In pondering this week about the luminarium I came upon this piece in Emerging Church. (go to http://www.emergingchurch.info/stories/vaux/index.htm )
This seems to share something of my wrestlings for now.
"Vaux is an experiment in 'Total Worship'. I winced when we used the term 'Worship Architects', yet, I've not found a better description. What happens if you get a group of artists and organise their talent towards creating sacred spaces. Spaces that are conducive to experiencing 'Numinous'- What the architect Tado Ando describes as places 'to reclaim yourself'. Or, what composer John Tavener might describe as, a place to experience the 'Divine voice'. When viewed like this, Gesamtkunstwerk becomes less totalitarian and more akin to Shaker or Zen models of production. With the former, everything has spiritual content, a kind of 'explosive design' that permeates your whole lifestyle."
On Highgate it isn't just about spaces of/for worship, but also gathering/engagement throughout our community.
In ther same paragraph on Vaux we read,
"The latter with the Tea Room, an 'implosive design' where every object within the space undergoes a rigorous selection process and through the ceremony boundaries between art and life are abolished. Vaux was intended to work within similar traditions, creating immersive environments, where every detail would be considered. Spaces built from surface, idea, sound, word, image and woven together to create a seamless whole- A place where a flyer is no different from a Liturgy, or 35mm Slide from a prayer. All are important, all constitute the whole act of worship. "
I like the expression of 'creating immersive environments' as I think we cannot section off life from faith as much as tradition has tended to do. Maybe I need to scope the places that already exist that way around us here as much as looking to open up such space creatively in the resources we already have.
Pondering on...
by the way it was a beautiful day here today and the sun shone and there was that big blue sky.... mmmmmmm! those open spaces!
