The Keswick Convention is the oldest of all the Bible weeks in the UK, having started on the lawn of the town's St John's Vicarage 141 years ago. A little more recently, Keswick Unconventional (KU) began – an arts programme that takes place in the church. Not that it bears much resemblance to what happened there all those years ago.
Describing itself as "an opportunity to come along and explore the Christian faith via the arts in the form of concerts, drama, story-telling, film and much more", KU sounds like a mini-Greenbelt. And I wasn't, despite having been in previous years, really prepared for the sheer excellence of what the KU organisers are doing.
The church is an old building but it has been transformed into a comfortable venue. Coloured lights twinkle around the pillars and every kind of tea known to man is available. You choose a mug from the wide range of colours and sizes, and then sit and talk to the other people in your pew. It feels like being in the audience for a favourite chat show, and the Night Shift sessions bring together the best of what is on offer, showcasing what is to come.
There is a commitment to quality and expertise that is breath-taking and very refreshing. It is good to be involved in the arts because you feel that is where God is leading you, but the unspoken message here is, if you are doing anything to the glory of God, do it as well as you possibly can, and don't do it publicly until you have mastered your craft. This is the opposite of Britain's Got Talent. It is glorifying God through the gifts He has bestowed. That commitment means the audience can relax and lose themselves in whatever is happening, knowing they will not need to applaud because they are being nice, but because they have genuinely been moved and affected by what is going on.
Those talking about their faith are some of the best people in their fields of expertise. So Murray Watts, who wrote the script for the amazing Miracle Make,r talks about the Bible and film; James Cary, the comedy writer who worked on the scripts for Miranda, as well as My Hero and My Family, speaks on humour in the Bible. A capella group Accord is spine-tinglingly good, singing both worship songs (but not as you will know them) and classical music. Stewart Henderson, the poet, is part of the mix, compering, performing, and providing his own insight.
How does it fit with the main Keswick Convention – which, for those who have not been, is mainly centred round Bible teaching in the big tent on the Convention site? KU is not "an alternative event for those who like that kind of thing". It is complementary, and only the 7.30pm meeting competes directly, in the same time slot, as the main evening meeting in the tent. What KU provides is a way of grounding what is taught in real lives, particularly the lives of artists, musicians, singers, actors and writers.
And we need them. Murray Watts, on the Monday evening, says: "Artists are precious gifts to the Body of Christ." And they also can get to places that others cannot. He talked of his responsibilities when he wrote the script for Miracle Maker in the following terms: "Would you like to tell millions of people around the world how you feel about Jesus?" Murray was approached to do that not because he was a theologian or a preacher, but because he knows how to take the Bible and to bring it alive.
