Just over three years ago poet, philosopher and festival favourite John O'Donohue passed away. Greenbelt associate, Church Times have this week published a previously unseen interview with him, conducted by Greenbelt trustee Martin Wroe.

The interview took place shortly before John passed away and just a few weeks before the publication of Benedictus: A book of blessings.

"A blessing is a red light that stops you, says ‘No, don’t do it yet, take time, have another look.’ It allows presence to become clear. For our rhythm to be restored, we need some kind of stillness, and a blessing offers this chance, a window of wonder on to what is happening."

Click to read the full article »

Over Greenbelt 2010, get the lowdown from our team of talented, opinionated and observant Guest Bloggers. Here, Susannah Cornwall gets to grips with the issues raised by Peter Tatchell…

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Peter Tatchell, free speech advocate and human rights activist, spoke to a packed-out Hebron venue on Saturday evening on the issue of queer freedom in Africa. As he noted himself, his presence at Greenbelt generated controversy before he even got here – Lisa Nolland of Anglican Mainstream suggested in a blog post on 18th August that "Greenbelt … is sending out a sub-text that is totally at odds with a Christian understanding of sexuality by including [Tatchell] on its programme". Bizarrely, Nolland seemed to feel that Greenbelt should not host speakers unless, by doing so, it was encouraging festival-goers to take on board everything they said as somehow "sanctioned" by Greenbelt: "Young people who attend [Greenbelt] and hear Peter are given false assurance that [Peter Tatchell] is the sort of person they should be listening to. [Greenbelt] has enough respect for [Tatchell] as a public figure to place him on the platform; he is good and 'safe' enough for trendy, successful, 'Christian' Greenbelt. Thus, there is a de facto legitimisation of the plausibility of his views across the board".

I for one am delighted that the Greenbelt programmers realize that the intelligent, critically-aware people who attend Greenbelt are well able to receive speakers from a range of perspectives proactively and generously, and that they do not feel the need to dampen down "dangerous" or "subversive" topics. I am equally delighted that Peter Tatchell's session was so well-attended and generated so many questions.

Tatchell opened by noting that, within current European human rights law, there is protection for people who are attacked because of their race, religion or gender, but there is no specific protection for LGBT people. In 70 countries (including 46 Commonwealth nations), homosexuality is still criminalised, and is punishable by death in six or seven of those countries. Tatchell went on to argue that the high-profile anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda (under which, even failing to report a suspected homosexual carries a penalty of up to three years' imprisonment) has been stirred up by British Anglicans and Pentecostals and by evangelicals from the USA. Peter Tatchell argued that homophobia in Africa is a direct result of colonial rule. Nineteenth-century European sexual mores were transplanted into African countries along with Christianity, and are not indigenous to Africa.

I think this is somewhat broad-brush analysis on his part; however, it is indeed important to acknowledge that many of the ongoing tensions surrounding sex and race which are going on in the British churches are directly informed by Britain’s colonial past. For example, the tension within the Church of England and the other churches of the Anglican Communion surrounding homosexuality is still at least coloured by nineteenth-century missionary attitudes to African and other indigenous cultures. As the postcolonial theologian Kwok Pui-lan has noted, if the sexual mores of the African churches (and of some Christians of African and Caribbean descent now living in Britain) are now too conservative for much liberal British and North American taste, this is directly related to the manner in which Victorian British norms were imposed on Africa by missionaries. In some cases, these attitudes have been assimilated to such an extent that black African Christians claim that homosexuality is a white Western phenomenon, something “not African” – though the growing visibility of African-based LGBT groups since 2000 (as Peter Tatchell also observed) means that this argument is beginning to lose its force.

