Kindle Your Senses at KindlingsFest this Week

— from Dick Staub, Pastor, Orcas Island Community Church —

What if you are not just limited to the five traditional senses? Sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch? What is the connection between the senses and the spiritual? This week The Kindlings will take on the theme “Come to Your Senses” at KindlingsFest, which runs from Tuesday, July 22 to Friday, July 25 on Orcas Island.

KindlingsFest is a celebration of art and ideas and where they intersect with the spiritual. K-Fest 2014 features a fabulous gathering of thinkers, writers, musicians, artists, dancers, mystics and dreamers to help us explore the theme “Come to Your Senses” through lectures, poetry, art, dance, music, theatre — smell, touch, taste, see and hear.

Our team chose the theme because “our universal human story from beginning to the end is a sensual one… at creation humans are made in God’s image, humans see, hear, taste and touch. And at the end we see imagery of the sound of trumpets and a great banquet that wraps up history. It is everywhere ~ God is about the senses.”

William Blake said, “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” What happens if you start with the assumption that the transcendent, God, is…dare we say… sensual?

Lecturers include Dr. Malcolm Guite (poet, chaplain Cambridge University, UK), Bobette Buster (story guru, USC Film School), Graham Kerr (chef, Galloping Gourmet), Bruce Herman (artist, endowed chair at Gordon College), Walter Hansen (theologian and philanthropist) and Dr. Jerry Root a C.S. Lewis scholar.

Artist Roger Feldman will create an enterable installation on-site. Musicians range from tenor Ross Hauck, Windham Hill artist Jeff Johnson and singer songwriters Susan Osborn from Orcas Island and Phil Madeira from Emily Harris’ band. Actor Nigel Goodwin (UK) joins us again as does choreographer and dancer Karin Stevens and poet Scott Cairns.

Rounding out the Fest are three films from Sundance 2014: Sepideh (selected for Sundance Film Festival 2014 – World Cinema Documentary Competition.). This May Be The Last Time, native American Director Sterlin Harjo tells the haunting story of the ancient hymns that merged with Creek culture to forge his human experience. The Overnighters (Winner: Special Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival 2014.)

There is a kid’s program during the morning lecture, a buffet lunch available for purchase and every evening includes a live podcast of The Kindlings Muse, Nigel Goodwin’s Bag End Cafe (open microphone!) and a Sundance film.

Kindlings founder Dick Staub said he and friends started the movement “to rekindle the deeper, richer intellectual, spiritual and creative legacy of Christians in culture,” adding, “We welcome Orcas Islanders to participate in our events regardless of their religious affiliation.”

Registration is required. For information Call 376-6422 (Tuesday through Friday 10-2 PM) or go to www.TheKindlings.com (under the events tab).