Beach Hut 9

There was real peace at the beach hut tonight as people came to see the ninth of our openings. The hut shone out as a beacon of light in quite a dark part of the beach as the light from the candles and lanterns was reflected in the metal foil ceiling and the many different types of glass that were decorating the hut.




We had our first complete nativity in this hut with an angel looking down on the shepherds, wise men and stable animals all gathering around to see Jesus.

We had more new visitors tonight as some who had been to an opening before wanted to share the experience with their friends. One group of friends brought some sparklers and the light from these added to the beautiful glow from the hut.













Right at the end we had a special visitor as a little mouse appeared from under the next door hut and busied himself clearing up the mince pie crumbs. We couldn't tell if he was a church mouse but he was very determined to take part and stayed around even when people got quite close to him.

Next hut - number 381 (not 181 as it says on the printed flyers)

Beach Hut 8

Day 8 of the Calendar was probably the warmest night we've had so far and hut 27 created a lovely cosy atmosphere to complement that with the hut festooned with candles and an antique candelabra as the centrepiece of the display.

The publicity over the weekend drew new people along tonight as most attendees did not seem to have been to one of the openings before. We were also supported by the local community police who have been popping along to most of the openings to check that we're OK and to see what we're doing.

Next hut is 227 - see you there!

News Coverage

We got some more news coverage over the weekend on Meridian which we're attaching here. This nicely complements the BBC coverage earlier in the week which you can see here

The news reports have been great at letting us emphasise our aim to get people to think about the true meaning of Christmas.

The Times Online is also running pictures from us here http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5288892.ece

The local paper also did some pre-publicity which you can see here http://www.theargus.co.uk/search/3879441.Make_a_date_at_huts/
and is listing us every day along with information about which hut is opening.

We're getting up to 100 people a day coming through our blog site and if you want to go linking crazy try putting Advent Beach Hut Calendar into Google and see how many people have picked up on this and linked to us so far.

Beach Hut 7

Day 7 was a perfect night following on from a beautiful sunny, crisp day which brought out the crowds for both the day and the night. Over a hundred people turned up to see beach hut 410 and share in the Christmas experience, so many that we ran out of mulled wine and mince pies.







Karen themed her hut around the Christmas tradition of the Christingle. This is made from an orange representing the world which has a red ribbon wrapped round it to represent the blood of Christ, four sticks have sweets placed on them to represent the fruit of the earth and the whole thing is topped off with a candle to represent Christ, the light of the world.

The centrepiece of the display was a giant size Christingle surrounded by candles and lanterns and the children were invited to make one of their own during the evening.

We also had more singing as members of St. Andrews Community Choir led us in the carols Away in a Manger and Silent Night.

The next hut is right down by Hove Lawns - number 27.

Beach Hut 6

Day 6 of our calendar really pulled the stops out with loads of things to see and do.

The hut was visible up and down the seafront as it had lighted stars mounted on it and in the air above it, guiding visitors to a recreation of the holy stable.








The theme was O Come, O Come Emmanuel and Caroline and Steve had covered their hut with different names that are used to describe Jesus and people were asked to put a little star on the name that meant the most to them.

On top of all this there were games for the children to play and for the first time so far this month we got to sing some carols together.


Next hut is also by the lagoon - number 410.

Beach Hut 5

Beach Hut 5 in our Advent Beach Hut Calendar brought Joy To The World in more ways than one. Not only was it the carol for the night but there was also a real sense of joy amongst those who turned up as the kids ran backwards and forwards and the adults chatted while sipping their mulled wine and eating mince pies.



Annalise gave people a chance to actually sit in her hut which was a great way to shelter from the cold but also created a very cosy, intimate feeling for the night. Many people commented on how they had never been inside a beach hut even though they had lived in Brighton & Hove for a long time, so it was great that there was an opportunity to experience that on this night.




The hut decoration had a glass theme, with an enormous mirror in the back of the hut, installed especially for tonight and little stained glass candle holders arranged all along the back to give some light.

