I did manage to get to a talk or two (thanks to brother stepping in with a spot of childcare when desperately needed ) but my best bits were all musical ones with the littl’un in tow, particularly anything involving singing; We did the Big Sing, the Wee Sing, the tail end of Beer&Hymns and the Tim Hughes worship (which the little fella really, really enjoyed).

I didn’t mind that we couldn’t get into the actual beer tent for the singing. It was just as much fun outside, being conducted by one of the crusader guys.

I’m sorry to say that the Sunday service was dull, too specifically political, hardly mentioned God let alone Jesus and the songs turned into a farce.

Most of the rest of the time was spent mooching around the site, chatting to folk, drinking tea and bobbing into gigs for 10 minute chunks.

My big find of the weekend was the Welcome Wagon, who as another friend has put it are my new favorite band. Would have liked to have seen Shlomo, but didn’t manage to get there.

Would also have liked to have gone to a Rob Bell talk, but I bought the book instead. In fact I am very pleased with my haul of books this year; currently reading “Heresies and How to Avoid Them” by Ben Quash and Michael Ward.

The bit that wasn’t so good for us was the disabled camping. We must have struck lucky last year, because then we were pitched on the narrow strip of grass direcly facing the grandstand. Though it’s quite close to the main festival areas, it was actually pretty quiet there and that worked for us brilliantly.

However, this year, all those pitches had been bagged by the time we arrived, so we found ourselves in the main disabled camping zone, which I am sure would have been really convenient for wheelchair users and people with mobility issues, but was a complete nightmare for us. It was cramped and noisy more or less round the clock and to make matters worse we found ourselves camped two feet away from a main thoroughfare to all the other camping areas, with hundreds of people tramping past more or less continually. and chatting. loudly.

This meant that my son spent a good hour or so very distressed late at night, finally dropped off to sleep around 12.30am and woke up again at about 7. That’s not enough kip for a 7 year old. And certainly not enough kip for me!

We stuck it out for two nights, but on the Sunday almost sick with exhaustion, I bailed and checked us into a hotel in Gloucester. I wouldn’t have been able to drive home safely on Monday otherwise.

Of course camping at a festival is always going to be a bit rough and ready, but it would have been nice to have been able to reserve a place in the same area that we had last year. There was a special zone for deaf greenbelters after all. Will need to think hard about arrangements for next year.

2. Fellowship with most of our church family

3. The teaching
Andrew Gardner from Fulwood Free Methodist preached over the course of the weekend on Genesis and Community. He also did Ephesians but I missed that as it was my turn to look after T. He was great. The invitation to think of Genesis 1 as God behaving a bit like Rolf Harris was truly unforgettable (in case you are wondering it is all about describing creation with broad brush strokes – the detail comes in Chapter 2)

4. The Yurt

5. The rain

As for the little fella, he loved it! Quite the little autistic party animal he was. He especially enjoyed any event with music.

As Greenbelt newbie, it took me a day or so to work out what was going on and when. But we still did loads. Beer’n Hymns was a particular highlight (two nights in a row!) As was a talk by John Swinton on the theology of disability. Also one by a bloke who walked the entire route of the M62 and wrote a book and a blog about it. And then there was the Taize worship. And the dinner I had from the Pie Minister stall (almost a religious experience in itself). Oh, and the Iona Big Sing. I could go on.

Camping with T was not too bad at all. The first night’s sleep was a bit rubbish; we went to bed at 1am and T woke us up before 4 and that was that. But Saturday and Sunday were a lot better.

And I spent a small fortune on books

Here’s a few pictures. There will be more on facebook.

So this weekend I spent some time doing a little homework, reading both the Gafcon Final Statement on Global Anglican Future. and ++Rowan’s response.

Now this is the hard bit. I have to say I do agree with the words of the GAFCON statement. But that’s not the same as saying I support the motives and objectives of those who wrote them. I’m not sure that homosexuality in the clergy is a communion-breaker for me. But then I’m not having to address the question in my parish.

