New Kid on the Blog

Won't be here for a couple of weeks, am off on me hols to France. So rather than leave the blog empty with no explanation thought i would let you know. I'll have une verre de vin for all you bloggers (or should that be 'un'?)

After a manic flurry of activity following Greenbelt all is quiet on the West of Cambridge front, certainly in terms of adding anything to this bloggy jobbet. Interestingly it is only only New Kid that is doing this, a lot of the blogs I've visited have calmed down somewhat in the past few days. Interesting, and encouraging that Greenbelt can inspire that kind of activity. I can't quite put my finger on why, I guess it is just the overwhelmingly creative atmosphere and the fact that people are encouraged to think holistically - so that faith is certainly not a 'one day a week' thing but a vibrant, living, challenging, inspiring, daily activity. Hopefully the thought, the creativity will keep going throughout the year. One thing which made me think this year at Greenbelt was the comment that 'GB' helps some Christians 'survive' from year to year, and that going to Greenbelt is like a refill of the batteries (in fact i read that on a posting on the Gree...

As the more observant will have noticed there are a lot more links to blogs on the right hand side than there were a week ago, this is partly due to the inspiration of discovering blogs through the Greenbelt Tag and partly in response to some of the comments that have been posted here in the past few days. I would say, though, that I'm not just chucking on references to anyone, these blogs are worth reading, and i have been seriously impressed in the blogfest that has been my past few late evening's entertainment by the quality of thought and the fun that is part of the blogging community. I don't operate a strict editorial policy, I don't necessarily agree with what is written in all of them, but i do enjoy them, so try a few out. Some are deeper than others, but i leave you to find that out for yourself - after all it's not the destination it's the journey that's important (or some old cack like that) ;-)

It happens every year I think that i am just settling down to normal life (is there such a thing?) and the whole Greenbelt thing just will not lie down and play dead! I am not the type that lives from Greenbelt to Greenbelt (more like minute to minute really, i have a very narrow perspective....i call it focussed!) - but i cannot deny the impact that this four days has on my life throughout the year. It all comes back to this 'whole life philosophy' that permeates the festival. I am an arty-farty type so when i first encountered Greenbelt back in 1987 before going off to uni to study Drama and Theology (hence why i ended up as a minister - i was not qualified to do anything else) i was inspired by the vision of bringing faith to such an important area of my life. The influence of Gb on my theological development, the freedom of expression and thought, the sheer fun of the festival is beyond my abiltiy to describe. Likewise the refusal to accept the idea of 'being told w...