Holy Week Hut - 11th April

Tonight we visited the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus who went there to pray with his disciples.

According to the gospel writer Luke, Jesus wrestled with the path that was set before him to such an extent that he sweated blood as he prayed for God to take this cup from him.

Leaving there, Jesus went, as he so often did, to the Mount Olives. The disciples followed him. When they arrived at the place, he said, “Pray that you don’t give in to temptation.”

He pulled away from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, remove this cup from me. But please, not what I want. What do you want?” At once an angel from heaven was at his side, strengthening him. He prayed on all the harder. Sweat, wrung from him like drops of blood, poured off his face.

He got up from prayer, went back to the disciples and found them asleep, drugged by grief. He said, “What business do you have sleeping? Get up. Pray so you won’t give in to temptation.”

The installation tonight was an ingenious contraption which had a print of Van Gogh's Olive Grove at its heart.  This sat on a frame which was surrounded with tubes which constantly trickled drops of red wine down the face of the image.

This painting had particular resonance for the artist as it brought her to tears when she saw it in real life.





The whole installation sat outside the hut where it caught the light from a beautiful sunset.  

Holy Week Hut - 10th April

The first Holy Week Hut of 2017 launched today.

Every evening this week we will be at Beach Hut 11 from 6.30pm-7.30pm as we mark Holy Week together.  Each night a different artist will create an installation themed around an aspect of the Easter story.





Tonight we began with the Last Supper.

Here is that part of the narrative from the gospel of Matthew.
After sunset, Jesus and the Twelve were sitting around the table. During the meal, he said, “I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators.”

They were stunned, and then began to ask, one after another, “It isn’t me, is it, Master?”

Jesus answered, “The one who hands me over is someone I eat with daily, one who passes me food at the table. In one sense the Son of Man is entering into a way of treachery well-marked by the Scriptures—no surprises here. In another sense that man who turns him in, turns traitor to the Son of Man—better never to have been born than do this!”

Then Judas, already turned traitor, said, “It isn’t me, is it, Rabbi?”

Jesus said, “Don’t play games with me, Judas.”




During the meal, Jesus took and blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples:

Take, eat.  This is my body.

Taking the cup and thanking God, he gave it to them:

Drink this, all of you. This is my blood,
God’s new covenant poured out for many people
    for the forgiveness of sins.

“I’ll not be drinking wine from this cup again until that new day when I’ll drink with you in the kingdom of my Father.”

They sang a hymn and went directly to Mount Olives.

The installation had wine spilt in a shape that pre-figured the end of the story.

At the mid-point of the hour we broke bread and shared wine together as Jesus had asked us to during that first communion meal.

It became more poignant as we drew towards sunset and the time when Jesus and his disciples would have been eating together.

Sally Hitchiner - 2nd April

Revd. Sally Hitchiner is chaplain at Brunel University and the founder of Diverse church which supports LGBT+ Christians all over the UK.  She is also a frequent media commentator and often appears on national TV reviewing the papers or being interviewed about church news.



She talked about the many issues which the church faces currently which can be seen as creating a crisis for the institution.  It is helpful to view this in terms of liminal space and therefore becomes an opportunity rather than a threat.  Liminal comes from the latin for threshold and can be seen as a creative opportunity to step out, rather than a defensive retreat.  Living in a liminal space can be uncomfortable but is often a place where God can work.

You can listen to her talk HERE and you can download a pdf of her slides HERE.

Cole Moreton - 5th March 2017

Cole very honestly shared his story as one who loves Jesus but finds it hard to love the institution of the church, especially in recent years when it has not dealt very well with the issues of gender equality, sexuality and marriage and the political landscape, especially in the US.


He described how all of us keep unpleasant things behind a wall or a dam so that we can maintain our circles of community but sometimes one more thing added to the pile behind the dam is too much and it cracks and splits leaving us swimming up to our necks in stuff that is too hard to deal with.

We also listened to a track by Iain Archer - Everest - to help us to reflect on the need sometimes to just hold on through the night until dawn breaks and brings us relief.  You can listen to that on Youtube HERE.

Some other day, when my morning comes,
I’ll be the one that’s waited all night

Cole has kindly allowed us to post his talk here including the Q&A that followed.  You can listen to it HERE.

Our next event is at 7.30pm on Sunday 2nd April with Revd. Sally Hitchiner from Brunel University who will be talking about what it means to live in the space left in a church that has a wide variety of views about sexuality, gender and equality.

An Evening with Pádraig Ó Tuama - 5th Feb. 2017

Pádraig is a poet, storyteller, theologian and the leader of the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland.




He brought his unique collection of stories, thoughts about prayer and poems to St. Luke's Prestonville for a memorable evening.  His soft spoken Irish brogue gives everything that he says a poetic cadence and he has a great gift for telling stories with depth of meaning and purpose whilst maintaining an air of charm and good humour, evening in dark circumstances.

Over 100 people came to listen to him and the overall response has been very positive with people expressing their appreciation for his words and wanting to relive the experience.  Fortunately we recorded the event and Pádraig has agreed to allow us to post this as an mp3 download which you can access on this link.