However, it's also clear to me that the Church of England in particular must now deal with the fact that resisting imperialism means giving up authority over its non-Western sister communions in the area of sexual morality. African bishops are making it clear that they will not kow-tow to the Church of England or to the Episcopal Church of the USA, and that to resist Western hegemonic modes of discourse means, as far as they are concerned, resisting liberal attitudes to homosexuality where these are understood as unilateral impositions by the Western churches. The Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola said in 2004, in response to the publication of the Windsor Report on the state of the unity of the Anglican Communion in light of the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson and the blessing of same-sex marriages in Canada:

"A small, economically-privileged group of people has sought to subvert the Christian faith and impose their new and false doctrine on the wider community of faithful believers… Why, throughout the document, is there such a marked contrast between the language used against those who are subverting the faith and that used against those of us, from the Global South, who are trying to bring the church back to the Bible?… Where are the words of ‘deep regret’ for the impact of [the Episcopal Church of the USA]’s actions upon the Global South and our missionary efforts? Where is the language of rebuke for those who are promoting sexual sins as holy and acceptable behaviour? The imbalance is bewildering.” (click here for source)

Benjamin Kwashi, the Archbishop of Jos in Nigeria, said in a 2008 BBC documentary about the run-up to the GAFCON (Global Anglican Future) conference, "From the mother Church of England, there is the assumption that […] we can do anything and Africans will automatically come with us, or respect us. I think that is an insult". Kwashi said that the Western churches ignored the issues really pressing to African Christians, such as AIDS and infant mortality, and did not take their concerns seriously.

To recognize homosexual narratives as legitimate sites of talk about God is an important part of queer theological thinking – but resisting, critical queer theology must also go further, by continually querying hegemonies and defying the notion that resistance to heteronormativity is more central or ultimate than resistance to other kinds of oppression, including those imposed on the Global South by the Global North via systems of capitalist economics. Kwok Pui-lan and the Nigerian archbishops start from very different political, social and theological assumptions, not least in terms of the ways in which they respectively affirm and deny LGBT-identified people: Kwashi’s figuring of sexualities equality as less pressing or central for African Christians than AIDS and infant mortality undermines the experiences of many non-heterosexual Christians in Africa, as well as disregarding the close relationship between sexual norms and the transmission of HIV. Nonetheless, the fact that Akinola and Kwashi can loudly and vehemently cite the same kinds of injuries that postcolonial theologians and biblical scholars like Kwok, R.S. Sugirtharajah, Fernando F. Segovia, Joerg Rieger, Mayra Rivera and others have so strikingly exposed over the past decades shows that the interactions between sex, colonialism and global economics are still far-reaching and devastating.

Indeed, in response to a question from the floor, Peter Tatchell acknowledged the problematic nature of ongoing interactions between white human rights activists in the Global North. How can people in the West critique current African attitudes toward LGBT people within simply imposing another kind of colonial narrative? Tatchell suggested that the way forward is to stand with queer activists already within Africa, rather than trying to speak on their behalf.

I enjoyed Tatchell's talk and welcomed his necessary criticism of anti-homosexual Christian discourse. However, I didn't feel the session did justice to Tatchell's complex understanding of the diversity within Christianity. He is well aware that Christianity also contains resources for inclusion, and that the LGBT human rights activism of many Christians is deeply informed by their faith, but this acknowledgement was absent from his slightly negative analysis. Nonetheless, he did point to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement as an excellent resource and gathering-point for homosexual, heterosexual and other people who want to query the heteronormative narratives often touted as the only true Christian way, as well as making other very practical suggestions for direct action.

Thank you, Peter, for your presence at Greenbelt this year, and for your continual work in ensuring injustice in so many areas doesn't go unchallenged; and thank you, Greenbelt, for realizing that we're all big enough and ugly enough (as my mum used to say) to make up our own minds about who and what we listen to, and to engage in topics that aren't blandly anodyne.

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Susannah Cornwall lives in Exeter. She teaches theology and writes about sex, gender and sexuality. She has a blog here. Her tent is slightly too small.

No doubt you're making your plans now for Greenbelt, and we'd just like to take another opportunity to implore you to take the Tuesday off work and stick around for all of the goodness that a Greenbelt Monday has to offer.

Not only do we have an amazing Monday night line-up on Mainstage, Roger McGough reading from his new book That Awkward Age, all of the usual final night celebrations, and the Keep Monday Special Rockabilly Grand Ball, headlined by Mark Kermode and the Dodge Brothers, we also have a load of really great speakers who you will be kicking yourself if you miss…

So, to whet your appetite, here are some great talks that you can only hear live on Monday, from speakers with great wisdom, insight and personality…

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Mark Vernon – "The Philosopher Jesus"
Columnist, radio commentator and lecturer Mark Vernon follows up his 2009 Greenbelt appearance with a talk that places Jesus in the philosophic tradition of Socrates, another figure who changed Western civilisation despite the fact that he himself never published any of his own writing.

