Manchester's Autumn Festivals - GrimmFest

This is coming up pretty soon, so you need to be quick to get to it. However, continuing the festival roundup is Grimm Up North's GrimmFest. This is all about horror and sci-fi movies, shorts, Q&A, etc.

Classics are kicking off the season with A Nightmare on Elm Street (30th Sept), including the chance to win a signed box set. There's an amazing double-bill planned midway through (3rd Oct) - Goblin playing along to Suspiria and Dario Argento's cut of George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead (which includes more Goblin music!). Goblin will be signing in between those films.

It wouldn't be a horror festival without some silly-titled films, so laugh along with Zombeavers (4 Oct) where you'll all be dammed! and Wolfcop (5 Oct), described as Dirty Harry...only hairier.

They've saved some of the best until last (5 Oct), with new release Life After Beth and personal recommendation Dead Snow 2 - I've seen the first film and not a lot beats nazi zombies...except bigger, gorier and funnier nazi zombies!

Let us know in the comments what films you make it along to and what you thought.

Manchester's Autumn Festivals - Science

Continuing last week's theme, here's a few things to highlight from the Manchester Science Festival this year.

First in the lineup is 'The Serpent's Promise: the Bible retold as science' (Oct 23, Blackwell's Bookshop), in which geneticist Steve Jones discusses his book (a re-write of the bible in the light of science) and highlights things the bible got right and the things it didn't.

'The Archaeology of a Revolution' (Oct 24, meet outside the Angel Health Centre) takes you on a guided tour of Manchester's industrial heritage along Chapel Street, which is also where you'll find Sacred Trinity, the home of SUB and ARA.

On the same afternoon, Claire McDermott and I will be part of the Manchester Gothic Festival cross-over event, 'What is this thing called Steampunk?' (Oct 24, MOSI). Join us in the Power Hall for a panel discussion on all sorts of elements of Steampunk. Claire and I will be presenting God in the Steam, a look into the possibilities of Steampunk to enhance spiritual life.

Every good goth loves bats, right? The 'Urban Naturalist: Bats' event (Oct 25, Manchester Museum) will help you gen up on this flying mammal and guide you through the 18 species of UK bat and many more interesting things.

For the artistically inclined, there's an interesting 'Dress of Glass and Flame' (27 Oct, Manchester Art Gallery) on display, which as the name suggests is an artwork of alchemical wonder that presents a glass dress holding a living flame.

For those interested by the subject matter of the SUB service on the afterlife, 'Ancient Egyptian Mummies and Modern Science' (Oct 30, John Rylands Library) might provide some interest as Professor Rosalie David talks about her life and work as an Egyptologist.

Finally, for those who like a bit of sci-fi, MOSI will host a few double-bills presented by Film Hub North West Central and Grimm Up North as part of the BFI 'Days of Fear and Wonder' season:
Brazil & 12 Monkeys (Oct 29)
Total Recall & Starship Troopers (Oct 30)
Alien & Prometheus (Oct 31)

Let us know in the comments what you're looking forward to and give us an update on any you manage to make it to.

Manchester's Autumn Festivals - Literature

Manchester is a wonderful city. There's usually a lot of things going on in and around it. As autumn starts to reveal her colours and its populous has returned from holidays and is settling back into working/learning routines, the city hosts a few big festivals to keep us entertained.

Manchester Literature Festival (6 Oct - 13 Nov) kicks off with Danish Crime and an event with Arne Dahl (Oct 6) followed by a couple of talks about graphic novels (Oct 7). On Oct 8, Manchester Salon Presents 'North & South' at Elizabeth Gaskell's House (local Industrial Revolution era ghost story writer)! Oct 9th brings a personal recommendation of some local writers I know - David Gaffney being joined by Anneliese Mackintosh and Socrates Adams. Oct 10 has a talk on Underground Crime. Oct 11 showcases some more friends - In the Dark (Nija Dalal-Small and others trying to change how we think about radio) and Bad Language (currently hosted by fellow SUB member Fat Roland). A bit more insight comes from Gaskell's Manchester Walking Tour on Oct 15 and the festival just keeps going.

