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Brighton is a place of religious contrasts. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
Its oldest church dates back to the 12th century, | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
but in the last census 42% of the population professed no religion. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:12 | |
I think it's very multicultural here | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
and we have a lot of different aspects of religion. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:18 | |
A friend at work sort of said yes, she believes in God | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
and I just found that a bit strange. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
I certainly don't think that Brighton is different to anywhere else. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:27 | |
It's a fun-loving city and it draws a lot of people from London who | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
want to come and have a good time. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
But I think, if you look for the good in most people, it's there. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
Faith may be getting mixed reviews, but today we join Christians | 0:00:35 | 0:00:39 | |
as they celebrate the birth of the church this Pentecost Sunday. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:43 | |
Today on Songs of Praise, | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
we visit the alfresco art with a spiritual message. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
Meet a prayerful community as they celebrate Pentecost. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:53 | |
Stuart Townend performs his latest song, Vagabonds. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:56 | |
And Lou Fellingham with Phatfish | 0:00:56 | 0:00:58 | |
lead hymns and songs to lift your spirits. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
Pentecost, 50 days after Easter | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
and, according to the book of Acts in the Bible, | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
the time when the followers of Jesus were filled with the Holy Spirit. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:22 | |
It came down from heaven like tongues of fire | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
and from that point on, | 0:01:25 | 0:01:27 | |
the Christian message spread across the world. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
Our music comes from the Church of Christ the King, Brighton, | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
who start with a song about the day | 0:01:35 | 0:01:36 | |
that God breathed his spirit into his followers. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
Like most UK towns, Brighton has its fair share of statues | 0:05:50 | 0:05:54 | |
and sculptures, both sacred and spiritual, which, to be honest, | 0:05:54 | 0:05:58 | |
most of us never take a second look at. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
But Reverend Martin Poole is turning everyday locations | 0:06:01 | 0:06:05 | |
in Brighton into an ever-changing alfresco art gallery, | 0:06:05 | 0:06:09 | |
where the exhibits are designed to enlighten as well as entertain. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:13 | |
Martin, that is a really familiar image. How did it get here? | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
Tell us about it. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:18 | |
It was put there by a graffiti artist called Orticanoodles | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
who was from Italy. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
-It's great, isn't it? -Yeah, fantastic. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
He just saw the potential of the crown. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:28 | |
Originally it had barbed wire wrapped into it anyway, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
and it just made a natural crown of thorns. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
And he created this beautiful face that went there. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
What do people think about it when they see it? | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
I think it reminds them that God is here, in the degradation | 0:06:39 | 0:06:45 | |
and suffering that you see with this West Pier. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:48 | |
I love the fact that it's falling apart. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
And there's something that God shares in our brokenness. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:54 | |
You use this beach all year round, don't you? | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
Tell us about what you do here at Christmas. | 0:06:57 | 0:06:59 | |
We invented an event called the Beach Hut Advent Calendar. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:03 | |
So every night in December, a different beach hut opens its doors | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
like a massive Advent calendar. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
With some sort of art installation or decoration or something inside. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:13 | |
It's a fantastic community art project. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
The artwork draws on many contemporary styles, | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
including audio. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
'As Jesus said this, a crowd approached, led by Judas, | 0:07:23 | 0:07:27 | |
'one of the 12 disciples. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
'Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss.' | 0:07:30 | 0:07:34 | |
This is a sculpture called The Kiss. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:41 | |
It was put there to commemorate those who died through HIV and AIDS. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:45 | |
But we used it to focus on Jesus' betrayal with a kiss. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:51 | |
It was part of what was called The Silent Meditation, | 0:07:51 | 0:07:54 | |
which was a trail around central Brighton. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
People collected headphones. | 0:07:58 | 0:07:59 | |
And as they approached things like this, | 0:07:59 | 0:08:01 | |
they would get played specific audio. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:03 | |
Do you see this as an art project, as an evangelistic project? | 0:08:03 | 0:08:08 | |
How did you perceive it? | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
We try hard not to preach, but allow things like this to inspire | 0:08:10 | 0:08:16 | |
and provoke people to think about God in a way that they hadn't before. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:20 | |
Some of the most spectacular pieces are best viewed at night. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
Like these illuminated crosses, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:29 | |
which blend carnival with Christianity. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:31 | |
Do you think that there's anything too sacred that can't be | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
turned into art? | 0:08:37 | 0:08:38 | |
I personally don't think so. I think that God uses everything. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:44 | |
I like what Augustine said, which is that | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
all things are possible to find some inspiration around God. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:51 | |
What does Pentecost mean to you? | 0:08:51 | 0:08:53 | |
Pentecost is about being inspired by the Spirit. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
And of course, those two words are connected. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
Being "inspired" literally means "having the spirit in you." | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
