Hallowed Light

The new season of BEYOND happenings began on 2nd November with Hallowed Light, following closely on the back of Halloween and being on All Saints Sunday.
For this series of seven events we are taking a phrase from the Lord's Prayer and associating it with one of Jesus 'I Am' sayings from the gospel of John.  This first event paired up 'hallowed by your name' with 'I am the Light of the World' to help us understand something of the identity of God.

We thought about our own identity and it's relationship to our names, we looked at some of the names of God in the Old Testament before focussing on Jahweh as the sacred name of God given to Moses when he encountered the burning bush.

Richard Rohr has written about this name and its meaning for us throughout out lives:

Breathing Yahweh
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the Jewish revelation of the name of God. As we Christians spell and pronounce it, the word is Yahweh. In Hebrew, it is the sacred Tetragrammaton YHVH (yod, he, vay, and he). These letters are breathed, with the tongue relaxed and lips apart. YHVH was considered a literally unspeakable word for Jews, and any attempt to know what they were talking about was “in vain.” As the commandment said: “Do not utter the name of God in vain” (Exodus 20:7). For all attempts to fully think God are in vain. From God’s side, the divine identity was kept mysterious and unavailable to the mind. When Moses asked for the divinity’s name, he received only the phrase that translates “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14).

This unspeakability has long been recognized, but now we know it goes even deeper: formally the name of God was not, could not be spoken at all—only breathed. Many are convinced that its correct pronunciation is an attempt to replicate and imitate the very sound of inhalation and exhalation. Therefore, the one thing we do every moment of our lives is to speak the name of God. 

This makes the name of God our first and last word as we enter and leave the world.
There is no Islamic, Christian, or Jewish way of breathing. There is no American, African, or Asian way of breathing. There is no rich or poor, gay or straight way of breathing. The playing field is utterly leveled. It is all one and the same air, and this divine wind “blows where it will” (John 3:8). No one can control this Spirit.

When considered in this way, God is suddenly as available and accessible as the very thing we all do constantly—breathe, the same breath that was breathed into Adam’s nostrils by this Yahweh (Genesis 2:7); the very breath “spirit” that Jesus handed over with trust on the cross (John 19:30) and then breathed on us as shalom, forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit all at once (John 20:21-23). And it is wonderful that breath, wind, spirit, and air are precisely nothing—and yet everything.

We then took some time to meditate on this while creating or own burning bush and listening to a piece of music by John Reynolds entitled Sunshine which you can hear here.


Being reminded of God's pronouncement to Moses that his name is 'I Am' took us to Jesus declaration of himself as the light of the world.

John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke out, “I am the light of the world. The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

1 John 5: This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 

1 Thess 5:5 For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.

Julian of Norwich reflected on this theme:

"Thus I saw and understood that our faith is our light in the night; which light is God, our endless day." 

We closed with an opportunity for everyone to make a pledge to bring light into the world.

The next happening is entitled Kingdom Come and is at St. Luke's church at 8pm on Sunday 30th November, details are here.

Lent Reflection

For Lent this year we are running a series of discussions in The Good Companions Pub near Seven Dials using talks recorded at the Christianity 21 conference in Denver in January.  You can find details of the next talk, location of the pub etc. here.

We also wanted to do something artistic for Lent that would reach a wide audience in the spirit of previous Lent installations such as the Lent Cross, Silent Meditation and Easter Path.

As Lent is meant to be a time of reflection and self-examination we thought it would be nice to create a mirror to go into a public space which would encourage people to stop for a few moments and consider themselves and their lives during this season of the year.






So Kirsty Tyler has created a wonderful mirror which we've been able to install in the office window of 1 Jubilee Street in the heart of Brighton just across from the central library.  This is right next to the busiest cash machine in the city where there is often a queue of people who will have ample opportunity to contemplate themselves as they pass the time waiting in line.








