. So much yum yum that we decided to buy some fresh ones to stick in the freezer at home to enjoy later. We had to promise (according to their website where you can also buy them) to “to love your pie, enjoy him, cherish him and above all cook him properly”.

The most interesting photos of Greenbelt are now available at flickr.

Time to try some more creative stuff with my camera, particularly some long-exposure night shots, with the help of a tripod. Here are the best 3:

Compare with this photo which I’ve since discovered on flickr, taken by Greenbelt official photographer Jonathon Watkins:

I don’t think I did too badly: firstly I thought of the same shot (just about), and I fiddled around to get about the same effect. He used a stepladder, or else he’s a giant, and used a shorter 1.3s exposure rather than my 3.2s one.

Greenbelt has started Here’s a very small part of the 500-strong queue for the first session I went to (a panel discussion on “What kind of church is emerging?”). It was an authentic Greenbelt experience: long queues, damp grass to sit on, thankfulness that I’d remembered to bring a mat to sit on, different accents from the panel (German, American, Northern Irish, London, Manchester …), some insights and some disagreements. But they were pleased to have disagreements, because it is there that they find deeper reflection and growth tend to come. Not unlike our Bishops were finding in Lambeth’s indaba groups perhaps?

Later I heard the Indian-inspired music of Aradhna in the CMS tent. Simple, it also struck me as complex and soothing at the same time. I’m going to checking out their CDs …

My evening finished with a Marimba Recital by percussionist Gerard Rundell. He played a mixture of traditional and modern marimba music, as well as throwing in a snare drum piece and one for drum kit. Impressive stuff, even if sometimes the musicality suffered under his speed of sticking.

I’ve listened to a few more talks-on-MP3 from Greenbelt 07 that I missed at the time. Pete Rollins’ Faith with/without God:towards a heretical orthodoxy was a rollercoaster of a ride. He delivered it in a fast, breathless way with sudden diversions and some sudden lurches (”I don’t believe 100% of what I say either”). He said up front that (in effect) as a continental philosopher (whatever that is) it might be a hard ride; and, yes, afterwards I was left feeling a bit thrilled and queasy at the same time. I think his message could be summarised as “God is the ultimate reality” so questioning God’s existence is a waste of time. But I couldn’t be sure how to persuade others of this, or what difference it should make.

Prof Keith Ward has completely different on Is Religion Dangerous?. Fast-paced and more analytical, it is still an excellent listen. He carefully took a hatchet to some of the arguments of the so-called ‘New Atheists’, particularly Richard Dawkins, who he knows from his time as Professor of Divinity at Oxford. I learned a good deal ranging from why Logicians will never be able to “prove God”, to how some particle physicists are bringing God into their thinking, to why almost no wars have been fought for religion, and that atheism is a clear contributory factor behind Stalin’s purges. Highly recommended.