Latest Festival Flyer update from Greenbelt
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“Greenbelt Made Me Gay.”
John Bell has been coming to the festival since time began. Then, in 2017, he came out in a talk entitled “Rampant Heterosexualism” (https://www.greenbelt.org.uk/talks/rampant-heterosexualism) given on our Glade mainstage.
So, in some senses, John’s typically playful headline is dead right. It was in returning to the welcome of Greenbelt over many, many years that he journeyed to the point of coming out publicly.
The deeper truth is that John knew himself to be gay a good decade before ever he arrived at Greenbelt. But he felt comfortable enough in the space we make together to let the world know too.
John Bell is a much-loved Greenbelt speaker, itinerant member of the Iona Community, founding member of The Wild Goose Resource Group, liturgist, hymn-writer, worship leader and broadcaster.
#GreenbeltFestival #Artistry #Activism #Belief
📷 John Bell at Greenbelt Festival, 1993 & 1997
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8 Responses
GBelt is, always has been, a very special place. In the Celtic tradition: a thin place.
One of the best Christians ever too.
I’m fairly sure this is one of the Greenbelt moments when I wished I was organised enough to carry a handkerchief.
Audrey Janyce Naylor
We heard him speak at Greenbelt when he explained how the Bible had been wrongly interpreted and does not , in fact, condemn homosexuality. It was very moving and totally convincing.
Someone from Swindon, that I used to know, told me a ‘rumour’ about John Bell’s sexuality way back at Cheltenham in around 2003. Of course, they told me in a disapproving way. So when John finally confirmed it in 2017, I just wondered what had taken him so long.
I was there, it was truly brilliant.
Absolute top GB moment. A wonderful man and a huge privilege to be present when he spoke about this for the first time.