Greenbelt 2012 Beer & Benediction

I find Blessed fascinating but not always entirely convincing as I think I wrote about the worship event I attended at Greenbelt last year.

Beer and Benediction was just one of a number of worship sessions they were offering this year, but the Beer element meant I felt this was the fail safe option!

The majority of the beer tent had turned into a sea of mud but thankful the annex "the upper room" had remained largely dry and this was where Benediction was to meet beer.

What I found was the smaller scale (last year I had been to a Mass in the Big Top) allowed you to feel like a participate rather than just the audience, also there were a few technical hitches which Simon Rundell covered with a humour that gave a sense of grounding and humanity that I think had been missing in earlier encounters with them.

After the Mass and Benediction we went on a Eucharistic Procession around Greenbelt (sadly due to licencing constrains this part was minus beer).  It was wonderful to see the faces of the Greenbelters we passed by - there was a wide range of expressions. Some clearly know what was going on, removing hats and crossing them selves as Jesus passed by, others clearly know what was going on due to a look of horror that such heresy was here at the heart of a "Christian" festival.  But for most there was a benevolent look of puzzlement with which you greet all sorts of things at Greenbelt - putting them down as "its ok - its Greenbelt".

The Procession ended in front of the Grandstand where a number of "worship collectives" were coming together for a shared service, sadly I could not stay for that as there was a talk elsewhere in the festival I wanted to get to.