The People Against Poverty and Apathy Festival attended by about 500 free spirits in a field north of Baltimore “is completely outside of what you might see in a typical Sunday morning service,” writes blogger Julia Duin.<\/p>\n
“In fact, most of the amiable 20- and 30-something people I encounter are involved in church lightly,” she writes. “But they\u2019re manic about community and connecting; these are folks who could post to Twitter and Facebook in their sleep. Many have driven, hitchhiked or taken the bus for hours to get here.”<\/p>\n
Admission was $20 for each seeker to spend a weekend in an Eden that embraced nonviolence,\u00a0ate organic, focused on social justice, shared housing, pooled resources and trashed the U.S. government as a Darth Vader-like \u201cEmpire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Billing itself as\u00a0\u201ca convergence of communities and movements,\u201d the event is run by young organizers mostly connected with Circle of Hope, a Brethren church in Philadelphia. According to Duin:<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re thinking this doesn\u2019t sound like your typical Christian gathering, you\u2019re right. Here, about 500 attendees, including myself and my 6-year-old daughter, will spend four days living in a communal paradise, listening to music, teaching one another crafts, and caring for the environment. Participants have brought food to share in the community kitchen \u2014 essentially a bunch of rigged-up camp stoves, coolers and tables under a tarp \u2014 and have built an open-air chapel from branches at the edge of the field, though not much seems to be happening there.<\/p>\n
Instead, we have signed up for \u201cskill shares,\u201d where volunteers teach subjects such as basic Italian, how to dye yarn naturally (with fruits, vegetables and plants) and \u201cintegrating Christian spirituality and Apache shamanism to create healing and light.\u201d<\/p>\n
And we have chosen from 31 \u201clearning workshops,\u201d with topics including \u201cSabbath economics,\u201d how the church should address domestic violence, and \u201cSolidarity and Syncretism,\u201d which asks: \u201cHow can the church in the \u2018first world\u2019 shed its fear of indigenous traditions and join in the sounds of liberation the elder cultures are singing without committing cultural theft or reinforcing false stereotypes?\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the pre-conference instructions, \u201cmusical instruments, frisbees, cooking stuff, art and circus stuff, bikes, games, love, joy, hope and beauty\u201d are permitted. Prohibited: \u201cdrugs, weapons, fireworks, ATVs, idols, alcohol, meanness.\u201d<\/p>\n