Categories: uncategorized
Date: 18 August 2007 09:43:40
Some claim Greenbelt to be a festival, some claim it to be church, some claim it to be just another conference / event for the Christian tourist, some claim it as a space to chill, some claim it to be the place to meet friends, some claim it as a sacred space, some claim it as a secular space, some claim it as a safe space ; last year I explored the idea it may be claimed as a place of pilgrimage. With under a week to go I'm going to share what I claim Greenbelt as.
I actually claim Greenbelt as nothing, yet I acknowledge it as everything.
For me Greenbelt is a place of wholeness. A place where, for a moment, the different strands of my life break out of their compartments and weave together into a single, solid strand. Before you send for the men in white coats or accuse me of having taken some interesting, (and probably illegal) stimulants let me explain. I am a parent, a single mum, a teacher, a friend, a broadly evangelical church attender, a woman, a non-heterosexual, a radical theologically, a music fan, a book worm, a blogger, somebody who spends way too much time on the internet, a wanna be activist and within each of those compartments a Christian. Normally each of those things becomes a key part of who I am in a specific time and place, co-existing within the whole. Whilst one or two aspects of my life may come to the fore together normally they remain quite seperate.
At Greenbelt that changes and I am all of those things together, as virtual world meets real world and the physical division between spaces designated for secular and spiritual practice is removed. In the space around the Tiny Tea Tent it is quite possible that I may bump into my daughter, an old friend who lives on the other side of the country, a friend from church or one of the people from GCN, The Ship or The Wibsite (the virtual environments I tend to inhabit). If I wander down to the music stage I don't know if I'll find somebody playing left wing political urban folk, punk or "worship" music. Queuing for to go into a marquee I may find myself listening to an atheist environmentalist, a sociologist, or a devout Christian who may be black or white, from the northern or southern hemisphere, gay or staight, male or female, evangelical, liberal, radical or orthodox, emergent, post-evangelical, post-denominational or "old skool" mainstream denominational and young or old. In the bookshop I keep my eye open for books to chill to, books to be challenged by and books which will be useful in my teaching. It is a place where I will be challenged and disagreed with, aswell as accepted and agreed with, not in a spirit of toleration but rather in a spirit of respect. It is an environment where smokescreens and walls disappear and honesty and healing occur, naturally, by just breathing in the air.
For me Greenbelt is a place of freedom, festivating, friendship, fun, relaxation, renewal, retail, recharging, challenge, laughter, pilgrimage, peace, worship, wholeness, enjoyment, education, hope, healing, safety and spirituality. So if I claim it as anything, I merely claim it as special.