Festival Communion
Sunday
This year we'll be celebrating our Festival Communion service on Sunday afternoon rather than in the morning.
Taize
The Taize community does not organise a movement around itself. Instead, after a stay at Taize, people are invited to set out on a 'pilgrimage of trust' wherever they live, encouraged by an experience of prayer and with greater awareness of their bonds with many others who are involved in a similar search.
Sanctus1
Sanctus 1 is a community of people who gather together to discover more about Christ, culture and community in Manchester City Centre. Sanctus 1 seeks to push at the boundaries; exploring God and spirituality within the city, in contemporary film and art, and within each other.
Love & Joy Gospel Choir
First came the Beatles, then Cilla Black, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Echo and the Bunnymen, the La's and now the Love & Joy Gospel Choir. This vibrant, multi-racial choir, based at Liverpool's Temple of Praise, is the latest incarnation of the Merseysound.
Under and Over the Sea
The large-scale sculptures (Podules) of Jan Niedojadlo challenge our assumed and traditional notions of artistic engagement.
Under and Over the Sea
The large-scale sculptures (Podules) of Jan Niedojadlo challenge our assumed and traditional notions of artistic engagement.
Fuse Factory
Fuse Factory, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, is an audio-visual band delivering a symphony in 3 dimensions. Multi-layered saturated video images, powerful and atmospheric electro beats and a feminine melodic voice are the components of the universe that invite total immersion.
Psalm Drummers
Over the past 10 years, Psalm Drummers has developed in to an international movement which sees drummers gathering together to worship God. Psalm Drummers have been part of many large evenets such as New Wine, Soul Survivor, Greenbelt, BBC Songs of Praise, Cross Rhythms festival and many more!
Aradhna
Bored of the same old, same old worship music? Then let Aradhna bring you songs of devotion and complete surrender – in a style that will wake up all your senses.
Sanctuary
The focus of Sanctuary is unconditional love, acceptance and forgiveness to people of other or no faith.
Proost
Pull up your sofas for Proost artists Dubb and Tyte, Harronell and Padraig Twomey offering up mellow songs, spoken word, beatbox, and hymns to swear by, topped and tailed with Proost animations.
op/en
An integral part of life at Christ Church Gipsy Hill, an Anglican parish in South London, op/en is playful, creative, multisensory and subversively formal.
Sanctuary 242
Sanctuary 242 is an intentional Christian community based in and around St Albans, England. We are a group of people who are exploring the boundaries between the rich traditions of the inherited Christian church and the challenges we face living in a modern secular society.
Sanctum
A group - made up of people from various churches in the Horsham area - who for the last 5 years have been having fun providing spaces that help people communicate in creative ways with God.
St Gregory of Nyssa
St Gregory's involves the whole community in making the liturgy together, reclaiming the vitality of early Christianity and creating new forms. We sing our services in rich, unaccompanied harmony; dance hymns with the saints and invite all people to share in service and love around Jesus' table.
Transcendance
In October 2007 Visions and York Minster began to work on an Ancient-Future version of the communion service; mixing ancient melodies from professional choristers with future ambience and combining Anglican liturgy with creative prayer journeys through an ancient building.
Dream
Dream is a network of groups based in the Merseyside area and Bolton. Our focus is on building community that values openness, honesty and freedom in the exploration and pursuit of a spirituality centred on Jesus.
Embody
Bruce Stanley ran away from the circus to become a happiness coach and run Embody.co.uk, the umbrella for creative project development focused on emerging models for spiritual direction and experiential positive psychology.
Hold This Space
Hold this Space is an alternative worship project based in Melbourne, Australia, exploring how they can offer moments of grace among those who do not easily find their home in the church.
Bruce Stanley
Bruce Stanley is a Spirituality Populariser and Life Coach. His workshops will provide an opportunity to put yourself through a life MOT.
Sanctuary
Sanctuary is an alternative community who have been worshipping together in Bath for 9 years. Sanctuary are also running messy space this year.
Grace
Grace is a Christian community/network that has been creating participative and interactive worship from our base in Ealing, West London since 1993. It is an authentic offering of worship to God out of who we are.
The Garden
The Garden thinks of itself as an experimental project; an emerging community based in Brighton, Sussex, living obscurely on the fringe of religious life ...
Spontaneous
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday
In unknown places and at surprising times worship will be happening around the Festival village.
Beer n Hymns
Sacred and secular divisions dissolve as voices and pints are raised in raucous praise of our Maker. Come and join Tim, the hymn-master-of-ceremonies and Beer Tent landlord, and Monkey Boy Dave on the ivories, and experience worship as you've never experienced it before.
