By Nakea Juri The week has come and has ended and I am sure that we have all learnt a lot of new things that we can take back to our communities. There were many new ideas, expressions and experiences that were shared with us, that mainly focused on our theme ‘religious imagination’. Two of our local artistes were happy and willing to come and share their expertise on what they thought was meant by our theme Religious Imagination. We were able to grasp from them a whole new perspective of what it meant. On Monday 8th of August Pat Bishop the head of the Lydian singers joined us and shared her point of view. Her words made quite an impact on the audience. Her mes-
sage was “Only the best for God.” To get her message out effectively she used visual examples of the Lydian singers as well as we listened to the music of Br. Pascal Jordan to illustrate what she meant: Only work of the highest quality should be good enough for God On Tuesday Wendell Manwarren was able to grasp and steal the audience’s attention. Through his speech his spiritual background came out. He was able to give us a definition of religion. He quoted that “Religion is that which binds people together.” Wendell left us with a few chosen words that struck me and made me think. He said that from his own experience the spoken word is extremely powerful and that it needs to be used with caution. Therefore we should choose our words wisely because they can affect future generations. The following day we had reflec-
tions on the visits and speeches that were given to us by the artistes. On Thursday the session was based on David Rudder’s music another one of our local artistes. We listened and looked at one of his popular music videos ‘High Mas I’. We were basically trying to identify the ways in which his music contributed to our understanding of the use of ‘Religious Imagination’. And indeed David Rudder has a lot of imagination. We walked through the meanings and backgrounds of his music. Through attending these plenary sessions I have been able to open my mind and I am sure everyone else was able to do so as well. We were able to see how music can be an instrument in Creating a Culture of Peace.
By Nikita Braxton & Monique Simpson Interview with Karen Samaroo (Creating Media Teams)
Interview with Amina Blugh (Audio Workshop)
How many people are there in the Creating Media Teams workshop? Two second years, five first years and one person who has returned after completing three years in Audio workshop.
How many people are there in the Audio Workshop? There are 9 students – 6 joining us for the first time and 3 have been students for two years.
What does CMT entail? Its about the formation of teams to promote the church through media – television, radio, websites, internet and other technology. It has a lot to do with working together to effectively achieve a mission. In addition, it involves important components such as leadership, collaboration and conflict resolution. What do you intend to do with what you’ve learnt at CSCC when you return to your parish? We do not have a media team in my parish so I will attempt to form one to inspire the youths through creative imagination as it would get them more involved in the church and the community. What has been your most memorable moment at CSCC? Finding out that Matthew Ragbir, who is in my Creating Media Team, is twenty-one years old since he takes himself so seriously.
What does the Audio Workshop entail? Audio is about using different instruments (voice, sound effects, music) to relay information or give a message. Audio deals only with sound therefore those instruments mentioned have to be effective enough to capture the listeners’ attention without visual. How do you plan to use what you’ve learnt at CSCC in your parish? Since audio plays an important role in sharing the Gospel to the congregation, training lectors in the techniques that the audio workshop has taught me for the past 3 years seems like a good start. What has been your most memorable moment at CSCC? Most memorable experience at CSCC was this year’s visit to TCN. Our team was required to do “live” takes for our project. The programme lasted 30 minutes and, throughout the programme, I was so thrilled yet so terrified! I felt as if I was the actual director for that programme, a powerful feeling.