fishermenschapel

The Famous Potatoes and guests played at the Chapel Sunday 20 December 2015.

Fishermen’s Chapel, New Road Leigh-on-Sea, SS9 2EA. Find us.

Our Harvest fish and chip lunch was on 5th October at the chapel. Sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with future events.

(Harvest image by John Mcsporran on Flickr.)

As part of the Leigh Folk Festival, Wizz Jones, Jason Steel and Crafting for Foes played at the Chapel on Friday June 26.

A review by Ray Morgan is here.

“The chapel is a majestic venue; fairy lights lead the way through to the stage, and candles flickered as the audience drank cups of tea from nautical mugs. Wizz’s guitar playing really was sensational, and his music filled the chapel’s frankly gorgeous acoustics.”

Leigh Folk Festival information: http://leighfolkfestival.com/

Artist Sheona Beaumont, a visual artist based in the South West of the UK is going to be working with the Fishermen’s Chapel pulpit. We’ll let her explain in her own words:

Back in February, I found myself applying for the gift of a Methodist pulpit, which was being offered to an artist(s) by The Fishermen’s Chapel in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. My proposal met was met with enthusiasm, and follows below. Since then, with thanks to Trinity College, I have also been given two Methodist pews from the recently closed Wesley College in Bristol, who will happily join forces with the pulpit to form an even more exciting art work and installation. Once they’ve arrived at my studio over the summer, they will undergo a period of hibernation before the ideas below start to emerge…

This pulpit is a powerful and striking symbol of God’s word. To me, the clean design and structure of the object (as compared to, for example, the ornate stone ‘thrones’ of many a parish church) is something that needs to be celebrated. It bears in its image the specific focus of Wesley’s pioneering preaching of the word, which kept things simple. It also has fantastic resonance with Wesley’s peripatetic ministry, for being mobile. These two aspects of simplicity and mobility are what I would like to concentrate on with my proposal.

I would like to install in the pointed architraves (and possibly the lectern top area) a sequence of photographs or lenticular prints, so that it becomes a pulpit with photographic panels. I am keen to keep the look clean and clear, maintaining the integrity of the existing shapes and outlines.

The content of these photographs will have a starting point in one of my existing pieces of work, The New Passage, 2012, which is formed from the composite arrangement of photographs taken of the Severn Estuary, from the point at which the Wesley brothers crossed to Wales (as commemorated by a plaque at the site). Linking the New Passage with the pulpit from the New Road Methodist Church is the incredible geographical correspondence for having a near equal latitude, and for both being sea-facing sites. An east/west dimension is complemented by a north-facing/south-facing estuary view. In this respect, I would plan to create a photographic record of the tide at Leigh-on-Sea from the Fishermen’s Chapel itself at the end of September, when the autumn equinox brings the complementary highest tide to spring’s equinox (which is when my Severn Estuary pictures were taken).

I would later work with these two bodies of images to create a story of transition which could be ‘read’ across the face of the pulpit. The unique feature of lenticulars, if funding permits the use of this medium again, is the ability to engender a movement from the viewer, and therefore an engagement, which seems to me to reflect the intended effect of preaching itself. Extending this idea, and that of Wesley’s travels, I would want the finished pulpit to complete its own journey from New Passage to New Road, finding suitable stopping points on the way for display and engagement with the public. One such point would surely include the New Room in Bristol (where I have shown work before), and I would hope that others could include outdoor venues.

I am extremely excited by the opportunity to work with and on this pulpit, not least because it is a real gift and expression of faith in creative endeavour.

On Saturday 13 June Sandbanksy, ‘Just a bloke with a rake’, demonstrated how to create a labyrinth on Leigh Bell Wharf. The Labyrinth is an age-old discipline that nourishes the body, mind and soul.

Some pictures are on Facebook page here: Sandbanksy

This event is part of the Leigh Art Trail: http://www.leigharttrail.com/LAT%20Events%202015

Our Good Friday Blues Open Mic night took place on Good Friday, 3 April. Song and spoken word. Sign up for our newsletter if you’d be interested in similar events when we run them.

Keep up to date with events at the Fishermen’s Chapel with our newsletter – sign up here.

The latest newsletter can be read here.

Update: An artist has now been found who would like to work with our pulpit. More details coming soon!

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We’re looking for an artist who would like to create something from our recently-removed pulpit. Interested? Read on.

Below: The pulpit as it was, in situ. It has now been removed and is at the back of the chapel.

Blaze visited the chapel in February.

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The next Blaze event – Rock ‘da’ Boat will be a Club Worship Night

Featuring DJ Wineflow with Thumping Beats | Fairground Food | BASSPrayer

When? Sunday 15 Feb 2015
Time? 7pm – 8:45pm
Where? The Fishermen’s Chapel
New Road, Leigh-on-Sea SS9 2EA
Cost? Suggested entry fee £2 on door

Let us know you’re coming and share the Facebook event here.

There is free parking from 6pm in Car Park opposite. Please be careful when crossing the road outside. It’s Green Cross Code time. Don’t be a hedgehog.

You can download the publicity
as a PDF or a JPEG here.

So, see you there! God bless

The Blaze Team

PS. If you are not a youth leader, but a member of a youth group why not ask your youth leaders to bring you along?

PPS. Each youth leader is responsible for their own youth group, including transporting them to and from the event and accompanying them at the Blaze event. Thank you.

In January last year the Chapel hosted a Labyrinth. Some pictures are below. The Labyrinth will be returning soon – sign up for our newsletter to be kept updated.

More about the Labyrinth rrom Labyrinth.org.uk:

Labyrinth is an interactive installation for spiritual journeys. It’s for anyone who wants a break from surfing the surface of culture to contemplate the deeper things of life.

Labyrinth reshapes a 12th-century ritual for the 21st century. Its maze-like path takes you on a symbolic journey, creates space to unwind and think – in particular about our relationships with ourselves, one another, our planet and God.

Designed for young and old alike, it provides a mixture of rituals and visuals, of contemplative words and contemporary ambient music, of symbols and media to help guide the spiritual traveller.