Greenbelt - Saturday

So on Saturday morning I went along to the new forms venue for morning worship led by a group called the garden from Brighton. It was an interesting experience. The venue had more video projectors than you can shake a stick at, it was image overload, but i quite liked it. They told a creation story using general scientific perceptions of the timeline of the universe. This was accompanied by a visual represenatation of time in a spiral formed by rocks. As a girl moved from the centre spiraling outwards she lit candles on the timeline indicating significant events, sun, planets, life (missing amino acids and rna, but hey!), metazoans, dinosaurs etc. Interesting to see that most of the events of human history are just a mere twinkling against this timeline. We were then encouraged to use a rock as a symbol of something that is made of the same matter as we are, matter created at the same moment. Then to think of the wisdom of the stone, something from ancient jewish mystecism, due to it's age. Well I drew my picture on the stone, which I liked, but I didn't get anything from the rock's wisdom. Maybe I'm not enough of a hippy. Then I went to a disappointing talk on 'what should i do with my life' which turned to be a monologue on what the speaker did with his life and how great he'd been. The only thing I got from it was that the skills of an educated person can be greatly used in developing countries, even in fields for which you have not studied. At lunch time I listened to Christopher Booker discuss the 7 basic plots of literature, up to the last 200 years. Fascinating, but he didn't go on to discuss these in light of religious stories, well not much anyway. Enjoyed John Bell in the afternoon, despite not hearing anything new, he just has a really good way of relating his talks to a diverse audience, I always enjoy his thought of the day on radio 4 if i hear it.
In the evening I attended the taize service, it was a wonderful experience. I find the music and chanting a great way to engage with God. The idea is that the whole service is a prayer, and it certainly feels like I'm communing with God during that time. After the service I met up with Helen and went for a quick drink at the organic beer tent before danial bedingfield. However, it took us ages to get served as the beer and hymn singing had been hugely popular and there were still many people singing loudly with beer in hand, a very bizarre experience. Then I get a text from chris c that danny b is already on, he'd come on early. Tsk, well I finished my drink, met up with some of the guys from highway projects then headed for the mainstage. Trying to get over the bridge from the race course I could hear the distant sound of pop, but when I got there all DB was doing was talking about the slave trade in his girly high voice, with teenyboppers cheering his every incoherent sentance! Then started the ballads, well it was more than I could bear, so I headed back to the beer tent. The evening ended with Kit ashton, and I quietly refrained from the goth worship! Another good day.
greenbelt2006
greenbelt