Daño a la Psique

As the occurrences of the Flower Festival, and the Feast of St Cuthbert during Easter shows, the tensions that can occur between layers involving the rhythm and qualities of time and space, are a common part of life for the Cathedral community. However, the question remains of how the community deal with multifaceted collisions of multiple calendar layers, which involve tensions of space, rhythm, and quality. These aspects become important to understand, for, as Hubert implies, the resolution of such tensions lie with the community and social activity (1999:71).

In order to answer this question, I turn to the contrast between sacred time and profane time, which Hubert discusses as being a ‘contradiction between the notion of the sacred and the notion of time’ (1999:78). According to Hubert, the sacred brings with it notions of ‘infinitude’ and ‘immutability’ (1999:43), and which Mircea Eliade (1959) suggests exists outside of time. However, these are grand ideas in which the sacred is grounded firmly within the collective society as a whole. Although this may indeed be the case for Durham Cathedral, particularly in connection to its calendar, upon which Hubert reminds us religion has presided over (1999:44), it is in the everyday playing out of the calendar rather than an abstract religious time that my attention is drawn here. Although Hubert’s essay criticises Henri Bergson’s more individualistic notions of time in which the individual takes centre stage, it is, I suggest, from a less abstract angle than Hubert

takes, that the understanding of how these tensions of rhythm, space, and time are negotiated, begin to make sense. Though a number of these tensions could be explained through an abstract concept of sacred and profane time, I use such words at an individual’s level and situated enactment, as opposed to the grand concepts of ‘maximum convention and the minimum of experience’ (1999:70).

According to Munn, we humans and our productions are always in some way ‘in’ time, yet in the same moment, our actions make the time we are in. She further states that space and time are integral to one another, and so ‘spatial and temporal dimensions cannot be disentangled, and the two commingle in various ways’ (1992:94). This in turn leads Hodges to suggest that Munn characterises social life ‘as comprising [of] a “lived space-time”’ (2008:406). Munn herself articulates this view in an earlier piece in which she argues that, ‘Sociocultural action systems (or the activities through which they become operative) do not simply go on in or through time and space, but they form (structure) and constitute (create) the “space-time” manifold in which they “go on”’. In extension to this, Munn suggests that it is down to the actors to create this ‘manifold’, and in doing so, ‘Concretely producing their own space-time’. Using this approach then, one can suggest, as Munn does, that sociocultural ‘space-time’ is neither individualistic nor uniform, but rather through the actions of each system they create and possess their own ‘space-time’. Therefore, ‘Different action systems in the same society can construct different space-time formations’ (1983:280).

Applying this to that busy day I spent in the Cathedral along with the flower arrangers and Porter, the tourists, the grandfather, granddaughter, and cathedral listener, as well as the Verger and clergy members; we can begin to view their disconnected activities as being different ‘space-times’ separately constructed by the actions of the different groups. Furthermore, by viewing time and space within the Cathedral in this manner, one can bring in different rhythms of layers and qualities into the one space of the Cathedral. Additionally, one can also avoid the over-generalisation of sacred/profane time, suggesting instead that both aspects can exist at the same time within the same space within the sub-groups of one community.

Indeed, through these multiple space-times, it is possible that simply partaking in a sacred act within the same building does not bring everybody into one sociocultural space-time because, just as there are a variety of ‘profane’ acts such as tourism or flower arranging, so too there are differing sacred acts, thus these differing actions create a different space-time. An example of differing sacred acts within the same time and space can be seen in the layout of Durham Cathedral whilst accommodating a monastic

community alongside the laity. At the east end of the nave stood two dividing walls: the quire screen which closed off the quire, and the Rood screen which closed off the entire east end of the Cathedral. Both walls served as a threshold between the secular area and the more ritualised ‘sacred area’. In terms of practicalities the division allowed lay services to be conducted at the Jesus altar in the nave, whilst the monks performed the daily offices within the quire (Russo 1994:258). At such times, there existed within Durham Cathedral two different sacred times kept separate and operating completely independently of each other, and at such times it was left to the unattached action- systems to each create their own spatiotemporal sacrality independent of each other.

