Easter Resurrected

Easter came to a close for BEYOND at Easter Resurrected on Sunday 26th April where we brought together all the art from the Easter Path in one place at one time for a final viewing/meditation. Bringing things together into a new space gave us a chance to reinterpret some of the installations in a way that was appropriate for the space and with some additions.

During the hour we journeyed together from one installation to another following Jesus' path from Gethsemane to the cross. Station 2 was Jesus is condemned and originally this had been in Sydney Street Bikes where we had used the security grille in the shop window as a symbol of imprisonment with roped hands shackled to the ironwork. In the Old Market we suspended an old piece of wrought iron to make a three dimensional image of torture and restraint.


Dave's Comics also in Sydney Street put an amazing amount of thought into their display which featured a cross shape made from a series of comics about a 'godkiller' force that destroys a number of major superheroes. We added to this with images from the Manga Bible and some thoughts about the themes of death and resurrection which are so common in this kind of literature.



One of the other extensively reworked stations was number 9 at City News newsagents where Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem. The original window featured images of weeping women backlit and for our theatre installation we collaged these same images onto a series of colour changing lightboxes of various sizes.

An added bonus for those who came to the theatre was a station entitled 'Jesus is stripped of his garments' using a ripped and slashed suit jacket displayed in the form of a cross. This version of station 10 didn't work for the shop owner so we created something different around the soldiers throwing lots for Jesus robe which was the artwork eventually used for the Easter Path. Both images make us think about the importance we place on external appearance while God sees into our hearts.

Easter Resurrected finished with two neon crosses created by Andy Doig of Fishtail Neon which we installed on a darkened stage so that they spoke eloquently to us of the beauty and glory of the resurrected Christ symbolised by the empty cross.

We also managed to get hold of a copy of the BBC South East Today news report which went out on Good Friday.

Our next event is on 24th May at the Old Market on the theme of HOPE.

Easter Path Finale

Easter brings with it the culmination of the Easter Path after 6 weeks of activity, interest and a surprising amount of maintenance. We've had displays that got accidentally broken requiring repair with a blowtorch; one window that got replaced due to a shop refurbishment which meant the original design had to be radically changed; one display that kept mysteriously being removed for the first few weeks of the path and one central artwork that got sold while the shop owner was on holiday!

Throughout Lent we've guided a number of groups around the path at various times of day and in various conditions and we know that there have been lots of other groups using the path as an opportunity to do their own Lenten walk. Good Friday saw our final BEYOND group walking the path in the rain from midday to 2pm followed by fish and chips by the beach.

We've had a lot of interest from the media, especially over the last week as they look for good Easter stories and have filmed news reports with both Meridian and BBC South East Today. You can read a short report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/7993987.stm and hopefully the TV reports will appear online soon.

Emily Jeffery of BBC Radio Sussex recorded a wonderful piece for their Sunday morning show which you can listen to on Easter Sunday sometime between 7am and 9am or here.

Through doing this we have learnt a lot about what it means to bring the Easter message out of the church and into the community. For most people Easter is about bunnies, chicks and chocolate - a million miles away from the suffering, death and resurrection that we focus on in the church, and yet these themes are incredibly relevant to modern day life especially in a recession when people are only too aware of the meaninglessness of materialistic living. It is time we stopped huddling away in our churches concentrating on our own little rituals and iconic observances and found ways to engage with those around us who are looking for some hope and inspiration and Easter is a great opportunity for that.

On April 26th we are bringing together all the exhibits from the Easter Path plus a few extras, including a visit from Siku, the artist who created The Manga Bible who will be telling us a bit about his work on this project. The event is at the Old Market from 7pm with bar open from 6.30. If you weren't able to make it round the Easter Path during Lent, please come and see everything together in the one place.

Easter Path 1

The Easter Path has now been up for about 2 weeks and people are beginning to use it and comment about it. A number of church groups have been in touch to ask for further details so they can take their own group round and last week we ran our first guided tour.

The thing that surprised me about walking the path in a group is how much attention you get from everyone else around at that time. Our walk started at 5pm on a Sunday so it wasn't massively busy but even so people stopped to see what we were doing as we gathered around each window for a short reflection.

