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.

From Death to Life

To fully embrace the darkness and silence of Holy Saturday, we met together underground in the tomb-like cellar of a Brighton Hotel. We marked this unique, yet often overlooked day in the calendar with our own version of a traditional Tenebrae Service. Nestled between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Holy Saturday exists almost as a non-place, with many lingering questions surrounding the absence of God. When Christ called out 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' he experienced that complete isolation from the Father which leaves us with some poignant challenges to our existing faith. For example, in identifying with Christ's followers at the time and without the knowledge of the resurrection, we might ask ourselves whether or not we would continue to follow the way of Jesus. Do we follow him now for his own sake or because we might get

something out of it?

There were plenty of opportunities for similar questions throughout the event. It was split into six sections with a moment for contemplation, music or silence between each one. The long, narrow, stone room was dark with light emanating only from six candles lit at the front on a table. Upon entering, visitors were invited to wash their hands in a bowl of red wine and then dry them on a large white sheet hanging loosely behind the front table. After considering our role in the death of Jesus through this act so reminiscent of Pilate, two people got up to prepare the bare table with a cloth, plates, bread and wine - evoking the feeling of The Last Supper. Starting with The Shadow of Betrayal, another two people read an excerpt from Jesus' conversation with his disciples, indicating that one of them was indeed about to betray him. Projecting onto the sheet hanging behind was some powerful imagery showing clips of bread dough being pummeled and kneaded, interspersed with grapes being picked and trampled underfoot. We watched the various ways that the dough was beaten and stretched, along with the grapes being crushed and squeezed for a while, considering it's violent parallel with Christ's body. One of the candles at the front was extinguished.

Our second part, The Shadow of Anguish involved a distressed reading from a Psalm of David where he cries out to God from his despair:

"Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.

My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning;

My strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.

Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbours;

I am a dread to my friends -- those who see me on the street flee from me.

I am forgotten by them as though I were dead;

I have become like broken pottery.

For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side;

They conspire against me and plot to take my life.

But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God."

Afterwards, a clay pot on the table is smashed with a hammer. Throughout this, the screen shows a droplet of blood falling and dispersing into a pool of water. We are reminded of the blood that Jesus sweat in the garden of Gethsemane, and then there is a dialogue from the moment he prays for the cup of suffering to be taken away from him. Another candle is extinguished.

For The Shadow of Treachery, a reading took place relaying the betrayal of Judas where he hands Jesus over to the authorities after kissing him. A man stands at the front in a white shirt with a clear lipstick mark on the collar, removing it after Jesus has been arrested then places it on the table. We listen to Kissing You by Des'ree, wrestling with the tension that exists between a symbol of such love and an action of betrayal that changed the course of history. The third candle is then extinguished.

The Shadow of Hypocrisy. Next, we are reminded of how Pilate washed his hands of Jesus' blood by handing him over to the people crying out for him to be crucified. The dull thud of a drum beaten monotonously echoed throughout the cellar as readers recounted Jesus' death sentence. Yet another candle goes out.

As a crown of thorns is set on the table during The Shadow of Humiliation, the readers take us through Jesus' last moments when he was struck, spat on, mocked and eventually nailed to a cross. We listened to the following reading taken from Isaiah:

'But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our sin; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. He was oppressed and afflicted; yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.'

After each sentence, a lingering pause followed, during which a man used a mallet to embed three rusty nails in a wooden cross. The sudden, deafening blows splintered through the silence and rang in our ears before the fifth candle was blown out.

A film clip follows, taken from Fight Club. The scene presents us with some particularly probing assertions, including the fictional Tyler Durden asking us to come to terms with certain potential realities in order that we might crucially experience the loss of everything before we're free to do anything.

For our sixth and final part, The Death of Jesus, we listened to the account of Jesus' very last hour. After hearing of how he was given vinegar on a sponge, we shared communion together, using vinegar instead of the expected wine. Then the sheet being used for projections, which we had earlier dried our hands on, was torn entirely in two, resembling the temple curtain. The dramatic tear signaled the end of our event, as the sixth and final candle was extinguished and we sat together for a while in complete darkness.

The feeling of suspense was lingering as there was no mention of the next day, we simply left it at the death of Jesus and imagined the utter despair the disciples would have gone through after such an event.