Karen Ward – "Congregational Monasticism"
A major figure in the emerging church movement in the United States, Karen Ward returns to this year's Greenbelt to encourage exploration of how monastic traditions can form, deepen and sustain congregational life. Anyone who is interested in finding out more about how their church might engage with new adaptations of monasticism will certainly gain new ideas and wisdom from Karen's talk.

Giles Fraser – "The English Civil War and the Future of the Church of England"
Columnist, radio commentator and perennial Greenbelt favourite Giles Fraser is back this year looking at the traditional "big tent" of the Church of England and pondering whether – while that centuries-long peace treaty seems to be breaking down – the C of E has a future at all.

Andrew Rumsey – "The Last Bus Home"
Vicar and author Andrew Rumsey will examine nostagia and ask why the 'longing for home' has become a therapy rather than a symptom, suggesting that Christian belief might hold a cure.

Kerry Anthony – "The Poor Are Our Masters"
One of the youngest recipients of an MBE, in her case to recognise her work for charities, particularly working with the homeless, Kerry Anthony will draw from her own experience as CEO of the DePaul Trust and other previous roles in reflecting on the concept of servant leadership and how it applies to organisational leadership today. Not just for managers!

Richard Harries – "Faith in Politics? Rediscovering the Christian Roots of our Political Values"
The former Bishop of Oxford, prolific author and frequent contributor to Radio 4's Thought for the Day will reflect on the relationship between Christianity and Britain's constitution, examining in particular how a Christian understanding of what it means to be human underpins modern laws.

Tim Mayfield – "Beautiful resistance: on the ground with the Palestinian olive harvest"
Tim Mayfield learned about the Palestinian struggle from Elias Chacour at Greenbelt seven years ago. As he learned more, he felt compelled to do something, leading to his participation in the Palestinian olive harvest in 2009. Tim will tell about his experience with the "Olive Tree Campaign" and discuss what we can practically do to work for justice for Palestinians.

You might remember a month or so ago, we posted about the Digging Deeper events with CMS in Oxford just after Greenbelt, featuring GB10 speakers Dave Andrews and Mark Yaconelli.

In addition to this, we'd now like to draw attention to an event taking place in Birmingham around the same time.

Before heading to Oxford, Mark Yaconelli will be speaking on "Tending the Adolescent Soul" at the Queens Foundation, in association with the Church Urban Fund and the Diocese of Birmingham. It's taking place on the 1st September from 10am. Tickets are £15, and the price includes a copy of Mark's book "Wonder, Fear and Longing", as well as a Chinese Buffet lunch!

The details for all of the events are below. Do go along for a post-Greenbelt dose of intelligent insight, while your brain is still all warmed up from the festival!

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1st September, BIRMINGHAM
Mark Yaconelli: Wonder, Fear, and Longing – Tending the Adolescent Soul
Queens Foundation, Birmingham
10am – 3pm
Tickets: £15 (including lunch and copy of Mark's book)
Book by emailing Jelena@birmingham.anglican.org or by phoning 0121 426 0435
Click here for flyer

1st September, OXFORD
Dave Andrews: Growing Radical, Rooted, Distinctive Community work
CMS House, Oxford
10am – 4pm
Tickets: £25 (including lunch)
Book by clicking here
Click here for flyer

2nd September, OXFORD
Mark Yaconelli: Wonder, Fear, and Longing – Tending the Adolescent Soul
CMS House, Oxford
10am – 4pm
Tickets:£25 (including lunch)
Book by clicking here
Click here for flyer

When asked to write ten resolutions for a greener New Year, GB09 speaker Tamsin Omond instead came up with twelve. Twelve examples of "things that are filling the space between more radical activism and the real world – that are pulling the mainstream into a sustainable vision".

There are some great tips in there for Greenbelters looking to act upon things they heard in Tamsin's talks; things like…

6. I’m starting to like vegetables a lot, especially from my friends’ allotments, terraces or window boxes. And an ex who works on an oil rig(!) has been throwing “meat-free Monday” parties. (http://www.meatfreemondays.co.uk)

Read the rest by clicking here.