We think of spiritual practice as something which is quite closed and conducted in a safe environment but going out on the streets like this invites public attention which alters the experience. There is also something quite different about being meditative in a public environment from the kind of public evangelising you sometimes come across in town centres. It felt to me more respectful for a group of people to be standing in the street in silence meditating than trying to engage with passers by in some way.

Jesus walk to Golgotha was a very public event that had no exposition to it, it just happened and people were left to draw their own conclusions about what was going on. The message of Easter is more powerful if we just find ways to tell people the story and let them interpret and understand it for themselves.












The next guided walk is 29th March at 5pm starting at Brighthelm and it takes a little over an hour and a half.

Beauty

At the end of a beautiful day on 22nd February we convened at the Old Market to consider the age old problem of beauty - what is it, how do you define it, why is it so important to us and how is it that I am not it!







The format for the evening was very different to anything else we've run and was like an exhibition with short talks rather than a directed series of activities. From the beginning people were asked to look at a host of images on display all pver the room and write their thoughts or reactions to these images on a post-it note and stick it to the picture.

We were also lucky enough to have some experts to talk to us about their view of beauty in relation to a number of different topics.

Karen spoke to us about personal beauty and the importance this plays as part of our whole view of ourselves, Stuart took us through one of his favourite pieces of music, Samuel Barber's adagio for strings, and explained why it was so moving for him. Danny talked to us about what he found beautiful in a painting by Hans Feibusch called 1939, and David showed us what beauty is architecture consisted of. Finally Martin spoke about the story of the woman who washes Jesus feet with her hair and anoints him with perfume - an act described by Jesus as beautiful.

Finally we came to rest on the image of Jesus on the cross - the most beautiful act for mankind whilst simultaneously being the most hideous event.


The Easter Path is now set up and will run throughout Lent - look at the website (www.beyondchurch.co.uk) for more details.

GIFTS

Our first event of 2009 started with everyone in the theatre being given a gift which then got used at some point later in the evening. We started by looking back to Christmas and in particular the visit of the wise men and the gifts that they brought. Their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh were symbols that had some significant meaning in Jesus' life and we were reminded that every gift is symbolic of something, from the bottle of champagne given to celebrate an achievement through to the pair of socks that says something quite different about the attitude of the giver.

We also considered the other meaning of the word gift relating to talents or skills. Everyone got the chance to do a personality survey to give them an objective idea of the things that they were good at which then led into writing a personal gift statement. You can try one of these tests online here Personality Test and look at the different personality types here Personality Types

This was an attempt by each person to write an honest appraisal of the personal gifts they exhibit in life. From there we all wrote late New Years resolutions, a reminder to us that to get the best out of life and truly live as the people that God intended us to be then we have to exercise those gifts to the best of our ability.












Finally we were asked to consider Jesus - God's gift to us that we might be whole. Everyone left with at least one gift, the most popular being a selection of gold pebbles with words on them expressing some of the most precious gifts of all such as love, joy and peace.

Beach Hut 24

The first ever Advent Beach Hut Calendar drew to a close in spectacular fashion tonight as something like 250 people turned up to celebrate Christmas Eve.

The theme was the wise men and their gifts - the hut decoration was gold, with frankincense burning outside and the opportunity to have a Christmas blessing and anointing with myrrh oil.


Above the hut we had our very own star shining and glittering to attract people from near and far.

We had three sets of wise men at the event, one was a series of images created by local artist, Annie Kemp, another a set of three sculptures from Poland and the third were three giant wise men who came from the East playing Christmas songs and carols.


The wise men on stilts were a local performing troupe called The Top Bananas and we all sang We Three Kings together. People continued to enjoy mulled wine and mince pies with the added luxury of hot roast chestnuts while many lined up to receive a Christmas blessing.


Thanks to all those who took part in this wonderful event and remember there's a chance to see a number of the huts open again at 3.30pm on Boxing Day.

May the God of light who came into the world at Christmas
bring you light and life.

Beach Hut 23

We had another peaceful, calm evening for the penultimate hut of this first ever Advent Beach Hut Calendar, so calm that the candles in hut 410 hardly flickered at all.

