Molten Meditation

We were thinking of giving it a break this year.... nah, who are we kidding? We love it and it's probably going to be our only chance of a holiday. However, things did conspire against us a bit so we almost couldn't go. Firstly Hannah had already booked an alternative holiday over the August bank holiday weekend, thinking we were taking a break; then we discovered that the New Forms venue was changing into something else and we missed being involved in that by several months; and then we got offered a new venue only to discover it had no P.A. Once the dust had settled and we got our act together we were able to find solace up in the SoulSpace where we offered to do some early morning meditations. Hooray, all systems go!

We were also asked to contribute to a special event called "The Silent Pilgrimage". The idea was that they would set up 5 stations around the site that would broadcast different meditations. The pilgrims would wear a pair of wireless headphones which would pick up the different tracks at different places on-site. We were given the subject "Celebration" and you'll find our track in the side column of this webpage.

We arrived on the Thursday evening in driving rain and gale force winds to find that the site was closed to all vehicles because they were getting stuck in the mud. The plan, we were told, was that we had to park up and then walk onto the site with all our gear - or we could queue (in the rain) for one of their golf cart style taxis. At this point Arthur burst into tears and started wailing and Maria expressed to the well meaning steward that there's no way we can stand in the rain with a baby and another under 4. After some discussion they let us drive on as long as we promised to stay on the tarmac road and we found a nice spot on centre camping bit. In the fading light, almost losing the tent to the wind, we were pitched and snug listening to the rain bouncing off the canvas.

This year we had enlisted the help of our old friends Louis and Rachel Krog who added another two kids to the mix. It was a little chaotic but Theo and Alfie are the same age and were able to occupy each other while baby Arthur hung around and walking Jasper investigated anything he could lay his hands on. Thankfully the weather improved and other than the odd shower the weekend was pretty sunny.

Molten Meditation Contribution - The Early Starter

So, our fabulous idea this year was to run a Molten Meditation session as a start to the day. Each morning at 8.30am we would do a couple of meditations up in the Soul Space before Morning Prayer kicked off at 9am. Just half an hour Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning and that was it. The format was simple, stripped down and uncomplicated - I would read the verses over the top of instrumental versions of our music with projected visuals. I just had a laptop with everything on it and Louis helped with moral support and handing out string while Maria and Rachel looked after the kids.

Great idea - unfortunately no one had told the Soul Space venue manager and we found ourselves outside in the lobby at 8.15am in the morning with the doors secured locked. By half-past a crowd had gathered, still no keys, at twenty-to-nine I gathered everyone together, apologised and suggested that we do a spoken meditation and pray for one another so that it wasn't a completely wasted event. So I did an unaccompanied meditation on "Don't worry about your life" from Matthew 6 - and it was good. We then spent a few moments string tying and blessing one another - and that was good too. Some keys turned up at about ten-to-nine but it didn't really matter.

Sunday morning was better, but I was a little rushed as I had a couple of problems setting up. But a good time was had, we did one meditation on "God is Love" and some string tying. Monday morning was a beautiful, bright morning, and everything went perfectly. We managed to fit in two meditations and I had some good conversations afterwards before being ushered out as they had to start Morning Prayer.

Despite the hiccups it was a really lovely time. We got 30-40 people for each session and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was good keeping it simple, but I did miss the performance element that we did with Hannah the year before - maybe next year will bring out something like that again.

Silent Pilgrimage

I think this was a great idea and I really hope they do it again and improve on it. It was let down a little bit by the technology but it was an interesting thing to do and the tracks were amazing. We tried it out on the Monday. You got a fair bit of interference in some places and we found that we couldn't find one of the tracks at all and instead got two other tracks fighting for signal depending on which way you turned. The pick-up point for the headphones wasn't very clear either and you could have done with a map telling you where the stations were and explaining a bit about each one. They got some great feedback but I also talked to a few bemused and confused pilgrims who couldn't quite work out what was supposed to happen.

Our "Celebration" track sounded good where it was on the walkway - the track is a bit of a departure for us as it is a trifle upbeat but we plan to do some more in this style soon.

Other Highlights

With our commitments being over first thing in the morning it meant that we had the opportunity to rummage around and get to a few seminars and performances. Well, as much as a baby and a toddler would let you anyway.

Richard Rohr - The headline speaker of the weekend. He's a Franciscan monk who speaks and writes beautiful things about life and spirituality. I'm definitely a fan and he's an influence on my explorations into the contemplative. I only managed to get to one of his talks but it filled me with simple thoughts of Jesus and the kingdom.

Mark Yaconelli - Saw him here a couple of years ago and he's lost none of his insight or humour. I even managed to stop him as he was walking very determinedly through the festival village and introduce ourselves - which was nice.

Organic Worship - Headed up by Andy Flannagan this was a morning service in a more modern song/worship format but beautifully and wonderfully presented. This was in the Big Top, a large venue, and he and his band, on acoustic instruments, sat in the middle of the tent, not on the stage. We all sat around them. The service followed the story of Mary from Bethany told by this amazing woman who was completely captivating and had me in tears throughout the performance. In between Andy played songs that we all joined in with - some we knew, some we didn't. It was sublime and we emerged into them morning light feeling blessed. Alfie and Arthur were well behaved throughout, which was fabulous. http://www.andyflan.com/organicworship/

Zic Zazou - Strange bunch of French nutters who have created a piece of performance art out of a junk shop. They're all dressed in boiler suits, hammering things and welding stuff and using all sorts of things as musical instruments. We took the kids along but Alfie couldn't quite cope with it and so we only lasted half an hour - but it was jolly good fun in that time. http://www.ziczazou.com/

Visions of York, Transcendence, Future Ancient Mass - Visions are the godfather of alternative worship, they've been doing it for years. This was the first time I was actually able to get to go to one of their services. It's traditional in the sense that there's people in robes and incense and liturgy, but it's futuristic in terms of the video loops, ambient music and atmosphere. It wasn't as slick as I imagined, by which I mean it was very real, less performance and more of a coming together to share something. The hymns with techno music were excellent - new hymns, not dodgy remixes. Loved the images and what they were doing. Just taking ancient things and mixing them with multi-sensory technology. Loved it. http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/festival/2010/lineup/contributor/84080

Music - there were no acts in particular who floated my boat and so we didn't really find ourselves at the main stage. We did spend a while in the Performance Café on the Monday night which was lovely - some great acoustic performances. Would have liked to have seen Gil Scott-Heron but he cancelled at the last minute.

Sunday Morning Communion

Here we are once again having communion with 20,000 people. This year was wonderfully simple, short and unfussy. We knew the hymns, we read some prayers, we shared bread and wine and had a good time together. Let's hope they continue down this road in the coming years :)