| AN Anglican and a Roman Catholic bishop are to attend the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, which begins next week. The Bishop of Clifton, the Rt Revd Declan Lang, and the Bishop of Bath & Wells, the Rt Revd Peter Price, will be at the festival on Sunday 24 June.
About 177,000 people are expected. The gates open next Wednesday, and the festival starts on Friday.
During the week, Celtic eucharists of earth, fire, air, and water will be celebrated in the “Healing Fields” zone. The eucharists — developed by the Revd Adrian Prior-Sankey, a Baptist minister, and the Revd Mark Bond, an Anglican priest — were part of an effort by Christians to be present among the hundreds of faiths, cults, and beliefs that would be represented on the multi-acre site, Mr Prior-Sankey said last week.
“The field is divided up into earth, fire, air, and water circles, and we are in the air circle,” he said. His team leads worship in the hazel-framed, tarpaulin-covered “Coracle”, where they offer prayers for healing. They send representatives to the daily forum for debate between different faiths.
“It’s like first-century Corinth, and we are like Paul, engaging with the thinking of the day,” said Mr Prior-Sankey, who works with the Salvation Army.
Church volunteers will also offer a “welfare presence” at the festival. Seventy volunteers were in training last weekend, to ensure that the Somerset Churches Together’s “church”, in a field across the valley from the Coracle, was ready to cope with the expected influx. Advice on conflict management is to be given to the volunteers.
The Sanctuary Marquee would provide a place of listening, water for the thirsty, a floor for the weary and the lost, and a place of worship, said Doug Lowe, a volunteer.
After 8 p.m. each evening, the Sanctuary Marquee would be converted into a sleeping area, he said. “Some come to the marquee because they have fallen out with their friends, or they can’t find their tent, or they are completely out of it. They pitch their new Millets tent in the afternoon, and when they return at 11 or 12 at night they can’t find it because the area around is now full up with similar tents,” Mr Lowe said.
In 2005, 140 people stayed in the tent because of the rain.
The volunteers do three six-hour shifts. Their tickets, and the marquee, were provided by Michael Eavis, who owns the farm where the festival has been held since 1970. He also built the stone circle that is a feature of the site.
Among other Christian groups expected on site are Elemental, a café-style worship and art group based in a large marquee; the Iona Community; and the Jesus Fellowship from Bugbrooke, Oxfordshire. There are other Christian groups in the festival’s Tipi field.
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