Megan Price, Synod Clerk
I have just returned from my fifth Greenbelt festival, my fourth volunteering for the URC-run café which this year shared a venue called Table with the Trussell Trust. Throughout the weekend folk from across the URC and beyond come together to serve 1800 slices of cake (yes, really!) and wonderful hot food prepared by Durham-based social enterprise REfUSE from ingredients that would have otherwise been sent to landfill. This food for the body was accompanied by food for the soul – a programme of talks and discussions dealing with vital issues such as food poverty, accessibility and inclusion, and decolonisation.
Volunteering in the café is hard work, but a joyous experience. Every year I get to reconnect with kindred spirits from around the country and meet new people. Together we represent the best of the URC to the wider Greenbelt community and the response to what we offer is phenomenal – folk always comment on the warm welcome they receive, the safe space we provide and the affordability of our food in comparison to the standard festival fare. Oh, and the yumminess of the cake, of course!
The other advantage is that I get to experience Greenbelt – a wonderful festival filled with music, ideas and Christian values where I truly feel that I have found my “people”. This year’s highlights included hearing from a Palestinian refugee about a life lived under occupation, attending a moving goth eucharist, and hearing the glorious voice of Beth Rowley sing songs of faith from across ages and traditions.
Above all, Greenbelt always feels to me like a reset – a place and an experience that reaffirms my faith, my optimism and my place in the world. My hope is that you have somewhere or something that does that for you too.
We arrived home to the sad news of the death of Kathy Galloway, former Leader of the Iona Community, who I met only last year when she was the lead speaker at the Free to Believe conference. The Iona Community shared this Benediction by Kathy with the news of her passing, which speaks to the impact that people and experiences have on us and our faith at all stages of life.
Benediction
A blessing on our departures Without them, we cannot walk the way.
A blessing on our companions Bread of friendship, bread for the soul.
A blessing on all travellers Border-crossers, wanderers in strange lands.
A blessing on all the stages on the way And those who gave us guidance.
A blessing on all those we leave behind And on their journeys.
A blessing on our lostness and delays These too are life.
A blessing on our arrivals Homecomings, new beginnings, bright horizons.
A blessing on the Trinity of journeys. Giver of the Way, Jesus of the Way, Spirit of the Way.
from ‘Talking to the Bones’ Kathy Galloway, SPCK, 1996