LENT THROUGH THE LANES

For those of you who have not yet discovered BEYOND's meditative tour throughout the central lanes of Brighton, you have three weeks left to do so. The audio visual trail has been open for three weeks already and the unique experience has left various participants with fresh new visions of the city they walk around regularly.

The journey is approximately a one hour walk through the lanes, using silent disco technology to provide site-specific ambient sounds with spoken word to reflect on. There are five locations on the route of visual interest and the accompanying sounds have been designed specifically for each one, on themes surrounding Lent and Easter. Some who have completed the journey have found encouraging new perspectives of a spiritual nature through seemingly mundane every-day features of Brighton. It has also been recommended, if possible, to make the meditative walk at sunset, since the route goes down onto the seafront and has been graced with some astounding views to compliment the experience. Other feedback we've had is of the sense one feels when walking around town with headphones on, as though starring in a special movie of one's own making. Yet others have merely appreciated the time taken out of busy every-day life to simply slow dow, breathe, listen, reflect and enjoy doing something out of the ordinary.

The walk begins at The Brighthelm Centre where you can pick up your headset and a map for a fully refundable £20 cash deposit.

Opening times are as follows:

Mon-Fri 9am - 5pm except Weds to 10pm

Sundays 10am-4pm

On Sunday 17th April at 7pm BEYOND will also run a special guided tour from Brighthelm.

Whether or not you've taken/given something up for lent, make sure you find the time to engage with the real event of Easter. After BEYOND's audio visual tour, perhaps you'll consider things from a varying number of perspectives!

Understanding Love (?)

Last Sunday's gathering at The Brunswick gave visitors a comfortable space to discuss issues regarding love. Not airy-fairy hippy lurve, but real, gritty, soul-wrenching, impenetrable love - with all of its complications. Various quotes left on the tables were provocative instigators for conversation, yet some people had tangents and controversy of their own for us to really grapple with. Below are a number of quotes that proved highly engaging.

“Feelings come to us, passively; agape comes from us, actively, by our free choice. We are not responsible for our feelings-we can't help how we feel-but we are responsible for our agape or lack of it… Only a fool would command someone to feel a certain way. God commands us to love, and God is no fool.”

“Those we love are the ones who birth and sustain our very ability to desire.”

“Love itself is all in our imagination.”

“We always love ourselves: we always seek our own good."

“God cannot fall in love for the same reason water cannot get wet: it is wet.”

“Love of humanity is easy because humanity does not surprise you with inconvenient demands. You never find humanity on your doorstep, stinking and begging.”

“One misunderstanding about love is the confusion between "God is love" and "love is God."”

“You cannot be in love with love, any more than you can have faith in faith, or hope in hope, or see sight.”

“If God is not a Trinity, God is not love. For love requires three things: a lover, a beloved, and a relationship between them."

"Not all men are worthy of love."

“Love does not belong to the beholder of love, but, to the subject to which it loves.”

“Love does not want our hymns of praise or prayers of adoration. She does not want our sacrifices or seek our time. One cannot and should not even try to love love. For love always points away from herself. To honour love is to be in love, to swim in the world illuminated by her.”

To conclude our Love series, visitors also had the opportunity to fill out 'promise cheques' from our Unlucky in Love event, or to pin a tick / cross onto the figures from Unconditional in Love, with what they find desirable / undesirable in a person. It was really valuable having a slightly less-structured format on Sunday, as people were able to express openly what they had been questioning or discovering over the past few weeks.

Next up is Lent Through The Lanes, our audio visual meditative tour around 5 different locations in the lanes of Brighton. More news on this soon, the launch date is Sunday 13th of March and it'll be open for six weeks.

Unlucky in Love

The second event in our current series on Love took place last Sunday on Brighton Pier. Gathering in the Victoria Bar, nestled among the slot machines and games of the arcades, visitors were invited to consider the nature of our titled event, Unlucky in Love.

Upon arrival, individuals engaged with the concept of chance and the role that it might play within love as they threw darts at polystyrene figures, aiming for a bullseye within the heart targets. Around the room, various stations were assembled according to The 5 Love Languages identified and described by author Gary Chapman.

The first station focussed on Words of Affirmation, presenting people with a series of upturned cards. Some cards had written on them a word deeply rooted in what we understand to be an example of love, others had words of the direct opposite. The challenge was to find a pair by picking two cards up on each turn, the process of which proved increasingly more thought provoking than the words in question.

