Greenbelt, 2008I arrived early at Greenbelt on Friday afternoon; a sign of my eagerness to be back after a number of year's absence. Virtually the first people that I saw on arrival were my friends Paul Trathen and Heather Whicker who were volunteering on the Church Action on Poverty and Operation Noah stands respectively. One of the things I was looking forward to at Greenbelt was catching up with a number of friends but hadn't expected that to begin as soon as I arrived. But once we were onsite we were soon in conversation with other friends and, as expected, this continued to be a special feature of the Festival for me.
Tim Hull, who had been one of my tutors at NTMTC, was one of the friends that I met. Tim is now at St John's Nottingham where he has produced a number of very useful dvds on key theological issues. The two of us went off together to hear Brian McLaren speak about rediscovering Christian faith as a way of life. On the way back we talked about Peter Rollins' book How (Not) To Speak Of God which Tim thought may have put theology back 30 years or so through its emphasis on existential experience which ultimately may have no need of the Christian narrative at all. I pointed out that McLaren had also been emphasising experience over doctrine but we agreed that what he had said had been clearly rooted in the Christian story.
After that I checked into the Artist's Forum to confirm whether Meryl Doney (Director of the wallspace gallery) wanted me to show during the Festival the DVD of the Love & Light public art event which featured St Margaret's Barking.
I spent the remainder of the evening shuttling between mainstage and the Performance Cafe to sample sets by Emmanuel Jal, Michael Weston Smith, Juliet Turner and Michael Franti and Spearhead. It felt great to be back!
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Michael Franti - East To The West.
Tim Hull, who had been one of my tutors at NTMTC, was one of the friends that I met. Tim is now at St John's Nottingham where he has produced a number of very useful dvds on key theological issues. The two of us went off together to hear Brian McLaren speak about rediscovering Christian faith as a way of life. On the way back we talked about Peter Rollins' book How (Not) To Speak Of God which Tim thought may have put theology back 30 years or so through its emphasis on existential experience which ultimately may have no need of the Christian narrative at all. I pointed out that McLaren had also been emphasising experience over doctrine but we agreed that what he had said had been clearly rooted in the Christian story.
After that I checked into the Artist's Forum to confirm whether Meryl Doney (Director of the wallspace gallery) wanted me to show during the Festival the DVD of the Love & Light public art event which featured St Margaret's Barking.
I spent the remainder of the evening shuttling between mainstage and the Performance Cafe to sample sets by Emmanuel Jal, Michael Weston Smith, Juliet Turner and Michael Franti and Spearhead. It felt great to be back!
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Michael Franti - East To The West.
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