Greenbelt 3 - Communion

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 28 August 2005 13:47:55

Sometimes the Sunday morning communion service @ Greenbelt can be a tad too alternative for it to really work. This year, however, simplicity seems to have been the key and it worked.

For those not familiar with the festival I better explain on the Sunday morning the majority of the site and some of the local community join together for a massive communion service. It is quite amazing, not just because of the sheer numbers sharing together, but also for the fact in an age where many in churches and elsewhere seem obsessed with the "difference of the other" created by artificial labelling it is a truly inclusive service. It does not deny the differences in our identities and traditions, but rather seeks to go beyond these by including elements from many traditions.

It is a time when we sit in a field, looking up at the hills surrounding us and become community connecting with God and celebrating our shared faith, not worrying whether those we are celebrating with are male, female, able bodied, disabled, black, white, brown, straight, gay, bi, young, old, Orthodox, Charismatic, Evangelical, Post-Evangelical, Catholic, Anglican, Anglo-Catholic or what. We sit with people and celebrate God and what He has done for us and how it demands a response from us (although that response is never explicitly stated, although there is a strong focus on justice). Where I was sitting a group of us just formed a circle and shared a variety of bread and wine & the kids shared their cherryade whilst an ickle person with a birthday ran around randomly handing out her cake on plates to anyone she felt looked like they needed cake.

It truly was beautiful and I really believe that God was probably smiling as much as the rest of us as our prayers were joined as they were tied upon a tree of life sculpture.