Photo: Greenbelt.
Somewhere to believe in: Abigail Maxwell visits the Greenbelt Festival
‘It restores my faith in the church.’
Greenbelt is a festival of ‘artistry and activism,’ where ‘the sacred meets the secular’. It has included Quaker worship for at least twelve years. This year the Quaker Arts Network and Loving Earth Project were at the heart of the event.
The festival offers some free tickets to people who cannot afford them. Friends from Brighton Meeting took three refugees who had worked with us. After experiencing the cruelty of Suella Braverman’s asylum system, I wanted them to experience something beautiful of England. We arrived on the field with three tents, one borrowed the evening before which we had little idea how to erect, in winds gusting over forty miles an hour.
Fortunately, the Church of Tomatoes, with their large flag of a tomato on a white background, helped us put the tents up. They are the Church of The Martyrs, but a six-year-old member did not hear the name correctly, and as a teenager made a banner from a sheet. They preserve it in her memory. This is the Greenbelt spirit.
Quaker worship was on Friday afternoon, and I sought to be present in the space in order to facilitate it, through Thursday evening and Friday morning. I stilled my mind from passing thoughts, and became more aware of my surroundings, as I walked through the site to sort the meal vouchers Greenbelt had promised to our three refugees. I had to borrow a hi-vis jacket somewhere. I was on site before the festivalgoers had access, asking people for help, and getting it, on Thursday evening and Friday morning. Someone made me a mug of tea.
A volunteer asked, ‘Are you alright?’ I had stopped by the edge of the path, and was looking up at the mature trees by the orchard. Perhaps this is right-brain awareness, or a ventral-vagal state; or it could be praying continually, suffused by the Love of God. Later, I saw a Franciscan moving slowly through the Orchard; I think he was doing the same.
After worship, a Friend said she saw how I was holding the space in love. ‘How do you do that?’ Her enthusiasm was powerful affirmation for me. I have learned what I needed to do, and have practised it more and more at Greenbelt since 2014. I have asked Friends helping with the organised worship to sit together in silence. I am clearer, after the weekend. If I do this again I would seek to communicate to the group preparing worship about keeping in presence even when moving through the festival, along with what I have learned about achieving that; and seek to build community among the volunteers supporting worship.
There was a great deal of ministry, much of it from Advices & queries. Afterwards, a woman showed me words spoken in ministry at Greenbelt in 2022, tattooed on her forearm. She is an Anglican minister. We gave her a copy of Quaker faith & practice.
Through the Loving Earth Project, people create textile panels celebrating the beauty and fragility of our world in climate crisis. Project members, mostly Quakers, were invited to be part of the festival. In the Studio venue, where festivalgoers practised various arts and crafts, there was a display of Loving Earth panels, and the words the creators shared about their inspiration.
When Greenbelt invited the Loving Earth Project to take part, the Quaker Arts Network (QAN) formed the idea of having a stall. I volunteered. Some stalls have a specific purpose: at the Church Action on Poverty one, I signed a prepared letter to the prime minister, on an iPad, and they noted my email address. Numbers can be measured quantitatively. The Methodists and the United Reformed Church also have venues at the festival, serving food and drink and holding discussions. These venues exemplify the ethos of those churches.
‘Come to Greenbelt. It moves and changes people.’
At Greenbelt, I see the beauty of Christianity in Britain. It restores my faith in the church. Friends noticed that many people who come annually to Greenbelt are disillusioned with Christian institutions, so had no congregation. Some came to Quaker worship at the festival, and a few have become attenders at Local Meetings. The QAN stall reached out to such people too, and Friends had a public Epilogue at the tent of the Iona Community. The depth of the conversations we had there needs qualitative, not quantitative measurement, and only a tiny part of that can be captured. We had art materials, paper and crayons, and textiles. I had a long chat with a child about the complex of tree-houses he was creating on paper, their ladders and zip-wires, their various purposes. I took a photo of a grandmother, her children and grandchildren; they are rarely all together for photos.
We had two chess sets, one which was all black – all the pieces, all the squares on the board – and another which was all white. This was based on an idea by Yoko Ono. We explored what could be done with this, such as how it felt to be a side of pawns facing a side of all pieces. If they are all the same colour, do they co-operate rather than compete, or dance rather than fight? If the basic rule that there are two colours is broken, what rules survive? Pawns practiced nonviolent direct action, lying down as a peaceful barrier. Such play and creativity, developed among different people, is close to the spirit of worship. We gave away Advices & queries, and Geoffrey Durham’s book Being a Quaker.
James Priestman, our poetry doctor, recited a poem from memory, relevant to any issue a person named. People told us how much they loved this. Someone wrote that we embodied the heart of the word ‘Friends’. Our stall was ‘inspiring’, ‘gentle’, ‘warmly welcoming’.
In the festival communion, thousands of people worshipped together, and as usual I shared bread with strangers. Daoud from the Tent of Nations in Bethlehem could not attend, for fear of illegal expropriation, but spoke by video link. RoguePlay Theatre danced as indigenous people living in harmony with nature, and a white person tearing, using and consuming it. Corinne Bailey Rae performed Black Rainbows. Sophie-Grace Chappell talked about her book, Trans Figured. Kate Bottley spoke of being a working-class priest in the Church of England, and of being a broadcaster. I wandered to the Canopy venue, not knowing who it would be, but knowing the music would be beautiful, and heard Katherine Priddy. Her voice is gorgeous.
In the Angels tent, on wicker sofas covered with cushions, I met a woman who had come with a church group also bringing refugees, and a woman whose volunteering for the festival was sewing the magnificent bunting and banners festooning the site. I found it as easy to start conversations with strangers there as I find it at Yearly Meeting.
Come to Greenbelt. It moves and changes people. There are natural Quakers there: people who might fit beautifully with us, but do not know of us. The more visible presence Friends have there, the more we can bless such people, so that of God in them may bless us.
Comments
Some links:
Loving Earth Project: http://lovingearth-project.uk/
Quaker Arts Network: https://quakerarts.net/
By Abigail Maxwell on 5th September 2024 - 8:18
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