The theme for tonight was The Holly and the Ivy and the centrepiece was a beautiful display featuring holly, ivy, bay leaves and oranges which smelt as gorgeous as it looked. Karen finished off the design with numerous candles in lanterns, on the centrepiece and in a fantastically ornate candelabra.

While the children helped themselves to gingerbread biscuits and more and more people came to join in, we sang the theme carol after hearing a little background about these two plants and their association with Christmas. Everyone was invited to take a little posy featuring a candle set with some ivy or to help themselves to an orange.

Tomorrow is our final day as it Christmas Eve and should be quite a special evening at hut 395 including a chance to receive a Christmas blessing. A number of the huts will also open at 3.30pm on Boxing Day for a little recap for those who might not have been able to get to one of the evenings or who are visiting Brighton & Hove for Christmas.

Beach Hut 22

Yesterday was the Annunciation in churches across the country with the story of the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and telling her that she is going to give birth to the son of God and it felt right to focus on Mary today. The carol we picked for this theme was Gentle Mary Laid Her Child which is not very common and is sung to the same tune as Good King Wenceslas.


Originally the hut was due to be decorated by a local artist but sadly her grandmother died last week and she is busy with the funeral this week so was unable to take part.


One of the local churches always runs a 'Blue Christmas' service at this time of year for those who find Christmas hard because they've lost loved ones or are on their own for some reason and so we combined the idea of Mary with the colour blue to create a very simple image for tonight.

Our thoughts are with Catherine and her family at this sad time.

Tomorrow - hut 410.

Beach Hut 21

O Come All Ye Faithful was the carol for this evening and come the faithful did despite there being a lot of competition tonight with many churches having carol services and the annual Burning of the Clocks procession attracting thousands to the centre of Brighton to celebrate the shortest day of the year.

Once again the news of the event has spread far and wide and we had visitors from Alfriston, Bexhill and Eastbourne as well as a number of local folk.

The biggest surprise of the night was an unannounced visit from the Mayor of Brighton & Hove who turned up with his wife and entourage en route to a carol service at one of the central Brighton churches.




Jan was displaying more of her paintings on the theme of adoration echoing the words of the chorus of the carol, including a beautiful tryptich of Christ, the one to whom we direct our adoration at Christmastime.

She also brought along a painting of the beach huts which she had done some time ago and which seems to suggest the same strange alignment of moon and stars that we saw on the very first night that we began this calendar.

Next hut is a little further towards the lagoon at number 382.

Beach Hut 20

We had a very musical evening at beach hut number 225 as the theme was The Little Drummer Boy complete with live music and a chance for everyone to participate. Matt and Colleen gave us some background information about the song and its relationship to Christmas and why rhythm is so basic to all cultures before David and Jake got us all involved in a live version complete with the children joining in on various percussion instruments.

The hut featured our first Christmas tree which was all set up with lights and presents at its base and surrounded with candles and some drum themed decorations. It was great see so many people joining in with the singing and to have so many children running around enjoying themselves.

Next hut is number 315.

Beach Hut 19

As darkness drew in on the 19th day of our calendar, beach hut 268 was lit up by a giant neon cross which could not only be seen from the beach but also by all the cars driving along Hove Kingsway. This was the biggest hut opening we've had so far as local theatre company Copperdollar pulled out all the stops to create a fantastic Christmas celebration.

The cross came from Brighton light artist Andy Doig of Fishtailneon.com and acted as a real beacon of light for all the activities planned by KT and her team. Another local artist called Jim Sanders had also installed three 8' high totem poles representing the three kings.






The hut itself (kindly loaned by Alex and Andy) was turned into a shrine complete with ghostly digital mirror and decorations of holly and ivy.














The evening featured a short performance by four members of the theatre company followed by everyone forming a long chain and being led on a trail around the totem poles and down to the beach. They also led us in singing the Wassail song and everyone was given a posy of holly to take home with them.

As evergreens, holly and ivy both symbolise eternal life while holly points us beyond Christmas to the events of Easter. The combination of celebration of Christmas and remembrance of sacrifice was very thought provoking in this Advent season.

Next hut - number 225.