Heading to England to Chase a Wild Goose
I am sitting in the Nashville Airport en route to Chicago to catch a connection to London. My friends Joy Carroll Wallis and Karla Yaconelli are going to pick me up at Heathrow, and then we are heading to the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham.
I want to strongly encourage you to check out the Greenbelt website to learn what this event that has drawn 22,000 people from all over the UK since the early 1970′s is all about.
Here’s why.
Plans to put on a Greenbelt-like gathering in the US in June of 2011 are moving forward at breakneck speed.
A year and half ago a group of people who had been touched through their speaking at, performing music at, or just attending the Greenbelt Festival over the years, got together and said, “Isn’t this “the moment” for a Greenbelt-like festival to happen in America? Given the contentious and polarized climate we live in, isn’t it more important than ever for us to have a similar gathering on our own soil?” (I’ll write more on this later).
Well, the answer was an enthusiastic, “We don’t have the slightest idea what we’re doing, but we’re in.”
Since then a Founding Board has been formed (yes, even though I have never been to Greenbelt I was roped into being on it), we’ve raised some money, hired an Executive Director, secured a site for our first festival (can’t tell you yet) and we’ve begun securing speakers, musicians, and volunteers. Our first festival will be in June of 2011 and it will be called, The Wild Goose Festival.
The name for the festival was inspired by the ancient Celtic Christians who chose the wild goose as a symbol for the unpredictable, and untameable person of the Holy Spirit. We hope its a reminder that the Holy Spirit is not only a comforter, but at times, a squawking, disequilibrating reality that calls us to a life we would never choose for ourselves apart from his call.
The other members of the founding board have told me that Greenbelt is impossible to describe until you’ve experienced it for yourself, and even then its frustratingly difficult to put into words, so I will do my best when I get back to communicate what it was like.
In the meantime, check out the Greenbelt site and let me know what you think. If you have been to Greenbelt before, tell us about your experience. Tell us your thoughts about whether or not you think it’s time for a similar gathering to happen in the US.
Time to go. Cheers!
5 Responses to “Heading to England to Chase a Wild Goose”
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Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me
“When I first discovered the grainy picture in my mother’s desk—me as a towheaded two year old sitting in what I remember was a salmon-orange-stained lifeboat—I was overwhelmed by the feeling that the boy in the boat was not waving and laughing at the
Run…do not walk…
When the Wild Goose beckons make haste!
Ian. We love Greenbelt. It’s a fantastic festival with a wonderful alternative vibe. There has always been an element of mistrust towards it from the evangelicals because they would do things that broke the evangelical rules and have speakers, artists and bands there who were sometimes difficult to put in the Christian box.
Best Greenbelt memory, apart from the time I played there with my band, was driving three hours across the country in my old Triumph after an afternoon wedding and arriving in the nick of time to see Bruce Cockburn play a blinding acoustic set. Magical.
Hi Mark! Hope to see you in Nashville this year!
Wish I were there with you. I’m not familiar with it so I can’t wait to hear all about it—the “women’s version” i.e. all the details—when you get back.
Enjoy your entire trip, with your heart wide open!
You’d better set aside some time over coffee/beer/wine/whisky. I’ve got so much to talk to you about