Why I’m Excited #14: The Silent Pilgrimage
In a continuing series on the blog, we're going to be hearing about parts of the Lineup for 2010 that people are particularly looking forward to. (For all Why I'm Excited posts, click here.)
If there's something on the Greenbelt 2010 programme that you're particularly looking forward to, do email us a paragraph or two saying why, and we'll put it up here on the blog...
Today's excited person is Ben Edson, Worship Programmer for Greenbelt, letting us know why he's excited about the Silent Pilgrimage...
I've always been really energised by the creativity and experimental aspect of the worship programme at Greenbelt. One experiment that I'm really looking forward to is the Silent Pilgrimage at this years festival. It's hard to explain what it is, but think "Silent Disco meets Pilgrim's Progress"..
In the Angels Lounge, you will be able to pick up a pair of wireless headphones and start a musical and meditative journey to different places on the site. In particular locations you'll magically hear a different meditation in the headphones reflecting on a different aspect of our faith journey. Five diverse groups of musicians have each written a meditation, and so the meditations broadcast on the silent pilgrimage will be both debuted at, and site specific to, Greenbelt.
I love it as it locates our faith journeys to a physical place. Far too often faith has involved an ethereal entity disconnected from the physical world around us. The Silent Pilgrimage affirms both the importance of place and the difference of place. Greenbelt has been fantastic at doing this over the years - locating faith in the ordinary, the everyday.
I also love it as it brings together the arts and faith - music and meditation -once again something that is fundamental to the ethos of Greenbelt. It's also sparked another idea, meaning that although the Silent Pilgrimage is being debuted at Greenbelt, it will be making further appearances in cities around our country...
So if you see a person at the festival walking around in a pair of headphones looking all meditative, don't disturb them, but go and get some headphones for yourself and have a thirty minute pilgrimage around the festival.
