In these days of the internet and skyscrapers, everything seems to be getting faster and bigger.

Even so, you would expect a religious carving tradition which stretches back almost 2,000 years to be a blessed exception to the rule. However, members of the 4,000-strong Sudanese congregation of the St Mary and St Abraam Coptic Orthodox Church in Davigdor Road, Hove, are now proudly worshipping before the world's highest iconostasis, or icon-bearer.

Imported in small pieces from Egypt, it has been designed to fit in with the pointed-arch contours of the building taken over in 1994. At 7.5 metres high, it is believed to be the tallest built.

A group of 40 volunteers erected the iconostasis in just six hours, as opposed to the usual two weeks. Fr Zakaria Botros Henein is delighted with the addition, which holds 24 icons showing the Last Supper, Christ, the Apostles and several angels.

The iconostasis, in American oak and French mahogony, is intended to stay in place until the return of Christ, in accordance with church traditions. It was carved in Cairo before being shipped over.

Fr Zakaria got into the innovative mood when he painted a giant icon of Christ on the wall behind the altar, despite never having any artistic training. There is even a large television screen connected to the top of the one-and-a-half-ton main iconostasis frame.

Fr Zakaria, himself from Egypt, said: "I read ten books on how to paint before I did the icon of Christ the King. I had the vision of how Christ should look in my head before I started."

The church had the iconostasis, costing £50,000 along with curtains, wall frames and partitions, installed in time for the Orthodox Easter, which was celebrated a week after the usual version this year.

Architect Nader Solomon, whose craftsmen took eight months to complete the carving, said: "It is based on a tradition going back to the founding of the church in the First Century. The methods have been handed down through families."