Greenbelt Festival 2005 to Communicate Christian Message beyond the Church

The famous annual Christian festival in Britain Greenbelt Festival 2005 is to be held on 26–29 August, at Cheltenham Racecourse. Following the growth of the Festival over the past 32 years, the organiser is expecting 20,000 people on site this year. Gathered under the theme "Tree of Life", participants are to be stimulated to think about the origin of the festival and how it can be grown into life beyond those four days in August.

Greenbelt is an independent Christian charity working to express love, creativity and justice in the arts and contemporary culture in the light of the Christian gospel.

According to an interview with the Greenbelt Festival Director Beki Bateson by the Guardian’s Today programme, the concept of the Greenbelt is all about breaking through the confined form of Christianity based in a particular institution or a church.

He explained, "An institution must have rules; it must promote an orthodoxy and exclude people who want to think or behave differently. The problem is that Christianity is about a vision of total peace, of universal brother- and sisterhood."

"Our Christian culture needs to cultivate an anarchic lightness, a lust for freedom, a celebratory spirit. It needs to learn from the boom in festival culture," he continued.

The Greenbelt festival will offer Christians an opportunity to celebrate their faith and to capture the notice of the wider culture, with an aim to inspire many countless people to live different lives through the gospel message.

In collaboration with the development agency Christian Aid, Greenbelt will be able to express its concerns over politics and social injustice through campaigning. For 2005, the spotlight is the Make Poverty History campaign.

Other well-established mission organisations, such as the Church Mission Society (CMS), Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), the United Society for the Propagation of Gospel (USPG), YMCA, and among others, have also joined hands to organise the event.

The worship will range from the alternative to the contemplative, including Asian fusion’s Pal Singh, Canada’s Aradhna, and Matt Redman, Johnny Parks and Tim Hughes. Confirmed speakers include theologian Richard Giles, Fr. Richard Rohr and Bishop James Jones.

For bookings to the Greenbelt Festival, please visit the website www.greenbelt.org.uk.