1st December     Hut 17 - Hove Lawns
2nd December     Hut 305- Hove seafront
3rd December     Hut 194 - Hove Seafront
4th December     Hut 403 - Hove Lagoon
1st-24th December     Beach Hut Advent Calendar
 
BEYOND CHURCH BLOG

BEYOND BLOG

The Light Service - 4th February 2018

For the last 18 months Beyond has been focussing on a programme of guest speakers on the first Sunday of each month which has been a fantastically rewarding experience.  We've heard from Nadia Bolz-Weber, Ian Adams, Stuart Townend & Iain Archer, Sally Hitchhiker, Richard Beck, Cole Moreton and Kester Brewin.  We've also had the Nine Beats crew come into town with an amazing gig by Revd. Vince Anderson and an evening of spoken word and music from Mark Scandrette and Heatherlynn.


Now we are returning to our core programme which is artistic events that aim to inspire, provoke, stimulate and give space for reflection and meditation.  The first of these was The Light Service on Sunday 4th February.




We've created light events in the past and this evening was a chance to put together some of the things that we've learned from these to create a 'service' that asks what it means to say that 'God is light and in Him is no darkness at all'.






We began by spending some time thinking about the nature of light and how fundamental that is to our existence.  This then moved into a time of considering darkness, both in our lives and literally as the lights in the space were all turned off.






A fter a period of confession and reflection we were exposed to different light experiences, beginning with a video of a light installation by Chris Levine entitled light.








Then everyone was invited to move around the space and simply experience the wonder of light through various installations that had been started up.  These ranged from disco glitter balls to a whole room full of Green laser light, fibreoptic lamps and a cluster of laserpo ds.




After 15 minutes of exploration of the wonder of light, we all came together to share the peace followed by a final reflection and the breaking of light (in the form of glowsticks) as a commitment to be those who bring light to others.







Our hope is that people left enlightened, illuminated and with a renewed commitment to being bringers of light to those around us.

We will now begin a series of Sunday evenings during Lent when we will be looking at different artistic interpretations of the Stations of the Cross.  7.30pm starting Sunday 18th February until Sunday 25th March.

We were in the dark before,
but now God has given us light.
We will live like people who have the light.
People who have the light do what is good and right and true.
For if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, 
we have fellowship with one another, 
and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.







24th December 0 Hut 395


Christmas Eve is here along with our biggest crowd and a special piece of art in hut 395.  




The Beyond team always keep Christmas Eve for ourselves as we like to create some art as part of an evening schedule that includes carol singing, a reading and some prayers that all follows a similar theme.





The theme tonight was birth and new life as we are on the eve of Jesus' birthday.  The hut contained a large projection of an image of the expectant Mary beautifully rendered in a modern icon style. 



Through the wonders of modern technology we were able to see into her womb and watch an ultrasound of her baby as he wriggled and moved around. 



This image was surrounded with garlands of flowers and at the foot of the hut were hundreds of daffodil buds.  These were there to remind us of new life and everyone was encouraged to take a flower with them and put it in water as it will then burst into life tomorrow.

The whole thing was accompanied by a heartbeat soundtrack when we weren't singing carols.  All the carols we sang focussed on Jesus' birth and we read the account of his birth in the second chapter of the gospel of Luke.




This felt like a fitting climax to our tenth Beach Hut Advent Calendar as we look forward to the birth of Jesus tomorrow.  We wish you all a blessed Christmas and pray that you will experience the new life that comes from knowing Jesus.










23rd December - Hut 367
The art installation in Hut 367 had been given a title by artist Louise Mabbs - No Cradle, No Cross - highlighting the fact that if Jesus had not been born then there wouldn't have been a crucifixion and salvation for the world.








The centre piece of the installation was a large cross which filled the back wall of the hut and which was made from old foil mince pie containers.  Throughout the month we have been collecting these as people have discarded them after eating the free mince pies we give out every night.  So in a way everyone has contributed to making this artwork.



In front of the 'mince pie cross' a wire bowl was hung and a torch shone on it in such a way that the shadow of the intricate design of the bowl was projected onto the back wall.  Then we could see that this contained the word 'peace' many times, woven into the wire that made up the shape.







This recognised that fact that at Jesus' birth the angels sang "peace on earth, goodwill to all" and that one of the names given to him in the Bible was Prince of Peace.

Either side of the hut, hung on the doors, was a set of gossamer pockets containing a series of interesting and unusual Christmas cards.



Many of these also bore a message of peace to the world. 

Our final hut tomorrow has become a bit of a tradition and is number 395, as it has been for most of the preceding years.





22nd December - Hut 296


 There is benefit to simplicity and hut 296 showed us that tonight.  This Aspect of the Nativity was just the basic essentials of that scene - a baby wrapped in cloth and lying on a bale of straw. 

The baby was lit by a little spotlight and in the photographs of the hut the place where the baby lie was a pool of light with no baby in sight. 



Perhaps this is appropriate because of course Jesus isn't born until Christmas Day (although he has been present in other huts during the Beach Hut Advent Calendar).


Something that the people of two thousand years ago wouldn't have been able to understand was the wonder of electric candles which could be placed amongst the straw of the hut without setting everything on fire!





A simple star hung above everything highlighting the merest hint of a heavenly host of angels through a series of tiny angel wings suspended in space.




Tomorrow our penultimate hut is number 367.





21st December - Hut 341
It was very calm and pretty warm on the seafront tonight given the time of year.  There was an air of peace and calm as it was a very low tide so the waves were quite quiet and there wasn't very much traffic noise from the road.






Hut 341 exuded that same sense of peace and calm as it was dressed all in blue providing a simple backdrop to a large star of wonder.  The star was made from hundreds of torn up pieces of coloured tissue paper, pasted to make a thin multi-coloured film.





The star was then lit from behind so that the colours shone out into the darkness.  The overall effect was like an abstract stained glass shape that hovered in mid-hut.

The hut was framed with garlands of ivy and other evergreen leaves which were intertwined with some fairy lights.





Somehow, even though we were outside, the evening felt cosy and this was helped by a fire pit and the chance to sit close to the flickering flames if you did feel cold at all.







This also connected us with another event in Brighton tonight - The Burning of the Clocks.  This involves a procession of homemade lanterns which are taken to the beach and thrown onto a bonfire.  This happens today as this is the winter solstice and the moment in the calendar when the days start getting longer again.


Tomorrow we're at hut 296.





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