Iona Community worship in the Northern Lights tent
George MacLeod started it... Kathy Galloway continues it... John Bell is part of it... Wild Geese sometimes do it...
Ethel’s Tent
Based in a mediaeval church in the City of London which was destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1993, St Ethelburga’s is now a Christian focal point for people who want to explore what reconciliation and peace mean in a divided world.
Foundation
Foundation is an emerging church/fresh expression based in Bristol, a Christian community seeking to live out its faith in a healthy relationship with contemporary culture.
Moot
Moot is a developing community of spiritual travellers who are seeking to find a means of living a life that is honest to god and honest to now. Moot seeks to make connections and find inspirations in the meeting of faith, life and culture. Moot looks to the Christian call for justice, equity and balance as a means of living politically and ethically.
Safe Space
Safespace – Telford are a small community with a passion for mission and a big vision: for being peace-bringers for people, community, culture and creation.
Ikon
Inhabiting a space on the outer edges of religious life, ikon is a Belfast-based collective who describe themselves as iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging and failing.
Contemplative Fire
- Rising Son, Play in the Presence & Emergent Liturgy
- \'Pray the Body\' Chant + Drumming with Philip Roderick
Contemplative Fire: creating a community of Christ at the Edge. Their worship Gatherings integrate sign, symbol and spaciousness, drawing on Biblical texts, the Christian contemplative tradition, contemporary Christian art that are woven together with music and chant sourced from early medieval, Russian Orthodox and Afro-celtic, often led by Philip Roderick of Sheer Sound.
Visions
Visions have been doing creative (and mostly multimedia) worship services since 1991, blending the old and the new, the creative and the technological together.
mayBe
MayBe is a group of people in and around Oxford working at being a community following in the way of Jesus, seeking to help create a better world now through prayer and action.
Pall Singh
Sanctuary is a faith and grace community gathering for British Asians and others to explore Christ; a safe place where people can experience God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness.
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.
nChant
nChant is a young women's community choir founded in 2002 by singer/songwriter Alison Eve and originally based in Bedford.
Molten Meditation
Molten Meditation was formed out of a desire to experience God through scripture, music and meditation within our own cultural context. Originally a move away from the noisier and more frenetic elements of charismatic worship, this year they're trying to find a path between the two.
L'Arche
L'Arche is a family of 130 communities in 30 countries. In L'Arche Communities men and women with learning disabilities aged 18 and over live and work together with their Assistants.
Sanctus2nds
Sanctus2nds is a sanctuary for creativity, reflection and socialising.
VJ Spir
VjSpir, visual artist and producer, fine artist from Los Angeles, california, is the art director of an international NGO and the owner of the label FuseLab.
Pete Rollins
One-time Christian, evangelist and full-time charismatic, Peter is now a Christ-following provocateur, revelation-inspiring lecturer, and founding member of Belfast's Ikon.
The New Place
The New Place is a Methodist-owned and run community centre in the inner-city of Bristol, concerned with a holistic approach to being community.
Gareth Higgins
Gareth Higgins is a writer from Belfast who has worked both as an academic and activist, co-leading a post-sectarian peacebuilding initiative for over a decade.
Franciscans
Friars, sisters and friends, we're a community on the camping field. The Brothers and Sisters (you can tell us by our brown habits) come together from the houses where we live, pray, work and eat with other members of our communities.
St Gregory's Music Group with CAFOD
St Gregory's Music Group has existed for over 25 years, and now comprises of some 40 people, some young and some not so young, and many in between!
Sam
Sam, is the songwriter and singer for the group Fuse Factory. Born in France, she studied classic violin and music theory and sang in various disastrous amateur rock bands until she discovered her real passion in electronic music.
Alfredo Barcos
Alfredo Barcos grew up in the emerging Swiss clubbing scene of the early nineties, his dj career began with venues in Tokyo during his stay in Japan.
Ara
'Ara' means 'altar' or 'sanctuary' and is a monthly club-like event that takes place in a 17th century church close to the centre of Manchester.
Sounds of Salvation
Collected together in equatorial Reading, Sounds of Salvation (or SoS) are a high-octane, ten-piece ska band dedicated to leading people in their own unique style of worshipping God.
Soul Space
Soul Space is a monthly alternative service led by Dave Tomlinson and members of St Lukes, Holloway in North London.
Trent
Trent offer up original worship songs with a noisy, electric edge.
