What I would like to discuss is how to make Renewal Arts Universal, without limitations of believes, race or cultural differences.
In the Renewal Arts meetings I have been at Caux I realized that most of the people there were westerns Christians and talking of Jesus, the Holly Spirit and Gods will. People who don’t believe in the Holly Spirit or in Jesus are also part of R A.  I personally don’t believe in religion, the word religion comes from the word “religare” that means to depend of something. As I don’t believe in a God somewhere else who I am dependant of but I do believe in the Spirituality of the Universe I might be nearer the Buddhist philosophy than any religion that places a God outside themselves and becomes dependant of it. I know that for many people religion and spirituality is the same thing but there is a difference between religion and spirituality.
Renewal Arts is about Art and Spirit, is it possible to keep religion out of it and make it more Universal? When we talk about religion we refer to our personal believes. Can we find a language that speaks to all people with different believes and different cultural backgrounds?

Another point is about using Art as a tool for Spiritual transformation. But transformation of what? And into what? As I said before, for many people spirituality is the same as religion. Each one of us thinks that our own believes are the right ones and the others are wrong even if we say that we accept others faiths. A Christian believes that his or hers religion is true and Hinduism is wrong otherwise they would convert to Hinduism. I know that this is a very old discussion but, is it there something we all have in common? Something we can all agree into? Some will say that the 4 absolutes are the common denominator but even those are subject to interpretation.  So, what kind of transformation can we all agree upon? 

Augusto Cabrera

Augusto,

Thank you for asking these questions. I think they are desperately important, and I believe that those who have deeply-held religious beliefs—and those who have none—can find a home in ‘Renewal Arts’.

I am sorry that we Christians seem to reduce the universal impact of the arts by using Christian terminology. Although these are the words we know best, we ought to show greater care and thoughtfulness when we are outside a purely Christian environment. I don’t believe that any of us is trying to proselytise those of other faiths (or no faith), even if we sometimes sound as if we are; nor are we wanting to limit our understanding of the arts solely to a Christian environment. Except when a writer or composer makes claim that their work was divinely inspired by the Christian belief in a Divine Creator, then we all of us are surely better of allowing the artist may have felt no direct inspiration from an outside force. The artist expected his/her work to be received as their expression of love, their concept of beauty and the vision of their mind’s-eye. And we achieve nothing by trying to superimpose the gloss of any religion on to their wonderful creations.

When you ask—

Can we find a language that speaks to all people with different beliefs and different cultural backgrounds?

I am inclined to answer that art itself is that language. If art draws the religious person into a deeper experience of faith, so be it. If art gives hope, joy and inspiration to the non-believer, so be it. Art that is true art, cannot tolerate propaganda. It is a language all its own, that invites a universal response. I emphatically do not believe that spirituality and religion are the same thing. What is spiritual is within each and everyone of us. It is the expression of the unknown or the unspeakable, and implies the unanswered search for truth. Religion is quite different—and I think you have described what it is perfectly well, Augusto.

I frankly don’t see why there should be any problem over the word ‘transformation’. In the first place, ‘transformation’ is a very close relative of ‘renewal’—which is the banner under which we all gather! There is something called ‘The Prayer of S. Francis’ (which it is not!) that puts your questions

But transformation of what? And into what?

into perspective. The supplicant asks God to :

Make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

This is the best definition of ‘transformation’ I can come up with; and, except for the very last line, I do believe that this prayer expresses a universal hope for the believer and non-believer alike. If art attains to anything, it surely attains to be ‘the instrument of peace’ whereby we hope to build a better world.

Finally you ask:

Is there something we all have in common?

I think the answer may be in St. Francis’ Prayer. All artists long to replace ‘hatred’ with ‘love, to replace ‘injury’ with ‘’pardon’, to replace ‘doubt’ with ‘faith’ (albeit in ourselves), to replace ‘despair’ with ‘hope’, to replace ‘darkness’ with ‘light’ and to replace ‘sadness’ with ‘joy’.

Can we all agree on these things and try to bring about ‘renewal’ by playing our part in trasforming the world along these lines?

JOHN BURROWS
http://www.johnburrows.net

Thank you John for your answer. I totally agree with it, the St. Francis prayer resumes what we try to achive. But achiving that is a personal process. What we can do as RA is start this process in other people and in ourselves using Art as a way of making people and ourselves aware of the possibility of shifting our way of seeing life and each other. That, I think is the transformation and renewal we are looking for: to change our perspective of interacting with the world around us. Many times we get drowned in our personal problems and our negative feelings towars the world and others and we have dificulties getting out from our little world of greed, suffering, feeling sorry for ourselves and blaming others for this situation, but if we look at it in a bigger perspective we may find that it is just an ilusion and in a 100 years, or from an Universal perspective, all this problems are nothing. These personal feelings are the ones that block our vision of the big picture where we can find that Love is what holds everything together, that we all are interrelated and that everything is just one with the Spirit. I hope that more people participate in this forum and give their thoughts about this subject.

Sadly, Augusto, we seem to be talking to each other - with no input from anyone else.  I say “sadly” because today I received an e-mail of extraordinary detail and complexity on the subject of—you’ve guessed it—how Renewal Arts should be run.  I sometimes wonder if this is the only subject that gets a Renewal Arts’ conversation going.  Good structure is important, but is this all we want to talk about?

You say that

if Renewal Arts is going to get anywhere at all, it needs to set priorities.

I agree! 

You ask

What can we do as RA to start this process .... as a way of making people and ourselves aware of the possibility of shifting our way of seeing life and each other?

I’m not at all sure we’re doing much to start this process. Self-examination may not be the best use of our time. For me, you hit the nail on the head when you point out that

...in a bigger perspective we may find that it is just an illusion and in a 100 years ... all these problems are nothing. These personal feelings are the ones that block our vision of the big picture where we can find that Love is what holds everything together, that we all are interrelated and that everything is just one with the Spirit.

I don’t know if you agree, but I really believe that the “big picture” vision comes first.  A plan of action comes second.  And the means to carry out that plan of action comes third.  I feel I’m still waiting for the plan of action.

Where is everyone?  Let’s get talking....

John Burrows - 10 February 2009 06:08 PM

I don’t know if you agree, but I really believe that the “big picture” vision comes first.  A plan of action comes second.  And the means to carry out that plan of action comes third.  I feel I’m still waiting for the plan of action.

I agree,

Thanks for your posts Augusto & John, if you have any ideas how to get more people on here, or any feedback or improvements let me know.

Thanks for your fast response, Jed!

Rather than break this ‘Universal RA’ thread, I’ll start a new thread under “General Discussion”.

On the topic of the plan of action, I find that socialising with people who share similar, or completely different problems to my own can help me to have a different perspective on it. I also agree that self examination is not necessarily the best place to start, but once this ‘self examination’ has happend, it keeps us free to help others, with better advice, or to be there for them, understanding their situation just that little bit better.

As a plan of action, I think making all the projects have more time for socializing, then they will find they can relax more, hopefully enough to review themselves.  I know that meals are a good time, but some people find it hard to just introduce themselves to others. I would suggest various activities that get people involved, for example:- I got this idea from IofC family conference - such as capture the flag, which gets all the young people to work together as a team.

These activities would not necessarily have to take place at a conference, but before or after a performance maybe? Just a suggestion. I’m sure there are other places where activities would be appropriate. Of course the one I mentioned was an example, I’m sure that there are ones that could involve a wider range of people as well as some that are more suitable for certain age groups. It would get them talking more though and create some fun.