Monday began with Andrew Tate talking under the title "All families are psychotic" - a great title for a talk that turned out to be about something else - he, tying in with the overall theme of the festival, focused much more on the idea of 'home' in literature. I have made a talk my Andrew a feature of Greenbelt over the last couple of years, he is an engaging speaker and ranges widely over both literary classics and more 'popular' output including significant reference to The Simpsons. It is interesting to hear about themes you never noticed in books you have read. There is also a sort of game of literary bingo - to see how many of the countless books he touches upon you have read (or even heard of), occasionally as you look round at the audience all nodding knowingly at the obscurest of references and you are sure that they are all liars.
After this I went to the Outerspace Communion service, it perhaps like the Catholic Mass appeals to me partly for its ordinariness - there is no great radicalism in the liturgy. There must have been a little over 150 people there, and it is great to be able to share uncomplicated, unqualified, worship together with such a group of Gay, Lesbian, and Trans people.
From there I had to run to catch next session which was Jo Swinney talking about depression - she spoke fairly briefly and then people were invited to share thoughts and experiences of which there were lots. Some were heart and/or gut wrenching others. Many pick up on the anecdote Jo had shared of people at Church wanting to know if she was better because they had prayed for her - this is not only deeply insensitive but betrays a complete misunderstanding of the nature of healing ministries, what is intriguing is what it is about depression that allows people to ask the question which you somehow can't imagine being posed to a cancer sufferer. It was quiet an intense session and of all the things to do at Greenbelt probably left me with the most things to think about, to wrestle with.
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