Beach Hut 1

At last Advent is here and we started the fifth annual Brighton Beach Hut Advent Calendar at hut 311 on Hove seafront with the carol I Saw Three Ships.  


It's becoming a tradition for St. Christopher's School in Hove to start us off on our annual journey to Christmas and they did us proud again this year with a hut full of nautical imagery and three gorgeous ships.





One of the ships sported an image of Mary crowned as the queen of heaven, watching serenely over the whole event.

The school choir came and entertained us with almost a full hour of singing despite the cold.  The huge opening night crowd joined in as song sheets were distributed along with the mince pies and mulled wine which unfortunately ran out due to the large crowd.

One of the features each night this year will be our Advent countdown clock.  This will be on display every night counting down the hour that we spend on the beach from 5.30pm - 6.30pm.  But it will also count down the 24 days as we make our journey towards Christmas day and the birth of Jesus.  This countdown clock will feature as part of our Christmas Eve celebration, only a few hours before Christmas Day itself.

The next hut is number 268 - see you there.

(Me)ditation

This was our last event  before the summer holidays when everyone gets a chance to recharge and have a little 'me' time.

This event on the Hove Park Fingermaze provided an opportunity to think about who you are and meditate on your place in creation.






Before embarking on their journey through the labyrinth, each participant was loaded up with ten large pebbles as a symbol of the weight we often carry around with us in our everyday lives.

As they walked towards the centre of the labyrinth they came across stop points which were all themed around areas in our lives that can often define us such as work, relationships, faith, health. Some thoughts were presented on a small black sign and the participant was encouraged to think of the negative aspects of that part of their life and then to drop one of the stones at that point.

This continued until the person reached the centre of the labyrinth unencumbered with any stones and free to just be themselves.




On the walk out they came across the same stop points but this time were presented with a white sign with some thoughts about the positive aspect of that same are in their lives that previously had been a burden.  After some time for reflection on this the person could then pick up a flower and continue their journey having taken all the different aspects of their lives which weighed them down and replaced them with sweet smelling beauty.

 At the end they could take a white stone from the wheelbarrow and write their name on it as a sign of their new attitude to the roles they play in life.

Our next events are at the Greenbelt arts and music festival from 24th - 27th August on Cheltenham Racecourse.  For more details go to www.greenbelt.org.uk

If you would like to be involved but can't get to the festival you can take part virtually by tweeting your pictures of hidden paradise to #beyondhiddenparadise

Hidden Paradise Hove

On one of the biggest football nights in recent history (England vs Italy European championships quarter finals) we went searching for Hidden Paradise in a gym.

This event was mainly to try out some ideas for greenbelt where we plan to explore the hidden glimpses of paradise that are all around us but we just don't see, hear, touch, taste or smell them.

The room was set up with a number of interactive sensory stations which invited us to focus  on each of our senses individually to heighten our awareness of the wonderful things around us, every day.

There was a smell station with aromas to remind you of your childhood or your favourite relative, a touchy/feely station with lots of interesting textures to feel, an audio station where you could sit blindfolded and listen to some binaural audio on wireless headphones.



The highlight (for some) was a tasting bar with some very unusual items to eat and of course a lot of visual stimulus using video and the mirrors that were all along one wall of the gym.















We will be taking this idea and refining it for Greenbelt at the Cheltenham racecourse on Saturday 25th August in the main worship venue - InSense.  You can get details about the festival here.   If you would like to be involved but can't get to the festival you can take part virtually by tweeting your pictures of hidden paradise to #beyondhiddenparadise

HOME

If you haven't already heard, our 'Home' installation is currently being exhibited as part of the Brighton Festival. It is open to the public every Saturday and Sunday afternoon in May from 1pm-6pm at St. Luke's Church Prestonville. 

 

The exhibition features a wide range of sculpture, installation, painting and photography, some of which can be added to by the public. 

Our large floor map of Brighton and Hove already includes numerous additions, both decorative and personal. 

We also have a white room which is slowly being turned into an abstract work of art after an original idea by Yayoi Kusama who is currently exhibiting at Tate Modern.

For those of you who contributed to our Lent X installation in the North Laines, we have created a huge wall made up of the slips each person wrote on. These are varied in nature; whimsical, inspirational, sincere, witty and highly interesting to read - definitely worth a visit! Everyone welcome.  

TENEBRAE

Our annual Holy Saturday event took place at the weekend in a disused Church in Brighton. It was a highly appropriate tomb-like venue with its long stone walls and dark interior. For the third year in a row, 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.

The event was split into six sections, with a moment for silent contemplation between each one. Our only light source came from six candles placed along the floor in the aisle, casting their flickering shadows over the solemn visitors.

The Shadow of Betrayal For the first scene, a table at the front was laid with plates, bread and wine as two people read an excerpt from Jesus' conversation with his disciples, indicating that one of them was about to betray him. Throughout the event, Jesus was referred to only as 'Teacher', with the disciples as 'Followers'. Removing the individual names proved potent as we were able to imagine ourselves in the roles, considering perhaps more vividly what it would have felt like to have been in the same situation. Readers sat interspersed with visitors so that the voices sounded from different places around the room. The scene ended with a desperate reading from Ecclesiastes:

"And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil

that is done under the sun."

One of the candles was extinguished.

The Shadow of Anguish For this scene, a clay pot was placed on the central table. The spoken words were from Gethsemane, when Jesus declared that his soul was "overwhelmed to the point of death". He begged for the cup of suffering to be taken from him, before eventually surrendering his own will. A voice near the front cried out the moving words of David from this Psalm:

"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."

Afterwards, the clay pot was smashed with a hammer and lay in pieces on the table. The second candle was then extinguished.

The Shadow of Treachery Here, a white shirt replaced the shattered clay, revealing a lipstick kiss on the collar. A reading took place relaying the betrayal of Judas where he hands Jesus over to the authorities after kissing him. Kissing You by Des'ree played afterwards, emphasising the paradox that exists between a symbol of such love and an action of utter betrayal which changed the course of history. The words Sealed With A Lethal Kiss unfolded above our heads as they projected onto the church wall.

The third candle was then extinguished.

The Shadow of Hypocrisy Next, we were reminded of how Pilate washed his hands of Jesus' blood by handing him over to the people calling out for him to be crucified. The cries of "Kill Him" were almost unnerving as they reverberated around the stone room when readers recounted Jesus' death sentence.

"He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem."

The fourth candle was blown out.

The Shadow of Humiliation For this scene, a crown of thorns was set upon the table. The readers took us through Jesus' last moments when he was struck, spat on, mocked and eventually nailed to a cross. More haunting words of Ecclesiastes' emptiness followed:

"Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"

A lingering pause ensued, after which someone used a mallet to embed three rusty nails in a wooden cross on the floor. The sudden, deafening blows splintered through the silence and rang in our ears before the fifth candle was blown out.

The Death of Jesus For our sixth and final scene, with very little light left, 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 bitter vinegar instead of the expected wine. Then the sheet that we had erected in front of the altar (Holy of Holies) was torn in two from top to bottom, resembling the temple curtain. The dramatic ripping sound 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 lingered on, as there was no mention of the next day. We simply left it at the death of Jesus whilst imagining the utter despair the disciples would have gone through after such an event.

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.