Now we move up to the lagoon for the next few days - next hut 399.

Beach Hut 4

The day started ominously as it was very wet and stormy but fortunately everything cleared up by late afternoon and by the time we opened hut number 381 we just had a strong breeze to contend with.
Day 4 of our Advent Calendar featured the first live performance as James came down with his guitar to sing the themed carol for today - Love Came Down At Christmas. He had the added bonus of being filmed by Meridian who recorded a piece for the news tomorrow.


Alice had created a wonderful piece of silhouette art with cut outs on the back of a white cloth which had lights placed behind it, turning the beach hut into a kind of lightbox. The theme was carried on through the other decorations on the hut including mistletoe for those who were really feeling the loving spirit!







This evening also had our first giveaway other than the mince pies and mulled wine. There were pebbles from the beach on which Alice had painted a white dove and people could take these away with them to help to remember the evening.

Next hut is number 227.

Beach Hut 3

The theme for tonight incorporated ideas from our most recent Sunday night event - LIGHT which you can read about further down this blog. On the last Sunday of November we worked with light artist Chris Levine who uses lasers in his art and this sparked an idea for a hut installation using similar techniques to try and recreate a starlight experience on the beachfront.


The theme for tonight was Oh Holy Night, a carol all about the light of Christ coming into the world.

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,

'Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! O, hear the angels' voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born;

O night divine, O night, O night Divine.

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming,

With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.

So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,

Here come the wise men from Orient land.

The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger;

In all our trials born to be our friend.

We also appeared on BBC TV tonight showing a few of the beach huts (including some previews for those of you who don't want the surprise spoiled) talking about the whole project and the aims of BEYOND. You can see the piece here BBC Local News

Beach Hut 2

Day 2 of the Advent Beach Hut Calendar went off beautifully and was a real family event. The theme for hut 128 was O Little Town of Bethlehem and included a beautiful little nativity scene with the stars shining down on a candle lit tableau. There was straw in the stable and we even had a real life Mary, Joseph and an angel who dressed up especially for the occasion.




A number of people who came out last night came along to visit again and there were also a lot of new people including a few who just stopped by intrigued by all the chatter, the music and the warm glow. They soon found themselves drawn in by the irresistible the lure of mulled wine, mince pies and companionship.

We move on to the lagoon end of the beachfront next to see what's in hut 395.

Beach Hut 1

Today was the launch of the first ever Advent Beach Hut Calendar and it was a spectacular start.

Not only did 60 or so people visit us during the hour we were open, but the heavens conspired to produce a truly amazing conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter in a constellation that gave us a spectacular vista out to sea as we sipped mulled wine and ate mince pies together.



This heavenly light was so unusual that apparently local radio stations were inundated with calls from people wanting to point this out. Of course we knew it was God putting his seal of approval on our beach front endeavour!

Hut 27 gave us a warm welcome with candles providing light and even a gas fire to help with the bitter cold. Tomorrow we move on to hut 128, see you there!

Advent Light

As it was Advent Sunday we chose to focus on light as our theme and were privileged to have Chris Levine join us hot from a double page spread in the Guardian yesterday. He uses light in his art because it helps us to focus on the spiritual things in life especially in its purest form as laser light.

We also had Winni Hensinger a Physics lecturer from Sussex University explain a little about light and why it's so fundamental to the way the universe works, even being the constant that determines how time works.
But most of all we just had wonderful light art to experience and to enjoy.





Corridors of light to bathe in and travel down, beams of light to follow and walk across, narrow needles of light that looked so solid that you felt as though they would needle you when you walked into them.





As we made the journey from darkness to light, from ignorance to enlightenment, from sorrow to joy, we were reminded of the wonder of God and that he is light and in him is no darkness at all.

