Hip hop artists don the stage in London's famous Leicester Square for Pentecost Festival, Saturday 10 May 2008.
(Christian Today)
Thousands of Christians gathered at venues across central London this weekend as part of Pentecost Festival, a bold and colourful new venture by Share Jesus International to take the church well and truly beyond its four walls.
Christian hip hop artists including Bibles Bibles and MC Tempo blasted the good news of Jesus Christ to the four corners of Leicester Square, whilst former bouncers, debt collectors and drug abusers shared powerful testimonies of their transformation to men of peace and love after hearing the Gospel.
In total, more than 50 events will have taken place by the end of Sunday, ranging from theatre, to social action, to worship, teaching, art, drama and more.
On Regents Canal, visitors were welcomed aboard a boat to discuss faith and sample some Christian folk music, whilst Camden was given a musical treat by gospel, soul, hip hop and neo-poetry acts on the Big Blue Box Music Stage. Camden was also host to an exploration of Asian Christianity taking a closer look at the future of the faith in Pakistan and India, whilst near Bond Street, religious homeless people shared their experiences of adhering to a faith whilst living on the streets.
The big crowd pullers included a lecture from Christian scientist and theologian Alistair McGrath, author of The Dawkins Delusion, and an evening with Tony Campolo in which he made a passionate plea to Christians to sponsor a child through the charity Compassion.
In front of a packed auditorium at City University on Saturday night, McGrath dispelled some of the core claims of scientist and atheist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, including his insistence that faith and science are incompatible, that religion leads to violence and that having religious beliefs is psychologically damaging – or, as he put it, a “virus of the mind”.
“Are all beliefs viruses of the mind or just the ones he doesn’t like?” McGrath asked.
He challenged Dawkins’ assertion that religion leads to violence, saying that it was vital with any belief system, including atheism, to distinguish between mainline believers and minority fanatics.