And that's where I think artistic inspiration comes from. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:06 | |
Over 8 million people visit Brighton every year. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
One man who came here as a student and stayed is Stuart Townend. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
He's one of the worship leaders at the Church of Christ the King. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
But he's better known as one of the country's leading writers | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
of hymns and worship songs, such as In Christ Alone, | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
the most sung hymn in churches in the UK. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
# Come all you vagabonds | 0:12:56 | 0:12:58 | |
# Come all you don't belongs | 0:12:58 | 0:12:59 | |
# Winners and losers | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
# Come people like me... # | 0:13:01 | 0:13:03 | |
But his latest song Vagabonds has a very different feel. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:08 | |
# Wait a while, stay a while | 0:13:08 | 0:13:09 | |
# Welcome you'll be... # | 0:13:09 | 0:13:11 | |
I've been writing songs that may mean something to those people who | 0:13:11 | 0:13:16 | |
aren't regular churchgoers. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:18 | |
The Gospel is not for a select few people. It's actually for everyone. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:22 | |
So, in a sense, Vagabonds tries to take the message of the Gospel | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
but put it in a way that will have an immediacy for other people. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
So I imagine it being sung in church, but I'd quite like to think, and | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
actually I know that in certain places, you know, | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
it may get sung in a pub as well. | 0:13:36 | 0:13:37 | |
Some of the lyrics, like, "from every station and orientation" | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
or "accusers, abusers, the hurt and ignored", | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
for some people, to say that all of these people are included | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
must be quite a challenging thing to sing. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
Were you deliberately writing something that you felt, | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
I want to challenge people? | 0:13:53 | 0:13:55 | |
I think many people will think of the Gospel as being something | 0:13:55 | 0:14:00 | |
quite conservative, almost reactionary, because that's | 0:14:00 | 0:14:03 | |
kind of the role that it seems to have in our society at the moment. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
That's the visible part of church that people see. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
They think it's quite conservative. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:11 | |
In fact, it's exactly the opposite. It is radical. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
The invitation is for those who've been wounded, | 0:14:13 | 0:14:16 | |
who've been victimised, who've been abused. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
But the invitation is also to the one who's committed the crime. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
It's actually to everyone. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
And that's really radical. That's hard, isn't it? | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
It's hard to think that the perpetrator is also welcomed in, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
just like the victim. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:34 | |
Stuart, what does Pentecost mean to you? | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
It's obviously about the coming of the Holy Spirit. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
But what it reminds me of is that God is not far away, God is close. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:46 | |
And God has given the Holy Spirit, | 0:14:46 | 0:14:49 | |
just as Jesus was among his disciples and close | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
to his disciples, the Holy Spirit has been given to be close to us. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:56 | |
He's closer than a brother. He's closer than a lover. | 0:14:56 | 0:15:00 | |
He is intimately involved in our lives. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
For you, is Pentecost about the spirit of inclusivity? | 0:15:03 | 0:15:07 | |
Absolutely. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:09 | |
I mean, if you look at the story, when the apostles came out, | 0:15:09 | 0:15:13 | |
the disciples came out, filled with the Holy Spirit, | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
they started speaking in all sorts of different languages. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
And people are going, hang on, he's speaking my language. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
He's speaking to me and I'm from, you know, this distant place over here. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
Or this backwater over here. It clearly is the message of the Gospel. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
And the message of Pentecost is actually, | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
everyone is to hear this because there's something for everyone. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
Everyone can be included in this. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
This is the amazing, radical, wonderful, | 0:15:37 | 0:15:42 | |
sometimes uncomfortable nature of the Good News of Christ. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
# Come, all you vagabonds, come all you don't belongs | 0:15:46 | 0:15:50 | |
# Winners and losers, come, people like me | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
# Come all you travellers | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
# Tired from the journey, come wait a while, stay a while | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
# Welcomed you'll be | 0:16:00 | 0:16:01 | |
# Come all you questioners looking for answers | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
# And searching for reasons and sense in it all | 0:16:08 | 0:16:12 | |
# Come all you fallen, and come all you broken | 0:16:12 | 0:16:16 | |
# Find strength for your body and food for your soul | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
# Come to the feast, there is room at the table | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
# Come let us meet in this place | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
# With the King of all kindness who welcomes us in | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
# With the wonder of love, and the power of grace | 0:16:30 | 0:16:34 | |
# The wonder of the love, and the power of grace | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
# Come those who worry 'bout houses and money | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
# And all those who don't have a care in the world | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
# From every station and orientation | 0:17:01 | 0:17:05 | |
# The helpless, the hopeless, the young and the old | 0:17:05 | 0:17:09 | |
# Come to the feast, there is room at the table | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
# Come let us meet in this place | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
# With the King of all kindness who welcomes us in | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
# With the wonder of love, and the power of grace | 0:17:19 | 0:17:23 | |
# The wonder of the love, and the power of grace | 0:17:23 | 0:17:26 | |
# Come all believers and dreamers and schemers | 0:18:02 | 0:18:06 | |
# And come all you restless just searching for home | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
# Movers and shakers and givers and takers | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
# The happy, the sad, the lost and alone | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
# Come self-sufficient with wearied ambition | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
# And come those who feel at the end of the road | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
# Fiery debaters and religion haters | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
# Accusers, abusers, the hurt and ignored | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
# Come to the feast, there is room at the table | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
# Come let us meet in this place | 0:18:41 | 0:18:44 | |
# With the King of all kindness who welcomes us in | 0:18:44 | 0:18:48 | |
# With the wonder of love, and the power of grace | 0:18:48 | 0:18:52 | |
# The wonder of the love, and the power of grace | 0:18:52 | 0:18:56 | |
# The wonder of the love, and the power of grace. # | 0:18:56 | 0:19:01 | |
For most of us, getting up and out in the morning is noisy, | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
