A Kaleidoscopic Carnival

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which a globalised and post-modern society has led to the fragmentation and consequent hybridisation of traditions – namely, religion – with other frameworks of meaning. It firstly traces the religious traditions in St Stephen’s Anglican Church then refracts these through post-modern lenses in order to highlight the textured and multi-traditional fragments which compose our current culture. In a world that is continually transforming its cultural landscape, Frederico Fellini’s notions of a kaleidoscopic carnival captures the shifting dimensions of this society and acts as the base upon which the interplay between notions of tradition and post-modernity occur, whilst the contrasting uses of the site of St Stephen’s as a church and music venue acts as the lens which bring these notions into the focus of the present moment. This article also draws upon theorists such as Baurdrillard and Lyotard to examine the breakdown of the metanarrative of religion and to ultimately challenge the concept of tradition as fixed to a particular culture and time.