'Bizarrely, I was searched for weapons.'

Lev Eakins experiences one of the alternative worship groups at Greenbelt

We walked in and a guy dressed as a London Underground ticket inspector immediately accosted me. I showed him my wristband and he asked where I started my journey.

“My tent.” I said, somewhat confused.

“Would you mind moving over her sir. Put your hands up against the wall, that’s it, just going to pat you down sir.”

Bizarrely, I was searched for weapons.

“Thank you sir, sorry about that, but we do have to check everyone coming in from the east end.”

The whole ambience of the venue was London; the loud pre-recorded hustle and bustle booming through the speakers, several people busily pacing around as commuters, product marketers handing out free chocolate samples, and an urban city-scape projected onto the large screens around the walls.

Pace

Hailing from Manchester, I wasn’t used to sheer pace of this urban experience, but I was delighted with the effort, authenticity and strangeness of this welcome.

It really did feel as if I had turned in the street and accidentally bumped into a London shaped lamppost.

We settled down, the bustle froze and we listened to a couple of readings about the experience of living in an urban environment, hearing the song of a commuter city, the sights and sounds of a busy life in a metropolis.

It was fascinating to hear the first person perspective of a woman who felt alienated from humanity, lost in a vivid sea of uncommunicative strangers.

We heard how the simplest form of interaction with those around her was outlawed by the unspoken rule of a city too busy, and emotionally lamed, to talk to strangers.

In response to this we were asked to write, anonymously on a card, a secret of our hearts, something we wouldn’t be able to share or express to the hundreds or thousands of people we would pass everyday in a city.

Containers

We did so and deposited our cards in containers passed round.

An amusing and engaging video clip of a life in a “surveillance society” was played on the screens around the wall, and we heard a final reading, about the Urban Wilderness, the theme of the service.

The message boiled down to a sense of urban alienation created out of fear and defensiveness, that we could meet God in the faces and lives of the random people we pass every day.

To finish off the service we trotted through an inspirational ‘liturgy for the city’. A couple of lines caught my eye:

“Bring me the homeless, the hungry, the ones who woke up in the gutter. Sit me next to the mumblers, the shufflers, the lonely, the lost and the lame.”

When we exited we were asked to take one of the cards containing a “secret of our hearts” to pray over in our own time.

Church on the Corner has produced a creative and engaging service that genuinely challenges the urban Christian to adopt a fresh approach to city life.

Courage

Instead of walking head down, earplugs in, blinding and deafening ourselves to those on the streets of random chaos; we are urged to ask God for the courage to loosen our fears, be receptive and open to those whose path we may cross, and find God amongst the hustle and bustle of our busy urban lives.

Veteran groups would be proud of a service of such quality, so it is even more impressive that this is the first service CotC has produced for Greenbelt.

Definitely one to watch in future years.

• http://churchonthecorner.org.uk/

• Back to Greenbelt index