From Ikon

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Otherness

This year Ikon is concentrating on the difficult theme of ‘otherness’. Within the monthly services and weekly gatherings we shall be exploring how to interact with the stranger i.e. the one who has a different philosophical, psychological, sexual or religious worldview than our own.

Much of the year will deal with the responses of ‘consumption’ and ‘revulsion’ that tempt us when faced with the one who is different from ourselves. To consume involves taking that which is separate from us, breaking it down and integrating it into our biological system. In a similar way we are often tempted to take that which is other from us, break down its own identity and render it into an extension of ourselves, accepting the other only inasmuch as they come to accept what we believe. Revulsion operates at the other end of the scale and involves a violent abhorrence and loathing of that which is other. This represents a second response to the stranger, one which seeks to exclude and silence that which is different, transforming the stranger into an enemy and scapegoat.

Over the course of the year we shall be exploring the extent to which we have been complicit in these, repenting of them, remembering those we have done violence to and seeking a more appropriate way of engaging with those who are other to us.

While those who ‘we’ have excluded depends upon who ‘we’ are, much of this year will involve listening to the stories of those who are more often caricatured than engaged with. This will involve inviting religious minorities, gay Christians, refugees, conservatives, liberals etc. etc. to share their stories during the services.