GREENBELT 2011

BEYOND featured heavily at this year's Greenbelt Festival, with three events including the Communion Service. The chosen festival theme, Dreams of Home, was encountered powerfully by more than 10,000 people who turned up for the annual Sunday morning gathering. The multi-coloured ribbons being hoisted above the main stage and congregation formed an all-encompassing tabernacle that has quickly become one of the most iconic images from the festival to date. However, there have been plenty of reviews and commentaries in the post-festival media about Communion, so this space is largely to reflect on our two other 'events'.

THE GAME OF LIFE

For those of you who were at Greenbelt, you will have noticed Beyond's version of The Game of Life near the village green. Set out on the ground, the large triangular 'board' outlined a number of various paths through life. Beginning with birth, the player would flip a coin to determine whether their next move was to the right or the left, repeatedly flipping the coin on each square until the ultimate, inevitable death. Multiple possibilities ensured that each journey encountered was entirely unique and left completely to chance. Who was to say whether you'd grow up in a loving, church-going family or be adopted at the age of two? Would your later life follow a prescribed, stereotypical path given your earlier circumstances, or would you defy expectations and break the mould? The progressive stages through the game induced laughter, sorrow and surprise in equal measure as the unpredictable journey would flit between the serious and the trivial, the sincere and the flippant.

Players described their journeys afterwards with varied interpretations. Some found themselves able to sympathise with certain choices that different people make as a result of their circumstances. Turning to drugs, alcohol, Christianity, Islam, marriage or whatever it was, seemed wholly appropriate for some unsuspecting players, given their fictional background. For others, it was far more interesting to play again and again, comparing the divergent walks of life. Of course there were as many responses as there were players, but one profound uniting factor prevailed: that ultimately, they would all end up together at Home. Whatever Home is.

As you would expect, isolated images will never do the game justice as they are plucked from an all-important context. But for those of you who couldn't be at Greenbelt, below is a taster of what it involved. Our Saturday night event Unsafe Space will probably be best summed up in photos, so please check our next post. It will include 'post-secrets' from The Unsafe Safe.

AIR

Our previous events this summer have been based on the elemental themes of Fire, Earth and Water, so on Sunday we drew the series to a close with Air. Gathering together in the open space of Hove Park, we combined it with our annual meditative event on the Fingermaze. The grass labyrinth never fails to provide the ideal environment for peaceful and solitary contemplation whilst walking its winding contours.

As air is so essential and all encompassing, the evening offered a unique opportunity to explore the often over-looked mystery that it is, particularly as an example of God’s presence and life. In the Bible, the Hebrew word Ruah is used and translates as Spirit which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. The phrase Spirit of God is reasonably rendered Breath of God or Wind of God. The word spirit has taken on a corporeal tone like the word ghost. Likely, if the Greek word Pneuma had been rendered breath or wind in English, then the Holy Spirit would not have developed so strongly in English as a Person part of the Trinitarian Godhead.

Each person entered the maze individually, listening to an MP3 player loaded with relaxing music with a subtle breath rising and falling behind it. The journey was a slow and thoughtful one, with various biblical references to spirit and breath placed on sticks in the ground at regular intervals throughout the path.

Upon reaching each station on the journey, visitors were encouraged to breath on a mirror fixed to each of the sticks above the text. The condensation from every exhalation temporarily revealed a picture on each of the mirrors, acting as a reminder of the biblical idea of divine breath imparted to humankind:

‘And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.’ Gen 2:7

Whether believing in the idea of divine breath or not, the tangible second-by-second interaction with the air around us was central to this experience, as people were left feeling like the air that we inhale was somehow more real than before. This breath-awareness was also emphasized by an audio track that followed on from the music – a reflection on how every breath expresses a deeper existence without us even noticing most of the time.

The walk through the labyrinth ultimately led to the centre, where a large green helium-filled balloon hovered, tethered only to a small basket filled with pots of bubble mixture. The word Ruah was written on each of these, to serve as a reminder for those who had connected with the experience. As each individual took one out of the basket, the weight holding the balloon down was lessened until, with a prayer, it was released high into the sky.

The surrounding air was soon filled with Ruah-inspired ‘miracle bubbles’, as we shared food and drink together on a beautiful warm evening.

WATER

As part of Brighton's Paddle Round the Pier festival, Beyond were asked for the second year in a row to put something together for a short 'Blessing of the Surf' before the day's activities began. So, on Sunday morning, a few of us gathered to commit the day to God using various poems and readings, including The Surfer's Code.

To compliment this meditative time we added a reflection pool, which remained on the seafront the entire day for passers by to stop and engage with. In the words of Albert Einstein, 'When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.' In light of this then, there were a series of questions written on mirrors under the water that hopefully provoked people into thinking about how they see themselves compared to how others might see them. Included was Jesus' famous quote from Luke chapter 9, when he asks 'Who do you say I am?' which encouraged us to broaden our horizons a little, considering how our views relate to God's.