Elsewhere, Quality Time was well and truly experienced as visitors were invited to take two minutes for themselves, by fitting some headphones with calm, ambient music and an eye mask as they settled into a big comfy sofa. Some resurfaced considerably later than others, given the novelty it clearly was for them.

Whilst reflecting on Receiving Gifts, people at this station had the opportunity to make a present for someone else by icing and decorating a biscuit. Rather than focussing entirely on how we prefer to receive love ourselves, the gift-making encouraged us to think about those who need us to show them what love is.

The act of showing love usually involves giving something of ourselves. Often it is a gamble, sometimes even a risk. We thought about this at the Acts Of Service station,

where there was a chance to fill out a 'promise cheque,' for someone known to us; a sort of I.O.U, whether that be the resolution to make someone a cup of tea every day for

a week, or something a little more challenging.

For some, Physical Touch is a necessity not just a luxury. Two of our team were offering hand-massages to those exploring this. If nothing else, they went away smelling sweetly of coconuts and almonds.

To finish with, everyone was able to complete the love language quiz in

order to discern their own personal and preferred way of receiving love. Developing a heightened awareness of different peoples' unique acknowledgments of love challenged us as to how we might respond accordingly. Each person left with a valentines card and in it, a poignant excerpt from 1 John. This message about the source of our love served as a powerful reminder, enabling us to place into valuable context what we had considered that evening;

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us.

God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

We love because he first loved us.

On 27th February, join us at The Brunswick for the next event in our series, an open discussion on love.

Unconditional Love

Our love season began this Sunday with a look at Unconditional Love in an unconventional way.

The theme came about because one of our team spotted a graffiti wall in north central Brighton with those exact words (see it being created here). We used it for our promotional postcard image this time and it sparked a whole series of ideas which we're going to explore in our next three events.

Unconditional Love was our first attempt at a guerilla style evening and we asked people to come to the graffiti ready for an urban journey. Behind this meeting place is a concrete multistorey car park and we set up a number of installations in the space which itself was covered in graffiti. Everyone who turned up was invited to explore the space while asking themselves the question "is this unconditional love".


In one corner there was a Rob Bell video loop all about the different kinds of love in the Old Testament, across from this was some love neon with a haunting audio loop of the song "Jesus blood never failed me yet".

In the middle of the whole space were two perfect human figurines which surprised us by dancing around wildly in the wind despite our best efforts to anchor them. This installation invited people to think about the qualities that they like in a person and those that we dislike and write these on ticks or crosses which were then pinned to the figures. On various surfaces and expanses of concrete were long ribbons of poetry or quotes from the Bible about love.


Beyond team members showed their commitment to our cause by acting the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet or playing the part of rough sleepers who find solace in each other and the poetry of the Song of Songs. After half an hour of this we headed away, under the kissing sculpture which is situated in this area to the Circus Circus pub to warm up, have a drink and discuss what we'd all seen and experienced.

Our next exploration of love is only 2 weeks away on St. Valentine's Eve. Our venue is amongst all the slot machine and games of chance on Brighton Pier in the Victoria Bar and is entitled Unlucky in Love.

Christmas Eve

Our final beach hut of 2010 was an extravanganza of dressing up as we asked everyone to come dressed as a nativity character to help us try and best the world record for the largest nativity. The hut was dressed as the stable complete with empty manger (Jesus wasn't born until Christmas Day) and live chickens (the only camel in Sussex wasn't able to travel because he hasn't got a transport licence!). Loads of people came dressed up and took turns to sit in the hut and have their photo taken in a little nativity scene, you'll find a selection of those posted below.

The mayor of Brighton and his wife came down to act as official witnesses along with Roger French, chief executive of Brighton Buses. We also had the draw for the Choccywoccydoodah Madonna and child cake which went to a family who have been to every hut except one.


Unfortunately we didn't get enough people to break the record as we had around 150 in costume and the record is 250. We reckon there were at least 300 at the event overall but most chose to dress in warm modern clothes rather than attempting Biblical dress.

Our next event is on 30th January entitled Unconditional Love and you can get details of that on our website. Have a great Christmas and may the God of love be present with you and your families at this time.