chaotic and stressful. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
But things are very different here. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:25 | |
Each day begins with two hours of prayer. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
This is the Wellspring Community. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
They are trying to fuse modern life with that of a Benedictine monastery. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:38 | |
They pray morning, noon and night individually | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
and as a community for up to five hours a day. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:45 | |
# Oh, God, come to our aid | 0:19:45 | 0:19:49 | |
# Oh, Lord, make haste to help us... # | 0:19:49 | 0:19:54 | |
We were very powerfully inspired by that vision of community, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:59 | |
of communion found in the Acts Of The Apostles, | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
where it describes that early Christian community in Jerusalem. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
The early church. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:07 | |
And the way in which people lived a common life with common prayer, | 0:20:07 | 0:20:11 | |
sharing all of their resources, pooling their incomes, | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
sharing their food, gladly and generously. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:17 | |
How long do you see yourself being here? Or living this lifestyle? | 0:20:17 | 0:20:22 | |
I would imagine that my commitment to this path, to this vocation, | 0:20:22 | 0:20:26 | |
is really for life. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:28 | |
I feel that God has called me to give myself to Him, | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
through a community life, rooted in prayer. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:34 | |
# Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth... # | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
'Jess and Anna share the house with Jo, | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
'but are only planning to stay for about a year.' | 0:20:41 | 0:20:43 | |
Have you found the prayer routine hard? | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
Yes, because I really like to sleep. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
And it's early mornings. That was quite difficult. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:54 | |
But it has been really fruitful and I know that it's something that | 0:20:54 | 0:20:59 | |
I will take away with me from my time here. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
For you, Jess, how has living here changed you? | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
I think it's helping to get my priorities in life sorted. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:10 | |
Putting God and your faith as top priority and in one sense | 0:21:10 | 0:21:14 | |
everything else kind of slots in, to some extent, after. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:18 | |
# My soul glorifies the Lord... # | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
In the evening, the girls usually join other community members | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
at the local church. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:27 | |
Ben and Katy were recently married | 0:21:27 | 0:21:28 | |
and now incorporate prayer into their relationship. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
I think the three different types of prayer - prayer alone, | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
prayer together and prayer community take very different shapes. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
And they have very different purposes, as well. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:42 | |
# Hallowed be thy name... # | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
Praying as a couple, because we have committed our lives to each other, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
there's a greater intimacy. In the prayer, we are | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
able to share on a much deeper level than we would with other people | 0:21:52 | 0:21:58 | |
in community, because we are living together on a day to day basis | 0:21:58 | 0:22:01 | |
in, you know, every moment of our life. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:04 | |
# Christ the Lord was tempted and suffered for us... # | 0:22:04 | 0:22:09 | |
I think Pentecost is enormously important to us | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
because it is that founding moment of humanity being able to come | 0:22:12 | 0:22:16 | |
together in communion. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
Through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles | 0:22:18 | 0:22:22 | |
gathered together in the upper room, | 0:22:22 | 0:22:24 | |
all that division of inhumanity through sin | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
and through pride was overcome by the Holy Spirit and they were able then | 0:22:28 | 0:22:32 | |
to be able to live a common life, to be united in one heart and one mind. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:37 | |
Heavenly Father, we celebrate the Holy Spirit | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
Who inspires us and fills us with desire | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
To show your love to the world | 0:26:48 | 0:26:50 | |
Through music, we can talk to all people, | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
regardless of language, age or gender | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
In prayer, draw us to yourself | 0:26:58 | 0:27:01 | |
That we may live from you | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
Amen. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:05 | |
Pentecost is the birthday of the church | 0:29:51 | 0:29:54 | |
and so it is quite rightly a time of celebration. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:57 | |
But it's also a time of reflection. | 0:29:57 | 0:29:59 | |
All the people I've met today have shown the impact the | 0:29:59 | 0:30:02 | |
Holy Spirit has had on their lives | 0:30:02 | 0:30:05 | |
through art or song or prayer. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:07 | |
Our last piece of music exuberantly expresses | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
the joy that the Holy Spirit brings. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
Next week, Eamonn is on the road in County Fermanagh with the ambulance | 0:33:21 | 0:33:25 | |
technician whose drive to care for others has transformed her life. | 0:33:25 | 0:33:29 | |
And the Irish dancers who are sharing their faith. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:33 | |
There's music from Clannad's Moya Brennan | 0:33:33 | 0:33:36 | |
and hymns from the combined choirs and congregations of Enniskillen. | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 |