THE END OF THE CROSS

After braving the past 40 days (and more impressively, 40 nights) in Brighton's North Laines, our Lent cross has finally been dismantled. The installation endured bitter sea air and windy nights, people climbing all over it, batting it, kicking it, unscrewing it, promoting events on it, moving it, smashing it and things sticking to it. Not to mention the copious amounts of bird poo from the tree above. Amazingly, it was only smashed in the once, meaning that it only had to be removed on one occasion for a little TLC, which was completed within 24 hours.

The scars spoke powerfully of the similar treatment Christ received when he was beaten before eventually being nailed to a wooden cross. But just as Christ rose again on the third day, so this photograph of the cross on Easter Sunday bears a significant resemblance to the events of that day recorded in the Gospels. As the gardner (street sweeper) tends to the garden (Kensington Gardens), the body of Christ (Perspex cross) discards the burial clothes (litter) and ascends into Heaven (is taken apart before being removed).

A fair few hundred slips were posted into the Cross, which will now be used to create an artwork for the Brighton Festival throughout May.

The Lent Cross dolorosa

We're halfway through Lent and the cross is having an interesting time in the centre of town 24 hours a day 7 days a week. In the first week there was an attempt to dismantle it by someone very determined who managed to unscrew all but one of the screws holding the top of the cross in place. despite the fact that these were hexagonal head screws which require a specialist tool to undo them.

The second week the cross went for a little walk as it had been wrenched free from the tree to which it was padlocked. Despite all of this people were contributing Lent thoughts and prayers in a very meaningful way such as the one which unfurled itself on the bottom of the cross for all to see on which someone had responded to the question 'what could I do without' by answering "hurting myself".



This week the cross took a more serious beating and a collection of cracks appeared in it until finally one panel was kicked in completely. This gave added poignancy to our informal breaking of bread and sharing of wine on Sunday afternoon as we contemplated the broken cross and what to do with it.

So we dismantled it for 24 hours and one of our team set to repairing all the cracks with metal strips, nuts and bolts and it was reinstalled yesterday afternoon, complete with the scars of the previous week. The perfection of the original transparent cross in all it's simplicity and cleanliness is now even more beautiful bearing the scars of it's mistreatment, speaking far more powerfully of the journey to Easter and all that it meant for Jesus than if it had stayed in it's original form. We hope to continue to repair any further damage and that those who pass the cross or go to it as part of their Lent devotion will understand something more of the suffering of God on the Via Dolorosa.

THE LENT CROSS

Beyond have created an art installation right in the heart of Brighton's North Laines. Present for the entirety of the Lent season, the X shaped perspex box will hopefully provide an opportunity for people to think about Lent and what it means for them. It will also act as a focus for church groups who want to engage in some Lent devotion outside of their normal church routine.

The installation has small holes, through which people can post special Beyond slips, focussing on what we could and couldn't live without. These slips are available from the surrounding shops in the immediate vicinity.

Each Sunday afternoon we would like to invite anyone who is interested to join us in an informal sharing of bread and wine at the X at 3pm. This Lent observance will culminate in an event on Holy Saturday (7th April) exploring the space between Good Friday and Easter Day.

You will find the X at the junction of Kensington Gardens and Sydney Street, North Laines, Brighton, BN1 4EN.

Beach Hut Advent Calendar roundup

Now that Christmas is over it seems like an appropriate time to review the 2011 Beach Hut Advent Calendar and to say a few thank yous.

Firstly thank you to all the participants who created such wonderful pieces of art, performances and events. The quality of the work and the amount of effort that people put in was truly wonderful and the Beyond team loved coming down each night to see the incredible creations in all weathers. Thanks also to Higgidy pies for their generosity in giving us Christmas pies to give out on Christmas Eve and vouchers for a years supply of pies which we split between two families who had been out to all 24 huts - that was more than even the Beyond team managed!

We had some great media coverage this year with Meridian coming along on the first night attempting to do a live broadcast which unfortunately was subject to gremlins but which did get broadcast the following night.



Also BBC Breakfast came along a couple of times to film a few different huts and broadcast this lovely piece a number of times on Christmas Day.



Beyond is planning our next event which will be in Lent which begins on 22nd February so keep an eye on www.beyondchurch.co.uk for full details about that.

Beach Hut 24

We finally got there! Although of course the actual event we've all been waiting for throughout December isn't until tomorrow, but we did get to the final beach hut tonight. Hut 225 was a real coming together of all of the things we've been talking about this month as we make our journey with the holy family towards Christmas.



