The Deaf Community at Greenbelt

Turn your voice off and worship with your eyes and hands – worship sessions in British Sign Language, voiced over in English, open to everyone.

Every year a special group of people meet together at Grenbelt. As they arrive on site they immediately seek each other out. They are bound together by the fact that they are all Deaf people who use British Sign 1 Language as their first or preferred language.

They are able to participate in Greenbelt because of a volunteer team of sign language interpreters. But sometimes they love to get together and worship in their own language and to welcome those with full hearing to join them to experience worship through eye and hand.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand Sign Language as the same interpreter team will “voice over to English” everything that happens. Sign Language is enormously expressive. Most people find there is something liberating abut the use of the body in worship. Some people wonder if the Deaf will hear in Heaven. Those who have tasted Signed Worship sometimes wonder if all the hearing people will be given the gift of sign language so they can truly worship God for all he is worth.

 

Signed Worship for all ages

Children love sign language.  Naturally Deaf children love it because it helps them communicate, but hearing children love it too.  Babies can use it to communicate from a few months old before they have learnt to control their vocal chords.  Older children love the emotional content that is hard to convey with spoken language.  Teenagers just reckin it is so “cool”.  Experience all age worship in British Sign Language.

 

Signs of the Long Now – Worship in British Sign Language

Sign Language is enormously expressive.  Most people find there is something liberating abut the use of the body in worship.  Some people wonder if the Deaf will hear in Heaven, but those who have tasted Signed Worship sometimes wonder if all the hearing people will be given the gift of sign language – something that gives us a foretaste of Heaven in the Long Now.