Advent Beach Hut Calendar

Next week sees the launch of our most ambitious project yet - the world premiere of The Advent Beach Hut Calendar. All along the Hove seafront from the border with Brighton up to the Hove Lagoon there are some 440 beach huts and it occurred to us a year ago that opening their doors was rather like opening the doors on an advent calendar to reveal a piece of chocolate and a suprise picture. We've been able to recruit beach hut owners who are prepared to open their hut for an hour between 5.30pm and 6.30pm at some point during the month and to create a display themed around a Christmas Carol. Some hut owners who weren't able to do a display have been teamed up with local artists and a theatre company who are going to put on something on their behalf.

We hope that this will get the whole community here in Brighton & Hove talking about advent and what it means to look forward to the birth of Christ on Christmas Day.

We will be posting photos and comments from each opening here on the blog as often as possible throughout the month so please come by and see what we're doing and take part in this advent event.And for those of you able to come - don't forget LIGHT this Sunday at 7pm at the Old Market Theatre featuring internationally acclaimed light artist, Chris Levine. See the main website for details.

STILL

Our latest event was advertised as a chance to be still and know God but this was as far away from being an evening of meditation and chanting as Brighton is from London - which is where we began - watching the 1953 BBC film of the train journey from London to Brighton in 4 minutes as a metaphor for the way our lives seem to rush along tracks over which we have very little control. We tried to simulate the feeling of rushed anticipation and hassle a lot of people experience day to day by playing the chocolate game where those who threw a double six were invited to try and eat some chocolate in hat and gloves with a knife and fork.

All of this was to point out that when we get stressed and rushed we become different people as a variety of physical and emotional symptoms stop us from being the wonderful creatures that God made us to be.

Stress doesn't just come from rushing about, but also from the emotional turmoil we sometimes experience through worry and anxiety, especially in these times of financial upset and crisis.



We started the quieter phase of the evening with an anti-meditation which was designed to stimulate some anxiety and worry but actually proved to be quite funny!

The most interesting illustration for us was the story of Jesus calming the storm and we noticed that he didn't take the disciples away to somewhere quiet and peaceful but brought stillness right into the middle of the storm as he sat alongside them in the boat.

Finally we were led through a meditation on-screen which invited us to still ourselves and our minds because that is the only way to truly know ourselves and to know God, the one who is still there and always will be.

CLEAN

CLEAN started by making people deliberately dirty up a large white cloth laid across the entrance to the theatre and to add insult to injury we'd added a load of mud outside the door so no-one could avoid being involved in the soiling process! Later on, that cloth became the centrepiece for our evening which was shaped around the idea of one long confession. In a regular church service we skate over the confession quite quickly at the beginning of most acts of worship but CLEAN was an opportunity to really think about how we have spoiled things or been spoiled, and to actively do something about that.

We learnt that Christianity is one of the least hygienic religions and in times past has been regarded as distinctly unsanitary by other religions who place a lot of emphasis on regular washing, both ritual and otherwise. We also got a chance to think about what we regard as wholesome or not by looking at pictures placed around the walls and writing our reaction on them.


We discovered that wiping away our sins isn't always as easy as we'd like as we all wrote about things that we had done wrong on mini white boards and tried to wipe these clean with cloths that eventually found their way onto the cloth in the form of a cross - where all sins are wiped away for ever.





The evening finished on a positive note with a storm of bubbles as we all washed our white boards and ourselves in the pool in the middle of the room and everyone was given a piece of soap to take away with them as a reminder of clean living.

More About Fingermazes

We've had a busy August taking the Fingermaze concept to Greenbelt and using over half a kilometre of gaffer tape to create a labyrinth on the tarmac in the main concourse area. Over 15,000 people were at the festival and it was great to see them interacting with the labyrinth in all kinds of ways from kids riding their bikes round it to teenagers making up their own games on it at one o'clock in the morning.

We ran guided meditations every lunchtime and about 300 people took part over the three days.




Following this I thought it might be interesting to produce an animated version of the meditation as a short video. It's just under 7 minutes and is a chance for quiet reflection about who you are and how you relate to God and the world.

I have uploaded the video here or you can see it on Youtube