Through Munn’s suggestion of multiple space-times, it is also possible to understand how Durham Cathedral can be whatever people need it to be, through a process of the community, in its various parts or ‘action systems’, creating their own space-time. It is through the actions of the groups of flower arrangers that the Cathedral becomes a messy hive of busyness, creativity, and temporary change of appearance through the exhibition of the flower arrangements. However, it is also important to remember that these actions do not constitute a totalising whole in which nothing but the arrangement of the Flower Festival can take place. It is instead simply one part of what is possible within the space of the Cathedral. An example of this was demonstrated by the young girl and her grandfather. Whilst his wife and daughter were down in the city shopping, he took the opportunity to acquaint his young granddaughter with the Cathedral. In doing so, through their actions of sitting in a pew and leaning forward in silence to pray, they created, for no matter how brief a time, their own space-time with a quality of calm and silence within the messy hustle and bustle of the flower arranging, a space-time which, through their actions and my proximity, drew me into a sense of obligation.

Sitting within the busy noise of the Cathedral was a novelty for me, being more accustomed to its hushed whispers that are to be most often heard within the nave. Yet, as the granddaughter and her grandfather took their seats and lent forward clasping their hands together, the young girl with her fingers outstretched straight and palms flat together, and her grandfather with one cupped hand clasping his other hand clenched into a fist, I immediately felt obliged to alter my own space-time in order to accommodate the close proximity of this newly created space-time. It was an impingement, in this case on my space-time generated here by their body movements which established their relationship to the divine, and through my understanding of them, caused me to alter my space-time, in feeling if not in action. So too the Verger, fully cloaked followed by a

minister in full robes, his hands clasped together and head bowed, moving slowly through the noisy cathedral, was walking through a not necessarily sacred space, but a vacillatingly sacred space, particularly on this day. It was through their actions that they begin to create the sacred space needed to carry out the intended communion. As Bourdieu points out, the body is constantly steeped in the cultural meanings of space, and vice versa (1977:90). Similarly, Munn commenting on her own studies suggests, ‘They all view action as a symbolic (meaningful, and meaning-forming) process in which people ongoingly produce both themselves as spatio-temporal beings and the space- time of the wider world’ (1992:107).

Similarly, one must not forget the actions of the Cathedral itself. Whilst the various groups of people go around creating various space-times, the Cathedral itself is effecting its own action, the action of sacrality. In just the same way as the various action groups create an effective space-time through the employment of recognised actions from which principles emerge, such as I experienced with the young girl and her grandfather, so too is the Cathedral itself creating a specific space-time through aspects such as light, sounds and the building itself, as I have shown in previous chapters, although it is of course a malleable space-time, and thus allows other space-times to emerge within it.

Additionally, the various action systems such as the clergy, the stewards, the worshippers, and the building itself can, at times, align to create a number of space- times, which have common goals, such as Evensong. As Evensong approaches, the stewards work to clear tourists out of the nave of the Cathedral. During Evensong, the clergy conduct the service, and the worshippers congregate at the prescribed time and worship. All of them have different actions and thus different action systems, but all have a common goal, a smooth Evensong service.

Through these various action systems and the created space-times, it becomes possible to understand the way in which the tensions of rhythm, quality and space held within the layers of the fortnightly calendar, become negotiated within Durham Cathedral. Whilst the exact negotiation is an ongoing process, with each collision being dealt with as it arises, the creation of various space-times helps to explain the manner in which, as Hubert commented, these adjustments are more a circumstance of social activity than that of the individuals’ own mental processes. That is, space-time is not just something inside people’s minds, but something that has to be created and enacted through the very practical means (action systems) such as, for instance, delineating space as with the case of Evensong in the midst of Lent, stating the shift of the quality of time into a microphone, and reassuring the congregation of its legitimacy. Similarly, in the case of

the Feast of St Cuthbert during the Easter period, or the taking up the specific position of prayer, of a more sacred space-time inside the more profane hustle and bustle of the Flower Festival.

Additionally, through these space-times, one sees that because of these sub-sets of the larger community, negotiation becomes a more manageable proposition, as opposed to a system in which every individual must be negotiated with, or indeed in which only one action system is given space at any one time. The result of having these smaller action systems allowing a more manageable negotiation, is a cathedral which can be ‘whatever you need it to be’ – a setting for a flower festival, a place of worship, a tourist attraction and many more besides. As Adam states, ‘The multiple rhythms and social organisation are nestled inside one another, and new rhythms are not merely grafted onto existing ones, but change their nature in the process’ (2002:515).