The mirror informs people that we are in the season of Lent, which is a time for examination and self-reflection.  Take a moment to look at yourself and think about your life.  What is important to you?  Who is important to you?  What could you do better?  How could you be better?  Make a resolution for good this Lent.

We're also encouraging people to tweet their thoughts on this to @beyondchurch

Our thanks go to Steve Kirkham of Spofforths accountants for persuading the other tenants and the landlord to allow us to put this in the building.  If you're in central Brighton between now and Easter drop by and spend a few moments in contemplation in the city. 

This is also now featured on the Huffington Post religion section under the title "Giving up God for Lent" Clearly some people think that's a good idea if you look at the comments on that article. 

We also found the following quote tacked to the window beside the mirror: "'There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings' Friedrich Nietzsche".

24th December - Hut 227

Christmas Eve is finally here and with it the letter Y for Yule.  

Yuletide comes from Celtic spirituality and is thought to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for wheel as we mark the turning of the seasons from Winter towards Spring and Summer.  In some traditions Yuletide begins on Christmas Eve and lasts through until New Year’s day. 


So our Yuletide was marked with a large Yule candle which is symbolic of the welcoming back of light into the world.  The candle is traditionally lit on Christmas Eve to mark the movement from the ordinary daily world to the magical time of Christmas when we welcome the birth of Jesus as the Light of the World.  

During the evening we heard the Christmas story and sang carols that were relevant to the different parts of narrative.  


Then we enacted the breaking of light into our dark world as we broke light glowsticks together and then took these lights into our homes as a sign of Jesus the light of the world. The Yule log is also an important part of Yuletide and represents the bringing of light into the home.  Traditionally this involved hauling a large wooden log into the fireplace which would then burn throughout Christmas day.  We now celebrate this tradition with edible Yule logs as we welcome the light of Christ into our lives to enlighten and sustain us with the love and power of the Holy Spirit.  Everyone got to take a small chocolate log with them as a Christmas gift from Beyond.








So we come to the end of another Beach Hut Advent Calendar.  You can catch up on all the huts and the stories behind them by going back through the blog and watch our website in the New Year for details of our next event.

23rd December - Hut 410

Tonight there were Wise men in hut 410 and a number of not so wise men and women outside braving fifty to sixty mile and hour winds and rain in order to see the latest in our Beach Hut Advent Calendar openings.

Karen Morton created a beautiful, windproof hut with three camels looking down on the crowns of the kings made from different floral arrangements.

Despite the warnings from local radio and TV weather presenters a few hardy folks still came down to see the hut and we all sat in the lee of one of the seafront shelters to drink our mulled wine, eat our mince pies and talk about how bracing the weather was.

Being out in the elements on a night like this reminds us of the hardship endured by the wise men as they travelled hundreds of miles to find the newborn king without the comfort of air conditioning or the security of satnav.

Our final hut on Christmas Eve will be number 227 beside The View restaurant.  We will be welcoming back the light of the world as we celebrate the beginning of the Yuletide season.

22nd December - Hut 72

We're almost at the end of our alphabet of advent and have arrived at V.  Janina Karpinska chose to theme hut 72 around the Virgin Mary.

Janina paints icons and there were a number of examples of her work hanging on the fabric walls that she had created inside the hut.

The floor was covered with a collection of icons and images of the Mother of God, all lit with votive candles as though they were in a shrine.

There was even a unicorn because legend has it that the only person who can tame a unicorn is a virgin.

Two more huts to go until Christmas and the next one is by Hove lagoon and is hut number 410 with the letter W

21st December - Hut 116

Tonight we were United Under the Umbrella of Christmas although if we had put an umbrella up it would have blown inside out within a couple of minutes because it was really windy on the beach.  Fortunately it wasn't cold and we only had a few spatterings of rain so we only had to concentrate on stopping things blowing away.  Given that it is the 21st of December and the dead of winter, it was to be expected that the weather might be a bit tricky.