To be honest, I’m just very sad that all this is happening. I have absolutely no clue in my head or heart about where God is in all this; to work for unity at all costs or to draw the line in the sand and not cross it.

I guess this is how children feel when they see their parents heading for divorce and are powerless to do anything about it

It’s been an interesting ride.

A couple of things happened early on which made it vey obvious that I couldn’t in all conscience step away from my online life completely. I’d always planned to keep track of emails and of course I have to use t’Interweb for work. But there has been some serious life and death stuff happening over the past six weeks to people I care about, and with whom I mostly interact online. So right from the start I’ve been bobbing in and out of a couple of important websites.

Jesus was never legalistic, so I guess I should try to not let that sort of thing bother me either.

Which meant I’m not wearing a hairshirt over buying vacuum cleaner bags online. Or that Amazon order.

What I wanted to achieve from the fast was to break my growing habit of eating up time aimlessly by surfing around websites when I know full well that there is nothing interesting to read and I’d be better off sleeping, praying, reading or speaking with a human being who is actually in front of me. And for the first four weeks, I really managed to keep my internet usage down to that minimal activity. I even spent some of the extra time doing all those excellent offline things.

I did watch more telly than usual, which wasn’t really part of the plan.

However, for the last two weeks of lent it all slid rather badly; Daily newspapers, the BBC, Arts and Letters Daily, Spiked! – all my favorite information sites proved too tempting. I did manage to keep well away from The Ship of Fools (in fact I hardly missed it at all), blogs and all the knitting sites.

Normal service is now resumed; except that I plan to keep one or two of the good habits that I tried to instill in myself.

Have I learnt anything? That in the virtual world, some parts of it are more virtual than others. That living on the internet is no different to concrete life in that it’ really is all about relationships (or the lack thereof).

His opening line was a cheery “I got a lunchtime detention in RE today, Mum. Do you want to hear how it happened?”

Me Uh-oh Did you not do your homework?

Firstborn No, nothing like that. We were discussing baptism, I asked a question and she gave me a detention for being blasphemous

Me So what was the question?

Firstborn Well I asked why people don’t wait till they are very old to get baptised, then they can be cleansed of all their sins and won’t have much time left to get into trouble again

Me Then what happened?

Firstborn She just gave me a stern look, said “I will not have blasphemy in my class” and told me to report for detention later.

So now lively kids get into trouble for asking intelligent questions (he swears blind he wasn’t cheeking her). He didn’t seem that bothered about it at all; a school boy acceptance of inevitable rough justice if you will; so, whatever. But GOOD GRIEF! Does the stupid woman not know deferring baptism was the norm in the early church till about AD400? The Emporer Constantine himself was baptised on his deathbed.

I offered to make him some “FREE the RE 1″ posters and report the case to Amnesty International. At which point he got cross with me for being silly.

Everyone is happy that school has started. T’s behaviour and general happiness levels have improved about 300%. And S seems to appreciate being in Year 9 (mainly because it means only one more year of compulsory French!) Me other half is just thrilled to get his own life back (weekdays 8.30 am – 3.30pm). And I’m totally immersed in the busiest period of the year at work. Wahaay!

That’s all OK, but what’s really rocking my boat at the moment is the fact that choir has started again. And what a programme we are working on! The big November concert will be Vivaldi’s Gloria, Handel’s Coronation Anthems and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria. It’s the society’s 80th anniversary gala concert and we were told this evening that we are going to be filmed for a programme on BBC4! In addition to that, we will be reprising our showtunes programme for the opening concert of the Preston Arts Festival and holding a Come and Sing workshop on the Vivaldi. Oh and there’s a carol concert in December.

Now what else is happening? I read 2 Timothy last night for the first time in ages and that blew my mind slightly. I think I need to get a decent commentary on the book.

Oh and Mr. Busyknitter and I will be celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary in 2 days time. Hopefully with a walk up Pendle Hill and a cheese butty at the top. But if it’s sheeting down with rain, we’ll probably get tanked up in a restaurant somewhere near home