A life more ordinary
An invitation to fishermen, shepherds, vicars and tarts, and all other extraordinary people with ordinary lives: to explore the presence of God and reality of heaven in your story.
Soul Space
A place to be still and to pray... A place to worship and meet with God... A place where someone can share the journey...
Godly Play
Godly Play was introduced into the UK in 2000 and is now used widely as an approach to children's Christian nurture.
The Reign
Formed in 2002, Hull worship band theREIGN have developed a strong ministry, particularly amongst young people, with their blend of original material, popular praise & worship songs and well-known secular covers.
Simon Parke
“Not famous for being relevant,” according to his website, Simon Parke was a priest in the Church of England for 20 years.
Ship of Fools
Simon Jenkins is the editor of the online magazine and community Ship of Fools, of which one newspaper said, “Be warned, should you visit, you may be looking at a long stay in purgatory.” His books include Windows into Heaven (an introduction to Eastern icons) and The Bible from Scratch. Simon is an independent writer and designer, and lives in London.
Graceland
Our group started in Cardiff in 1996 as a d.i.y homegroup. d.i.y. because, as individuals, we felt we were being gently 'nudged' aside as the more regular church was rallying round North American 'spiritual' fun at the time. It didn't fit us very well & we attempted our own daft path. So we missed out on the breadth of ages & angles which you find in churches, but at least we could understand each other & could work something out.
John Birch
Jon Birch is a multimedia artist and music producer. For the last 10 years he has been producing resources for the emerging church through Proost.
Happygoff
Happygoff are a group of Christian Goths who have networked with one another across the country. In London they run 'Spiritual Space' in Soho, and also have links with other alternative groups such as Asylum, Ara etc.
Sarah Masen
Bearing a guitar, a wistful voice and a nice turn of phrase, songstress Sarah Masen makes a welcome return to Greenbelt. She weaves words into songs that are delicate yet arresting, dreamlike yet earthed. Tony Cummings of Cross Rhythms praises her “spine-tingling voice and songwriting craft” and Greenbelt veteran Steve Stockman reckons she has a “God-given ability to express the light and the dark and the shades where we all walk in between”.
Andrew Walker
Andrew Walker is an Anglican priest and director of the London Centre for Spirituality. He is a Psychosynthesis counsellor and supervisor and author of Journey into Joy (St Paul's) and Spirituality in the City (SPCK).
Journey
Journey is a group of spiritual explorers in the Christian Tradition who meet in Birmingham. "We describe ourselves as: go to liberal and keep going left..."
Wild Goose and Worship Works
We've been coming to Greenbelt for ages - forming a new group to work with each time. This year we have one Greenbelt virgin with us and a returner who's ventured back after many years! Wild Goose (aka John L. Bell and Graham Maule) are well known for their worship resources and songs.
OuterSpace
OuterSpace is a group of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) Christians, and their family and friends, at the annual Greenbelt Festival. It is committed to the Church and to helping everyone find their way in the Church, no matter what their background.
Ambient Wonder
Ambient Wonder are seeking to surprise one another with the creativity of God. They try to find a meeting place between meditative traditions, daily lives, and the spirituality in our culture as they explore Christian faith.
Church on the Corner
Church on the Corner is a new Anglican church in Islington. It is a fresh expression of church, a young community that provides a spiritual home within the vibrant and yet transitory world of central London.
Mass@Barnabas
Mass@Barnabas is a group of fun loving, soap-dodging (only at Greenbelt) teenagers and their long suffering vicar. They like to raise awareness, rattle cages and burn things (strictly within the confines of worship, of course ...).
Church of England Liturgical Commission
- A Service for the healing of broken relationships
- Dawn Service – From the Rising of the Sun & A Service for the healing of broken relationships
The Liturgical Commission loves to worship! It is through encountering God within worship that we are formed (and transformed) as his people. Specifically, they exist to serve the Church of England through the publishing of creative liturgical resources and through training to help the Church offer God the best worship we can.
Divine Space
Divine Space started as a meditative, low-tech alternative worship event in Bedford and has now become a regular feature of the Contemplative Venue at Greenbelt.
L8r – Godly Play
L8r is a small community, part of Holy Trinity Church in Northwood, NW London. We meet weekly and are committed to an incarnational approach to mission. We are involved in different aspects of our local and wider community life; from caring for the bereaved and homeless, to housewives/husbands; from authors, film makers and critics to schools workers and sports coaches.
hOME
Tess Ward was the co-celebrant of the Greenbelt Eurcharist 2005. She is the author of The Celtic Wheel of the Year O-books 2007, a prayer book for individual use weaving the Christian and pre-Christian seasons into a single pattern. In her day job she is a hospital chaplain.
