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

Who Am I?

A beautiful sunny, Sunday evening helped to make the July event truly memorable as we met to picnic and meditate on the Hove Park Fingermaze at the end of July. It was a time to get to know each other a bit better as well as to spend time getting to know ourselves for those who chose to take part in the walking meditation round the ingeniously constructed labyrinth by artist Chris Drury.

People were given 5 coloured labels with questions about different aspects of their identity and invited to leave those parts of their personality at one of 5 'stations' spaced around the labyrinth before coming to the heart of the sculpture where there was a mirror to help us to reflect on who we truly are without all the baggage and labels we normally hide behind.

It was great to see old and young engaging in the evening and we stayed long past our planned hour as the sun set across the maze and the shadows grew longer.


BEYOND won't be meeting in August although some of the team will be at Greenbelt over the August Bank Holiday creating a variation of the Who Am I event.

We have been busy planning our Autumn schedule and so I'm posting details here while we get the BEYOND website adjusted.

The dates for the Autumn are:

28th September - CLEAN
An examination of baptism, washing, water and God
7pm-8pm Old Market Theatre

26th October - STILL
Amidst our rushed lives, time to be still and know God
7pm-8pm Old Market Theatre

30th November - LIGHT
As winter darkness comes upon us we look at how light inspires us, fills us with hope and points us to God.
7pm-8pm Old Market Theatre

Throughout December
The first ever ADVENT BEACH HUT CALENDAR
A lifesize variation on the seasonal advent calendar with huts all along the beachfront opening their doors to reveal something new about the festive season.
If you know anyone with a beach hut who might be interested in joining in with this please put them in touch via info@beyondchurch.co.uk

Home is where the soul is

A hot June sunny evening by the beach with a big football match on is not the perfect evening to be running an event but the Old Market Theatre was still busy with people who had come to think about what home means to them and how this relates to God.

There was lots to do from drawing the journey of our lives on a map to moving around a geographic representation of the UK; watching Judy Garland as Dorothy discover that there's no place like home and listening to Mervyn Weeks of Off The Fence telling us what it's like to be homeless. We built a symbolic house out of our thoughts of what home is and spent some time thinking about what it's like for those from Zimbabwe to not be able to go back to their homes.

Ultimately we came to the understanding that home is about belonging and being part of a community because we are all made in the image of God (see our Seeing Is Believing event) - who is himself a community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We all want somewhere to belong and can all find a home with the God who wants to make his home with us (John 14 verse 23).

At the end we all had the opportunity to respond by lighting a candle from the central flame that had been burning since the beginning of the event and setting it afloat in our own version of the old tradition of leaving a light burning in the window to welcome sailors and fishermen home while a prayer by St. Augustine was put onscreen.

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless
till they find their rest in you;
so lead us by your Spirit
that in this life we may live to your glory
and in the life to come enjoy you for ever;
through Jesus Christ our Lord
who is alive with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.

Funny Spirituality

Who was the greatest comedian in the Bible?
Samson - because he brought the house down.

If "Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin then God was very evident on Sunday 25th May at the Old Market Theatre as 70 or so people met for a good laugh along with their religion. We had jokes from Eddie Izzard, Monty Python, christmas crackers, the Revd. Andrew Rumsey and our feature contributor - Milton Jones.

Our aim was to prove that "the test of a good religion is whether you can joke about it" GK Chesterton although the emphasis was not on taking the mickey out of Christianity (that would be too easy) but on how humour can reveal truths about God which go much deeper than ordinary talk.

Milton pointed out that perhaps Christianity is like a Cornish pasty - there's something in it but it's difficult to find out exactly what it is.



As Andrew Rumsey wrote in a recent article on Ship of Fools "Comedy lies in the gaps between what we ought to be, what we are, and what we just might be one day. Comic timing relies on eternity being written into the heart of man, and man knowing the absurd shortfall: bathos – the lapse from sublime to ridiculous – is thus a part of the comedian's stock-in-trade. In the biblical story, though, God appears to fool around with this familiar routine in the person of Jesus, whose resurrection rewrites the joke about the bloke who's alive, but then dies. The timing seems to be all over the place, but, for those who get it (and Christianity is a gag that plenty don't), the divine punchline makes sense of everything that went before." You can read the whole article at Ship of Fools

The God who is so beyond our comprehension reveals himself in the person of Jesus, so what do we know about Jesus?

Jesus had a beard and sandals and long hair.


although we don't know for certain about the beard..

or the long hair..

or the sandals.



What we do know and we discovered on Sunday, is that humour is good for us; good for our souls and that Christianity is like knitting - basically good but responsible for a lot of bad things.

BEYOND begins

Beyond launched last night with our first event - Seeing is Believing. 55 or so people attended from a wide variety of backgrounds to look at images of God in nature, in ourselves and through Jesus. The highlight of the evening was artist in residence 'My Dog Sighs' who painted 12 individual canvasses during the hour to create a total art piece called 'Am I Your God'. At the end of the evening people were invited to take the painting that they felt they identified with most. He's put some photos and comment up about this at MyDogSighs

Here's one of the paintings - we'll be posting more pictures from the event here over the next few days and hopefully will be able to assemble the complete set of 12 in some way.


What seemed to have struck most people was how many different ways there are to look at God and how rich an experience it can be to expose yourself to that variety.
Some comments from the event:
"My understanding of how God resonates in the world was affirmed."
"Good to have time to explore ideas/feelings with others in a safe environment."
"Reminded me of how amazing God is!"
"It inspired me to be more creative."
"Helped me clarify my thoughts on Jesus - what type of human he was."

Here's a flavour of the event..