This is just a few of the darker/gothic items from the listing to draw your attention - I encourage you to have a look through and see what you can catch. Let us know in the comments what you see and what you thought of it :)

Delving into the past

Just a short blog entry this week to say that I've now linked to the write up of the Blood service from within the Past Events page. I'll keep adding write ups over the next few weeks and months, as time allows. Check on twitter for future updates on that.

Also, I'm approaching other bloggers for content, so look out for some new guests blogs coming up soon :)

What do we do in gatherings?

At this year's Greenbelt, we were asked for a copy of the service so that people who experienced it on site could take it home to explore further with their home churches and/or to think about in more detail personally. We're really happy to share what we come up with and are encouraged that you want to spend time on that journey with us.

I've pondered the best way to do this and will provide links on the 'Past Events' page of the blog. Each link with take you to a document that gives details and/or script of what that topic covered. Let me know if there's anything else you would like.

We've been plotting a new gathering for quite some time now, but summer preparations, vacations and house moves delayed us a little. We're just trying to sort out a (really fantastic) location to hold this next gathering, themed on pilgrimage. More details when we know them, but we'd love to see you. If you're coming from outside of Manchester, let us know and we can assist you and try to make your journey smoother :)

The Greenbelt Experience

Science and Faith argue about certainty and uncertainty

Thank you to everyone who came and supported us at Greenbelt this year. We had a wonderful weekend and the weather held up to allow us to conduct 6 services over 2 days without being rained on!

Just before the festival started, Boughton House informed Greenbelt that the trees in part of the site had just been discovered to be diseased and that it was no longer safe to use that section. This caused quite a bit of pain for the organisers, who did a great job of re-homing everyone. This affected us too, so on Friday we were scouting for a new path to walk our service along.

We started by meeting just outside the Kindred Cafe, where Treygard offered waiting walkers a snifter of peppermint tea and some lovely biscuits (thank you Effie). After an introduction, The Guide took everyone over a small rise to a hidden dell and the first 'station', Brokenness. Then on over a bridge to a pair of trees playing home to Science and Faith (pictured arguing above). Just a little further up the path and Apollyon walked out to greet and bring doom, before the group were led back down to the bridge for some parting words.

At the start of the journey we had given everyone bags (with a SUB logo on, naturally) to carry their burdens in. We had rainbow pebbles of many sizes, to represent burdens, and asked people to choose some to accompany their walk. At each station, we presented a new challenge and an opportunity to pick up new burdens, put down burdens now relieved or help other by carrying burdens for them. The service ending with all the burdens being left behind and the participants travelling lighter into the remainder of their festival experience.

We had 70-80 people share the service with us, which was great. Some puzzled faces, some unsure of whether it was supposed to be funny or serious (a bit of both actually, so that's probably a good response!) and most took something positive away from it.

Thank you to those who requested a copy of the service, to either re-enact back at their homes with friends and fellow church-goers or just to study further. We will add the script to the website shortly.

We hope you have a wonderful year and here's hoping we get to come back to Greenbelt next year to bring you another unique worship service (or something else...). In the meantime, we provide weekly content on this blog and will be holding gatherings in the Manchester area that will be announced on this blog and on twitter @sub_kulture.

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Greenbelt is coming

The Quest

SUB have been privileged to host worship services at the past few Greenbelt festivals and this year is no different in that respect. However, it is different in almost every other respect. Moving from Cheltenham Racecourse to Boughton House, near Kettering, has changed things somewhat.

As such, we will be holding a shorter service than usual (30 minutes rather than 1 hour) and repeating it several times rather than running it once. This will allow us to keep the service intimate, with a maximum capacity of 20, while still allowing many people to join us over the course of the weekend. It even allows for some to experience the service more than once if they wish.

Another change for us is to run the service in the great outdoors rather than using an indoor venue. So no big sound and visuals like usual and this time we will take the group on a (short) walk through the service. It will be really interesting to try out - bring your umbrella in case it rains!

So we look forward very much to meeting those of you we already know as well as making new friends. We continue to be experimental in the kind of service we offer the festival goers at Greenbelt and are excited to experience a service in the heart of nature.

The service will start at the Kindred Cafe
(just near the camping ground, the Roots stage and Star Lake)

it runs on
Saturday August 23 at 7pm, 7.30pm and 8pm

and also on
Sunday August 24 at 7pm, 7.30pm and 8pm