Pentecost @ the Edinburgh Festival / Fringe

It is a a regular 'Pentecost' here at the Edinburgh festival. The High Street is a sea of street performers, bemused tourists and folk in every manner of dress distributing glossy fliers advertising shows to satisfy the theatrical taste of one and all. Sixteen thousand acts will be in town over the next three weeks all competing for the attention of an audience speaking in diverse tongues, awash with spare cash and eager to be entertained. Actors laden with fliers hustle in the streets trying to get passers bye to go to see their show. Every man and his dog with any kind of act is competing in the fragile hope that not only will people come to their show but perhaps this year might be their 'break out year' that this year they will become an 'established act' one that can guarantee a committed crowd of enamoured fans.

The site, the sounds and the experience is a living illustration of where the Church now finds herself in this pre-Constantine, Post- Christian Europe. We find ourselves once again like the early Christians competing in the 'market place' for people's attention in the hope that not only will they come to our 'show' but that they will stay and that this year will be 'our break out year'. A year when we will become an established act with a guaranteed crowd. Like Peter and the guys on that fateful day two thousand years ago we hope that God will show up and do something to help us create a 'context for the conversation', a this is that moment that will give us a 'break out year'.

Whereas in the past we may have owned the theatre now we are just one of the many acts competing for people's attention and we had better be good at what we do and deliver on what we are offering because the competition is fierce in 'life's market place'.