Les-b-in the house of the Lord!

By Sal Kovech

Volume 1, Issue 3

August 26th 2001.
Greenbelt Communion Service

For those of you who have never heard of, or been to Greenbelt, it is a Christian arts and music festival. Situated within Cheltenham Race course, it offers seminars, lectures, worship, bands and of course, hundreds of porta-loos for those feeling the need to get back to nature and camp on the racecourse itself. Of course, good weather is the key to success, alongside planning your day carefully in order to get to the decent events.

Worship was an integral part of the whole weekend, but the main focus was the inclusive communion service on the Sunday morning. Located within the paddock (where you'd normally watch the posh people hob-nobbing!) 9000 Greenbelt-ers settled on the grass or the steps to worship and share food together. The music was from Wild Goose (Iona Community) and was sung with much gusto and emotion. Tony Campolo, an American preacher preached an amusing sermon and guaranteed himself a full tent for his afternoon session "The church and homophobia"!

Lucy Winkett (Chaplain of St. Paul's Cathedral and a "honey" - in my opinion!) led the Eucharist, a version of the feeding of the 5000! We had been invited to bring food and drink and to be willing to share. Fortunately I was sat with Rachel who'd been sensible to bring a bottle of red. Oh wise woman! It was a humbling experience, receiving gifts of food from others around us and to be involved in such a huge gathering. A note for the less hardy - bring plenty of padding for your rear ends, as it is hard to sit on concrete for 2 hours!

Overall, it was one of my highlights from the weekend and gains itself a score of 8/10.

Further details:
www.greenbelt.org.uk

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