For the first time all of the nativity figures which Flo Pepper has so diligently crafted were brought together in their own stable. Each figure was featured at one of the huts through the month and gradually added to the story that we followed day by day.



They were watched over by a collage of faces made up of photographs taken each night of some of the pilgrims who've followed the story night by night. Old and young all looked down on the stable, waiting to see what would happen tomorrow when God enters our world as a little baby. Central to the whole collage was a photo of a pregnant woman who came along one night and who's baby is due on Christmas day - we wish her well for the auspicious day.

As part of the event tonight we read the Christmas story, stopping at various points to sing an appropriate carol - O Little Town of Bethlehem for Joseph and Mary's journey; Away in a Manger at Jesus Birth; We Three Kings when the wise men arrived and finally the Sussex Carol, celebrating everything that this night means as God enters our human world.

We hope that your Christmas gathering is full of joy, hope and peace and that you experience something of what it means that God is with us. Every blessing this Christmas from all at Beyond.

Our next event will be in late in February for Lent 2012 - watch www.beyondchurch.co.uk for announcements.

Beach Hut 23

The penultimate hut of 2011 directed our eyes to the skies with an amazingly detailed map of the heavens with stars and constellations labelled and drawn out for us all to see. Unfortunately the weather didn't aid our stargazing as the clouds scudded by propelled by some very strong winds, only stopping to drop copious amounts of rain on us from time to time.

Hut 449 was bathed in a beautiful royal purple light in honour of the coming king and as a reminder that this is still Advent, the season for which the church uses the colour purple. In fact the light was ultraviolet and was designed to make the white stars and constellations shine out into the darkness. One of the odd side effects of this was that it was very hard to see the images properly - they appeared to be out of focus no matter how hard we tried to look at them and bring them in to focus.

Even the photographs we took seemed to have trouble focussing on the star imagery, creating some lovely, colourful effects.

Lots of people had fun trying to decide which of these was the star of Bethlehem and even though Jon, the creator of the hut, knew which star he had nominated for that role, he kept this information to himself and let everyone spend their time star -gazing and guessing.

Our final hut is number 225 and for the first time we will bring together all the characters that we have been focussing on during our journey through Advent to form a unique Beyond nativity scene. The theme will be 'Gathering for the Great Event' and we will be creating a host of witnesses from photographs taken of some of the participants each night as well as welcoming a crowd of people and a live donkey to join in with our retelling of the Christmas story and singing of carols together to celebrate.

Beach Hut 22

As we get closer to the big event on Christmas day we are beginning to gather more of a crowd in our nativity themes. Tonight the theme was angel choirs and Janette had created a special painting for this which was installed in hut 374 along with some other paintings by local artists.


This included another painting by Janette entitled 'heaven' which was done in the style of Klimt. There is an obvious connection between angels and heaven and so it felt appropriate to have these paintings alongside each other.



Above all this was an icon painted by Sister Gillian who is a nun based at an order in Shoreham who is still painting icons even though she's now in her eighties.

Our penultimate hut opens on 23rd and is the furthest west of all the huts involved in the beach hut advent calendar and is number 449.

Beach Hut 21

Tonight we were back with the shepherds who haven't featured in our Christmas journey since beach hut 6 although their sheep did make an appearance on day 14.

Karen had combined the delight of the shepherds at Bethlehem on that first Christmas with the old saying that we use to help us predict the weather - 'red sky at night, shepherds delight'. It's nice to think that the sky above the stable that night could have reflected their joy at this happy event as well as sparkling with the choirs of angels.

The hut was a little mysterious tonight as there were black drapes hanging down at the front but peeping through these could be seen an idyllic little scene with the shepherds staring up at the red sky alongside a giant (to them) storybook of the Christmas event.

Above this, on the front of the hut was a herald angel, guiding the shepherds to the manger.

The piece that we filmed with the BBC wasn't on broadcast on Wednesday and we're told it's being held over for Christmas Day and will be on BBC Breakfast sometime between 8am and 9am.

In the meantime, make a note of our next hut which is number 374.

Beach Hut 20

Carry Rawle the owner of Hut 20 has had her own theme for her artwork each year she's been involved in the Beach Hut Advent Calendar as well as fitting in with our journey telling the Christmas story. Each year she has produced a beautiful piece of art made from tissue paper to form a kind of stained glass window. This is then lit from behind to produce a striking effect as the whole hut seems to glow with the colours of the art.