Jim Waldock put a lot of work into the hut with a whole collection of things that are brought together at Chrismastide.   A pair of reindeer, a nativity scene, beautiful lights and chandeliers and the centrepiece was a large lighted sign which Jim had made featuring lots of little lights spelling out the message of the hut.  These included a pair of reindeer, a nativity scene, lots of umbrellas, beautiful lights and chandeliers and the centrepiece was a large lighted sign which Jim had made featuring lots of little lights spelling out the message of the hut.

 

Because of the weather not too many people braved the elements to come and see the hut but a big crowd of Jim's friends came to give him lots of support.

The next hut is also close to Hove Lawns and is number 72 when we hope to meet with the Virgin Mary.

20th December - Hut 264

Time waits for no-one but tonight we definitely got a sense of the waiting that is associated with Advent as a group from the Church of the Good Shepherd on Dyke road took Time For God as their theme.  Time for God is also the name of one of their more informal services held in the church hall at the same time as the parish eucharist.

Hut 264 was framed with a huge clock face through which we could see a nativity scene with sheep up on the hills and an empty manger waiting for the baby Jesus.

The sheep had been made by children at the church and some of them had some real character.

The church also brought along an enthusiastic group of singers who sang out a selection of Christmas carols despite the wind howling a gale around us.

The next hut is alongside Hove Lawns and is number 116 where we will all be United Under the Umbrella of Christmas.

19th December - Hut 341

Carrie Rawle is the owner of hut 341 and she has a trademark style to the huts she has done over the last four years.

She is expert at creating beautiful 'tissue paper stained glass' - scenes which are composed of lots of layers of coloured tissue held together in a sheet by loads of PVA glue and then backlit for us all to see.  The eventual effect is colourful and feels very religious as the light shines through the coloured layers.

The theme for the night was S for Star which was depicted sitting above the Stable where Jesus was born.

In the Christmas story the star is very important as it guides so many people to the place of Jesus' birth.  We had a number of pilgrims come to the hut tonight, including a  family who were visiting from Toronto and a lady from Cardiff who had made the journey especially after four years meticulous planning.





The wind was quite strong tonight which made it difficult to keep the Star scene in place but it still acted as a beacon for those who were seeking it out.








Our travelling star, which helps to guide people to the correct hut sat high above the hut tonight.


The next hut is being prepared by a team of people from the church of the Good Shepherd on Dyke Road.  The name of the group is Time for God which fits nicely with the letter for the day which is T.

18th December - Hut 403

Tonight there was a howling wind on the seafront which caused the angel of hut 403 to flap and dance in the most energetic way.

Local artist Duncan Banks chose to create a Rejoicing angel in the hut composed from his own paintings, including some silhouettes, and wings made from polythene and bubble wrap.


The wind was a very strong on the seafront and it very quickly shook the wings loose making the angel look as though it was trying to fly.  Unfortunately this also meant that there was a good deal of ongoing repair work throughout the hour that the hut was open.


The face of the angel looked down enigmatically with a kind of serene peace that was in contrast with the wings dancing around it.





Duncan creates a variety of types of art and exhibits at the Seven Dials gallery as well as taking part in the artists Open Houses.  You can view his work here.

The next hut is number 341 and is in the middle of Hove seafront and being the 19th of our huts will feature the letter S.

17th December - Hut 402

For the last six weeks a group of sixth form students from Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary School have been wrestling with the letter Q and its relationship with Christmas.

The group decided to focus on the idea of a Quest as so many groups sought out the baby in the stable on the first Christmas night.

The group produced a quiz for all the attendees with a set of five riddles to which the answers corresponded to the five letters of QUEST.

Everyone who completed the Quiz was given a silver star and invited to attach this to the large dark star at the heart of the display in the hut.



They also received an award for completing their Quest in the form of a Quality street chocolate from the treasure chest which was positioned in place of the crib.







The whole hut was wrapped in silver foil and lit with lasers to create a really sparkly look.

The weather tonight was even worse than yesterday as it rained non-stop for the whole duration of the opening, but the students persevered and kept everything going all night.

The next hut is right next door to this one at number 403.