Saturday, September 01, 2007

Ikon: The God delusion

Part of the worship programme, but maybe its alternative label of "transformance art" is more helpful..Even before it began,it challenged...did I want to enter beneath the arch marked "Believer" or would it be safer to enroll as a doubter? why wasn't there a "questioning believer" route?what difference would it make anyway?

A hugely thought-provoking evening, which began with the story of the day God spoke and said "I do not exist" and went on to explore the question of faith, with word play -"Where does your faith lie? Where does your faith lie
?"- and striking visuals...around the central image of a towering woman (?Truth? reality?) whose garments (faith) were being unravelled gradually throughout the proceedings.



Ikon explored what happens when you dare to pull at one loose end ...how once you begin to take something apart, it may just not prove possible to recreate it in its original form.

We were invited to edit the creed (visit the Ikon wiki for the final version) as it was projected onto screens around the room...shown what a difference punctuation makes
"...Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried..."
disturbed and challenged again and again.

" We have reified our creeds:
I am right They are wrong Our truths are binding and We will not let them go"

I loved the metaphor of reverse origami...when you unfold your paper bird, painstakingly, hoping to learn how to make it for yourself, all too often your end product is a creased sheet of paper which offers no clue as to how the bird could ever be recreated.

Before we left we were given a strand of wool...symbolic of the unravelling garment of faith, but with potential to be wound or knitted into something new.
I tied mine around my ankle and it's still here a week on...faith isn't watertight, finished, rigid...it changes as we change, mirrors our relationship with a God who is alive, mobile, infinitely greater than any construct w
e may devise to contain God.

4 comments:

St. Casserole said...

Wow! I'd love to hear IKON, too. Thanks for this post and letting me feel as if I've Greenbelted, just a bit!

Cal said...

What does it mean that my wool fell off before the weekend was even over!

The Harbour of Ourselves said...

was good to finally meet you (if only briefly) - was a mad festival (not even sure it happened - feels a little like I dreamed it!)

love your reflections....

Luxembourg said...

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to start reading about religion and/or atheism. It was the first book I read on the topic, and I was motivated to read more. Religion is an important topic whether you believe in god or not, because there are many people in the world who do believe and their actions affect everyone.