It wasn’t the Tantric dancing or psychic readings but the response of the punters that made the biggest impact on Patrick Gavigan at this year’s Mind, Body, Spirit Festival. Approaching the Royal Horticultural Halls in Greycoat Street, London, for the Mind, Body, Spirit Festival 2008, I was a tad nervous about what I’d encounter.
As I passed the turnstile operator charging visitors £8 to enter, the contrast between the Art Deco design and high, vaulted ceiling of the Lawrence Hall, completed in 1928, and its role as host to 20,000 New Agers made an immediate impression.
Dancing to greet the morning(Photo: © Patrick Gavigan/CMS)The first thing I saw was a slim woman, over six feet tall, with jet-black hair, dancing silently and unselfconsciously, making snaking arm movements, in the aisle.
Greeting her, I thought, “Dancing to salute the morning --- not the working day as you know it, Patrick.”
Our stand, No. 43, was named Dekhomai, a Greek word that means ‘the welcoming place’. There, for the first time, I met Dean and Rachel, with whom I’d share a four-hour shift. The following day, Jenny and Paul would be my co-workers.
Dekhomai aimed to offer a place of hospitality, conversation, relaxation, respite and renewal to visitors, a space where we could share something of the spirituality of the Christian tradition, including prayers for blessing, healing and reflection.
Another resource we had for communicating God’s loving purposes was the Jesus Deck, a pack of cards resembling Tarot cards but very different in intent. The four suits correspond to the four gospels. Each card contains a spiritual theme, scripture and illustration. Visitors would choose a card and be helped to determine how it might apply to their life.
A prayer cord(Photo: © Jonny Baker/CMS)We also had prayer cords, on which a team member would help a visitor to string five beads of different colours — visual reminders to pray for thanks, mercy, peace, healing and justice.
We offered hand or foot massage with oils too. Everything was free of charge.
That, together with the warmth of the team’s welcome, proved to be vital in terms of how our offer was received.
In an exhibition space in which a meditation poster was being sold for £15, a psychic reading would set you back £25 and a half-hour consultation on the use of butterfly and sea essences cost £30, the word ‘free’ was met with uncertainty, wariness, even disbelief, and then acceptance, relief and gratitude.
Commercial operations with a feel-good 'vibe'(Photo: © Patrick Gavigan/CMS)Amid commercial operations with a feel-good ‘vibe’, to offer physical and spiritual ways to well-being without putting a price on them proved invaluable.
When two middle-aged sisters learnt by chance, thanks to my slippery hands spilling several tablespoons’ worth of liquid from a bottle, that the massage oils had cost £120 in total, their appreciation deepened even more.
Brenda, a woman in her late 60s, from Kent, who wanted only one bead on her cord — a purple one for justice — said to Rachel and me after her and her friend Janice’s foot massages, “You know what you two remind me of: Jesus, washing the feet of his disciples.”
Others just commented, “That was heaven” or “I’m in bliss. I could just drift away now” or (to Rachel) “You’re gifted. I feel I've been blessed by that!”
Foot massage(Photo: © Jonny Baker/CMS)The intimacy of massage, open and honest conversation, and sharing led quite naturally to the offer of prayer.
Not a single visitor turned down intercession during those Thursday and Friday mornings.
The team was very aware of, and grateful for, the cradle of protective prayer in which its work was held before and during the event. God honoured every exchange with his spirit of mutuality – and, often, fun.
Dragonfly Moon, playing their ‘inspirational’ music on the main stage, sang, “Now is the time for your soul to fly; now is the time for your heart to overcome your mind,” but I was more conscious of the integration of heart, mind and soul on offer at Dekhomai.
Dragonfly Moon
(Photo: © Patrick Gavigan/CMS)As Thomas Merton put it, “My only task is to be what I am, a man seeking God…fully aware that others too are seeking the truth in their own way.”
So what were the people we met at the festival looking for? Although they take esoteric byways in pursuit of it, again and again, they articulated in so many ways a desire and hunger for something that gave their lives added value, meaning and mystery – "heaven in ordinary".
By pointing them towards Jesus, we trust the passkey to that is within their grasp.