Download Talk

24th December - Hut 395

It is said that medieval philosophers spent a lot of time discussing how many angels could dance on the head of a pin and that this is an example of how philosophy can embroil you in pointless conversation.

Whether you think this sort of debate took place or not, it certainly is true that the Bible tells us that a host of angels appeared on the night that Jesus was born to announce his birth and to rejoice in the message of good news which would bring great joy to all peoples.

Hut 395 aimed to give people a hint of a heavenly host with a clever arrangement of mirrors and a lighted angel.  

The reflection of the angel in the mirrors bounced back and forth giving us a repeated image which stretched off into the distance.  

If viewers could align themselves correctly then this line of angels could in theory have gone on for ever.

A huge crowd turned up including the mayor of Brighton and Hove, Peter West, the Bishop of Lewes, Richard Jackson and local resident Zoe Ball and we had a great time singing angel themed carols and hearing the Christmas story as recounted in the gospel of Luke.  

We then distributed glowsticks around the throng and in recognition that the angels brought the glory of the Lord to shine around them, we broke these sticks as a sign of the light of Christ coming into the world.

This was a fantastic end to a memorable ninth year of the Beach Hut Advent Calendar and we look forward to our our tenth anniversary next year.

23rd December - Hut 329

We have had a remarkably peaceful Advent when it comes to the weather and have hardly had to mention it in the blog each day.  The exception was today. 

It seems extraordinary that we've been able to get to the 23rd December without a bad weather evening but Storm Barbara put in an appearance tonight.



She brought strong winds with her and combined with a high tide this meant we had a constant spray of water which wasn't quite rain but made for an uncomfortable evening.


But this didn't stop the Zahorchak family from throwing themselves into the spirit of the season.  The children had dressed up as angels and looked adorable sat in their hut although they had to abandon that in favour of more weather friendly gear.

This is known as Nate's hut after Nathan Zahorchak who died unexpectedly in 2014.  The hut is a way for Katie and her children to remember Nate in a positive way and a place of happiness and relaxation for them.




Playing cards in memory of Nate, who was a magician, were hanging as decorations in the hut along with photos of the family that he loved.







There was also a Merry Christmas display and some sets of angel wings fluttering in the wind.





The children weren't the only ones to take up position in the hut as soloist Laura Brookes and her accompaniest came along and sang a number of Christmas carols for the assembled crowd.





Storm Barbara is supposed to blow through overnight and hopefully the weather forecast for Christmas Eve at hut 395 is calm and peaceful.

22nd December - Hut 82

This evening we got a child's view of an angel thanks to the work of the children at the Downs Infants School Art Club.


The centrepiece was another large angel but very different to the collaged one we had last night.  






This angel looked like a little girl, flying along with a beaming smile on her face and her hair drooping down over one eye.  She looked like she was having a lot of fun as she was swayed by the wind under a star and a collection of other, smaller angels, all made by the children.




The children had also been asked what they thought about angels and it was really interesting to see their different comments about this.




Some understood that sometimes we describe others as angels, especially when they've done something good or kind for another person.  






Others had a more objective understanding of the type of being an angel is and how they might behave.






It might not be a bad thing for us to encourage our youngsters to model themselves on angels, whatever they understand that to mean.





We also had garlands of angels across the lintel of the hut and a little band of angels brought instruments with them and played so that we could sing some carols together.




It was a very pleasant, charming evening with a lot of good humour and communal enjoyment.






Only two more huts to go and our pilgrimage will move towards Hove Lagoon for Christmas Eve, but first we stop at hut number 329 tomorrow for our penultimate opening.

21st December - Hut 189

Hut 189 tonight was a hut to remember - in two senses of the word.    






It was memorable for the stunning artwork which filled the hut and the artwork was about remembering those who have gone to be with the angels this year.




The hut was dominated by enormous collage in the shape of an angel which was made up of hundreds of images of well known personalities who have all died in the last year.  



Some sported angel wings of their own and others had wings suggested around them by the arrangement of the collage.







The personalities included Alan Rickman, Prince, Gene Wilder, Leonard Cohen, Caroline Ahern, Mohammed Ali and Shimon Perez.  Terry Wogan nestled amongst the tail feathers of the angel which was topped with a collaged head of David Bowie.




All of this was created by artist Sarah Watson with exquisite attention to detail and an expert eye on the organisation of colour.







The floor of the hut was decorated with a colourful carpet of feathers as though the collage was moulting.


Eddie and Michelle were the hut hosts who had put together a soundtrack for the evening featuring music from artists included in the collage and also provided some fabulous homemade cheese straws.



People stayed and gazed at this installation for ages as their eyes picked out different personalities to remember that these are no longer with us and to be reminded of others who we have loved who are with us no more.
This was very thought provoking and powerful and the angel will now be displayed in St. Luke's Prestonville to act as a station of remembrance and prayer for all those bereaved.



Next hut is back to Hove Lawns and is number 82.