The theme for tonight was gold as we continue to look at the wise men and their part in the Christmas story. Carry dressed her hut with gold tinsel and produced a beach hut sized tree topped with a gold star to illustrate this.

The evening was calm and dry and the whole event had a cosy feel to it as there was a brazier burning away and chairs gathered round so people could sit and keep warm as they drank their mulled wine and chatted about Christmas.

The next hut is 410 up by Hove lagoon.

Beach Hut 19

Today was the day the BBC decided to come back to the Brighton seafront to film a few huts ready for broadcast later this week so of course the weather was terrible and it rained all afternoon the whole time they were here. The piece should be broadcast nationally on BBC Breakfast this Wednesday or Thursday.


Ironically the rain stopped about 6pm which encouraged people to come out to see hut 425 turning what could have been a washout into quite a successful evening.



The theme for tonight continued to focus on the wise men as we have been for the last few days. The hut was full of gifts piled up in front of a manger with a quote from the gospel of John posted up above it all. While we all know that the wise men brought gifts to the stable to give to Jesus, we sometimes forget that Jesus himself was a gift from God.

The next hut is number 341 when we'll be looking at one particular gift - Gold.

Beach Hut 18

Tonight was a bit special as one of the Beyond team produced an amazing work of artistic genius in hut 424. Kirsty Tyler has an imagination which is only surpassed by her craft skills and she put these both to work using the simplest of materials - cardboard. In her nimble hands this staple of the recycling bin became the most gorgeous animated scene reminiscent of the puppet theatres so prevalent on English beaches in the past.

The theme was the wise men and Kirsty combined this with the myth contained in the song I Saw Three Ships to imagine the wise men arriving at a nativity scene set on Brighton Pier. This in itself would have made for an interesting artwork but this installation went beyond that as the boat and the waves all moved, rocking backwards and forwards as though driven by the wind which mercifully was absent this evening.

The detail in the modelling was unbelievable with each of the wise men carrying individual gifts for the baby Jesus who lay in a straw lined manger wrapped in swaddling clothes. The whole thing had it's own internal lighting and was powered by hidden motors which were engineered and fixed in place by Tony Leaney.

There was almost a disaster when it started to rain just before the official opening at 5.30 - as you can imagine cardboard doesn't respond well to rain - but the team were able to protect everything while the unexpected shower passed over and the rest of the evening stayed dry.

After tonight the scene will make it's way to St. Luke's church, Prestonville where it will be on display Christmas morning during the family service at 10.30am.

The evening included live music, provided by Dave Tyler and friends Jim and Maggs, and everyone got to join in with songsheets being handed out alongside the mulled wine and mince pies.

The next hut is right alongside this at number 425 and will look in more detail at the gifts the wise men brought.

Beach Hut 17

Hut 177 took us back to our Mexican beginnings which was very appropriate for the family who owned the hut as they will be spending Christmas in Mexico.

Their theme for tonight was the donkey and so the centrepiece of the evening was a donkey pinata along with Mexican hammock and decorations including decorated skulls which is part of another Mexican tradition around the same time as our Halloween when they remember their dead loved ones and celebrate with them.

The night was cold but calm and was helped with the addition of a burning brazier which people were able to huddle around along with their mulled wine and mince pies.

The highlight of the evening for the children was the chance to line up and have a go at bashing the pinata to see if they could get some of the sweets packed inside it. By the end of the evening the poor little donkey was looking a bit worse for wear but had served it's purpose well.

Most of the rest of the huts are up by Hove Lagoon and the next one is hut 424 which promises to be an amazing creation from one of the Beyond team.

Beach Hut 16

We have had a host of angels over the last week because in the Christmas story angels crop up a number of times and hut 195 was no exception as we turned up to see Anne-Marie's interpretation of this theme.

The decoration outside the hut almost outshone the inside as it featured two large herald angels and a golden centrepiece. Inside we were presented with a simple little stable underneath an enormous guiding star. Everything was set off by a rich red backdrop with yet more angels silhouetted in the sky above the scene.


The evening was calm, clear and cold, quite a contrast to some of the evenings we've had so far but hopefully a sign of the weather to come as we head in to our last week of huts and our final gathering on Christmas Eve.

Throughout our journey towards Christmas we've been collecting photographs of some of the faces who have come to see the installations and on Christmas Eve we plan to collage these all together to form our own heavenly host of those who have joined us on this Christmas pilgrimage this year.

Hut 177 will be your next chance to join in with this - come and have your photo taken so you can join our heavenly throng.