Tamsin's talk from GB09 – "WWJD?" – is available from the Greenbelt Talks Shop, and her book "RUSH! The Making of a Climate Activist" is available from Amazon.

"To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity."

by Ben Whitehouse

I asked Jon Bounds to "write a post for the blog" and wasn't too sure what I'd get back. As usual I wasn't disappointed, Jon has delivered, in his own unique, way, something wonderful about his talks for the festival. Make sure you catch them, they're not to be missed!

The ways in which place affects us are too often cloistered in the work of travel writers or gap-year bloggers hemp-shirting their way across some of the developing World's most considered facades. That or dreamy-eyed nostalgists, moisting up over the bomb-cleared playgrouds of their youth. To descibe the now and your relation to it is to record history for the losers as well as the winners, it's to let location its due in your psyche, and it's honest.

In the post-spin age; the spun are dizzy with post-modernism, never more than an involuntary muscule spasm away from an arched eyebrow or a cheese football. We've long since given up on desire for the truth but prefer to band together and hunker down with whatever lie seems most palatable.

The job of the psychogeographer is to twist the facts into something relating the truth, and it's that which I've been trying to do for ten years of development, redevelopment and regeneration of Britian's most maligned conurbation.

I founded Birmingham: It's Not Shit in 2002, just as the city was embarrassing itself on the European stage again, not this time shooting for the stars with un-government backed bids for global sporting events but merely aiming the twelve bore directly a pied and not even standing up to Liverpool in the bidding for European Capital of culture status. The city's marketeers, all second-jobbing on their way to more suitable metropoli, presented a sheen of apartments, cafes and smiling mixed-ethnicity groups laughing just too much as one at how perfect their lives were. Liverpool presented some old film of the Beatles.

It's about to start all over again, and this time the site has been cited by the Council's Minister of Fun (er Cabinet Member for Culture and lesiure or something) as an example to follow. They're going to attempt to tempt the Turner Prize to some wasted industrial unit by giving the people what they want – Jasper Carrot and the Spitfire. Goldenballs.

I'm going to give three separate, but no-doubt interrelated talks at Greenbelt this year, one telling some of the story about how Birmingham is portrayed in popular culture and myth (and yes Benny from Crossroads will feature). A second will look more deeply at how the city sees itself – nominally from the upstairs window of a circular bus ride. Hundreds of Brummie kids spent Sunday afternoons in the sixties, seventies and eighties, riding round the outer circle. They gained a sense of the size of their city, a numerologist's appreciation of the codes and glyphs of the bus ticket and a life-long 'thing' for staring at the tops of middle aged mens' heads through a system of mirrors.

Whoever said that it was "better to travel hopefully than to arrive" never spent two and a half hours on a double decker and got off at the very same stop he got on at.

Or eleven hours come to that. I did, and I got about 30 people to do the same. I'll tell you why and what we found out.

My third talk is less inward-looking, and a bit more sweary. I'm going to look at the rapid spead of internet memes and how with just a soupcon of profanity, you too can become an interweb superstar. Or at least cost yourself a few hundred quid in hosting charges and destroy your employment prospects.

Jon founded Birmingham: it's Not Shit, a website that markets Brum without ever mentioning 'canalside living'.

Jon's worked in publishing, music journalism, and in a venetian blind factory. Now, after several years at the BBC, Jon is a freelance social media consultant and producer, writer and blogger. His common theme – tech plus people equals great things. He's obsessed by place.  www.jonbounds.co.uk

Bev Thomas asks whether, in an age of cynicism and lack of engament in the democratic process, political activism can play a central role in transforming our communities. We are pretty sure there is a Greenbelt recorded talk out there for every occasion. And this month's free recorded talk, recorded at Greenbelt 2007, demonstrates that.

Bev will be returning to Greenbelt this year, so if you like this, be sure to hunt her out!

Click here, to subscribe to the Greenbelt podcast stream in iTunes (which includes free talks alongside our monthly podcasts).

Love and best,

Frank

Frank Schaeffer spoke at Greenbelt 08 – for a CD or MP3 of his talks, click here, and enter the code 'LONGNOW' at the check-out for 50% off MP3s and 33% off CDs until the end of April.