God of the tides,

whose faithful rhythm

underlies our daily lives,

help us to keep on,

with courage and caring,

both when we are full and fulfilled

and in times of ebb and emptiness-

neap and spring tides in our lives-

within the ocean of your love.

Amen

Visitors were asked to contribute to the installation by writing what they had seen inside the pool, or thoughts of their own. Below is a selection of the response we had:

Our final event in this series is AIR, to be held on the 31st July at Hove Fingermaze. Hope to see you there!

EARTH

For our midsummer celebration this year, we met down on the sand on Brighton beach last Sunday evening. Not only was the tide out, but the sun was too - a rare and momentous occasion as far as Beyond events are concerned!

On arrival, each person received a nice glossy picture of what Heaven is supposedly going to look like. According to Google, and of course many common opinions today, there will be rainbows and waterfalls, bunny rabbits and golden sunshine. There are some great examples here, for those of you worried that Heaven might not be the multi-coloured, cloud-hopping paradise you always dreamed of. Continuing our theme and discussions of Heaven and Hell from our recent FIRE event, people were then encouraged to bury their glossy image within a giant sand castle that we grouped together to build. Although our intended sand cathedral did resemble something more of a grave, the idea that we were creating an icon of God's dwelling was the important bit. Burying these well know pictures of Heaven then,we were not so much burying the past as we were burying the 'future'. The castle in all its glory, along with these presuppositions, was then left to the tide to be taken away and swallowed by the ocean.

With the new, fresh sand as a clean slate to be built upon, we turned our attention to practical tasks that we can actively get involved with if we are going to try to invite Heaven to Earth today. We have talked about it all too often as an idea or a notion, but to actually fulfill our role as stewards of this Earth requires choices, repeatedly.

Together we discussed how we already see Heaven on Earth, along with ways in which our decisions affect other people and the environment. Everyone was given a terracotta flower pot and was asked to write on it what stood out to them most during their discussion. Each pot then went round everyone else, so that every word was written on every pot. People wrote commitments such as mindful shopping, recycling, random acts of kindness, being patient, listening...and so on. We then all filled our own pot with earth and planted seeds to grow and remind us of these intentions.

It was a beautiful sunset as we sat around the brazier talking about how we can join with God and take responsibility for this planet that we call home. It won't be an easy task, in fact it will often contradict our human instincts entirely and it definitely won't lead to a grand utopia, but we can make little differences here and now that point to what is already good and beautiful.

Our final event in this summer series is on July 31st at Hove Park's Fingermaze, but before that we shall have a short and sweet gathering at this weekend's Paddle Round The Pier festival, meeting at 10am on Sunday morning (3rd July) at the festival's main gates.

FIRE OF HEAVEN

The first event in our Elements series this summer was FIRE, which took place on 22nd May down on the seafront near Hove Lagoon. Billed as the relighting of Hove's beacon for the first time since 1988, alternative plans unfortunately had to be made due to the strong winds. Setting fire to the beacon proved near impossible, so red and orange ribbons were attached instead, making for a striking scene as the vibrant colours were blown vigorously and noisily above our heads. They remain in place even now, and look impressive from the roadside.

Holy Space was marked out below the beacon with white tape, an area where visitors were invited to enter without their shoes. A burning bush had been created at the centre, ablaze with red and yellow cellophane. Visitors could contribute to this installation with more leaves/flames, having written on them one thing from the past they'd wish to set fire to, along with one thing they would like to be on fire for.

There are multiple Biblical examples with references to God and Fire, so various quotes were handed out along with pictures to aid contemplation. There are numerous preconceptions that we tend to hold on to regarding Heaven and Hell, so this was a wonderful opportunity in a unique setting to really grapple with these ideas and why we may/may not believe such things. In one

sense, we wanted to set fire to our beliefs as we discussed these things, to be more open to God in the here and now, as He seeks to bring Heaven to Earth.

Yet more fire surrounded the event as we enjoyed a barbecue along with a special performance

from Brighton based Pyro-performers, Circus Seen. Visitors were dazzled with some of the dangerous moves of these fire dancers, while the flames did well to hold their own against the windy conditions. Everyone was given a lighter as they left, to remind them perhaps of what they'd decided to set fire to, what they hoped to be more on fire for, or simply just as a reminder of some of the challenging conversation that took place. It was helpful to be in a relaxed environment, enjoying food and performance, whilst wrestling with some of our ideas of Heaven and Hell, where these ideas came from, and the notion that maybe, just maybe, those ideas aren't necessarily true.

What it does encourage

us to do, is to seek God now, rather than perhaps holding

on to ideas or places that somehow seem rather distant. These conversations will follow on nicely with our next event, EARTH, on June 19th. Come prepared to discuss just how we can be involved in bringing Heaven to Earth right where we are.