Greenbelt 2008

I've just spent four days at the Greenbelt Festival and once again I had a fascinating time. Allow me to list some of the activities I went to and took part in - for the record and for comment:

On Friday, I focussed on my main area of responbility - Last Orders. It's a late night chat/comedy/music show which starts at 11.15pm and rumbles on until about 1am. Among our guests that night were Brian McClaren - as in THE Brian McClaren. I met him earlier that day and he was a thoroughly pleasant and unassuming man. We teased him on the show for being in the list of Time Magazine's 25 most influential evangelicals. On the performance he gave - and what I've read - I don't question the influence. It's the evangelical part that seems up for grabs. On the show, we also had Victor Thiessen Nation, a film critic and organiser of film-club evenings;

On Saturday, I heard a talk by Frank Shaeffer, the son of Francis Shaeffer. He was giving a talk based on his book, Crazy for God - in which he gives a brutal account of family life, growing up in L'Abri, taking on his father's business/ministry and dropping out of it completely. He now attends a Greek Orthodox Church. I then took part in an event called 'Liquid Lunch' in which we talked about what we were looking forward to at the festival and what we'd already seen and done. It's meant to be fairly comic in tone.

That evening, I attended a panel discussion hosted by Dave Tomlinson called 'The Bible Tells me So'. Panellists included Pete Rollins, one of the founders of Ikon and a slightly rock'n'roll theologian from Northern Ireland. Also on the panel were Joel Edwards of the Evangelical Alliance, Richard Burridge from King's College London, Tina Beattie and AN other who's name I've forgotten, I'm afraid. It was a bizarrely good-natured discussion and they all attempted to say roughly the same thing. I was rather impressed with Pete Rollins and the way he would fling himself at the text. And he was insightful and fascinating at times. Later, I was assured that I wouldn't like this book - or his theology in general - but it was interesting nonetheless.

Later that night, it was Last Orders again, and we produced a fairly 'workmanlike'. Last Orders, with guests including Stu Hallam, a chaplain for the Royal Marines who had just served seven months in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. (What are the marines doing there? It's a land-locked country).

On Sunday morning, I attended a talk by a delightful and witty man called Andy Tate about Resurrection in Modern English literature. I chatted to him late and we compared notes about Kevin Pietersen's England Captaincy - and then we talked books and I resolved to read some Tim Winton. I then witnessed an interview with Philip Yancey conducted by Cole Moreton. It was short but interesting - and Cole asked Yancey how much money he made and what he did with it all. Good question and Yancey had a good answer.

That afternoon, I decline to attend the 'communion service'. The Sunday service is always a problem for me. In the past, I haven't attended because no-one gives a decent talk from the Bible which I stand any chance of agreeing with. (If they give a talk at all) This year, the thing that bugged me was the mis-use of communion. People like to think that communion is a sign of Christian unity. That's only part of what the Lord's Supper is, and shouldn't be used in indiscrimate way. Since no-one is 'guarding the table', a communion for 10,000 people from extraordinarily different backgrounds is, at best, a waste of time. At worst, it's an abomination. I haven't decided which it is.

Last Orders on Sunday night was our best show of the festival. Our guests were Frank Shaeffer and Joel Edwards, with some comedy from Jude Simpson and the Rev Gerald Ambulance, alter-ego of Steve Tomkins.

On Monday, I gave a talk on Comedy and the Bible, which was pleasingly full and seemed to go okay. Details are on the blog-post below. At 7pm, I saw a full show of the Rev Gerald Ambulance at which I laughed a lot. As I was listening, I was wondering how such an act would go down at Spring Harvest. Very badly, I thought. I thought it was hilarious and very close the bone at times, in a good way. Then at 9pm, I ate fish and chips listening to Miriam Jones in the Performance Cafe. Miriam Jones is thoroughly fab and I've been humming her tunes for the last 24 hours. Her myspace page is here.
Then at 11.15, Last Orders was a fairly loose affair, but a good one for it, I think. Our only guest was John Davies - who is a vicar who likes to walk places and think about them (psychogeography. seriouly. He's walked the route of the M62). We also had comedy from the ever-wonderful Paul Kerensa.

Overall, the festival frustrated me as I feel that Greenbelt is too at ease with itself. Greenbelt is normally awkward and challenging, but it felt that it had reached some sort of muddy consensus. But, given my opting out of communion and rubbing shoulders with great people who have a very different understanding of the Christian faith from me, it made me wonder what Christian unity looks like. It isn't in pretending to agree with each other, or not discussing the differences, or, perish the thought, sharing the Lord's Supper. So what is it?