GothGB
After a few years' break the original GothGB team is back to lead the 1662 communion.
Heaven under the Motorway
Can heaven be in a bathtub? Or down the back of the sofa? The New Place is a community under a motorway who have put together a series of mini-heavens around the inner-city of Bristol.
Blessed
Blesséd, based on the South Coast of England, has been exploring the missional possibilities of the sacramental life since 2002.
Feig
We are a rag-tag group of fellow travellers, trying to work out what it means to be following Jesus Christ in 2008 in Gloucester. God has called us together to look out for and love each other. We’re learning all the time and enjoying the journey.
Mass on the theme of Live Simply
God calls us to look hard at our lifestyles and to choose to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with the poor. In this way we can help create a world in which human dignity is respected and everyone can reach their full potential.
Park, Sheffield
Officially nameless, Park, Sheffiled are a Christian community living in Park, Sheffield. We have been meeting together for just over a year, gathering for meals and meditations and we organise blah ...... Sheffield. We're small but growing and trying not to pretend to be something we aren't.
St Christopher\'s Church, Springfield, Birmingham
St Christopher's, Springfield is an Anglican parish in inner city Birmingham with a Muslim majority community. The church runs a project providing nursery, family support, stay and play and childrens' club facilities to diverse members of the parish.
John Went
In his own words: I'm an Essex man! Born in Brightlingsea and educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School then read Classics and Theology at Cambridge.
Rt Revd Pat Harris
In his won words: I worked as a mission partner of the South American Mission Society in Northern Argentina for 17 years – initially among the Wichi Indians of the Chaco and then also in Church Planting in the towns and cities.
Bishop of Swindon Rt Revd Lee Rayfield
Lee Rayfield is the Bishop of Swindon. Before ordination he was an immunologist involved in research and teaching in a London Medical and Dental School. One of his longstanding passions is helping to connect Christian spirituality and practice with everyday life and work.
Quakers
Cheltenham Quaker Meeting is part of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain. Quakers believe that there is something of God in every person; that God will speak to us if we wait in stillness; that experience of the divine is not dependent on external rituals or symbols; and that spirituality is about the whole of life. From these basic beliefs flow our testimonies (ways of living) such as peace and simplicity.
Diane Craven
Diane Craven is currently Youth and Children’s Work Adviser in the Diocese of Southwark and is working towards a PhD. She is passionate about theology, liturgy and education and has recently co-authored two books on all-age liturgical resources and has a chapter on reflective practice and the bible in Young People and Worship (Church House Publishing)..
The Orthodox Parish of St John of Kronstadt Bath
We are a small Orthodox Parish based in Bath, belonging to the Greek Archdiocese and worshipping in English, comprising some 50-60 adults, children and students. At present we worship in a house chapel, and many of our parishioners live near the chapel. We regard ourselves as a parish community. We keep up a full cycle of liturgical worship during the year, and during the week we have Bible Studies as well as joining in with local initiatives with the homeless and prison visiting. Hospitality is a key feature of our parish life; every Sunday we share a meal together after the liturgy.
Suwarta Sangat
Suwarta Sangat, meaning 'good news fellowship” in Gujarati, is a multi-cultural group of Jesus Devotees (Isu Bhaktas) meeting in the Gujarati Hindu communities of Harrow and Brent in Northwest London.
DivineSpace
Divine Space is the name of the alternative worship service set up by Paul Cudby while serving as a curate in Bedford.
Gothspell
From the naughty North to the sexy South, you can't escape from Goths – they've even been seen advertising a popular fizzy drink on TV recently! Ara (based in Manchester) and Happygoff (based in London) both seek to provide sanctuaries for those who prefer black and purple to white and beige. In reality (euch!) this is done in a variety of ways, ranging from something as simple as a hug and a chat to something as complex as a full-on club event. The key? Acceptance offered to the often unaccepted.
YoYo
York Schools and Youth Trust (YoYo) is a youth and schools work charity working to present the good news about Jesus in a way that is interesting and relevant to young people and children.
Veronica Zundel
Veronica is the author of Crying for the Light - Bible readings and reflections for living with depression. She is also founder/host of the internet forum 'Waving, not Drowning', a private board of ship-of-fools.com, which provides a sharing space for Christians with a variety of mental health difficulties. She has suffered from recurrent depression for 36 years.
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