Toto, We're not in Arkansas any more...
Posted February 17, 2007
There's a new innovation sweeping the nation called a U2Charist. It's a communion liturgy which features music from the rock group U2 and it's being performed at Episcopal churches across the country. But for Baby Boomers who prefer 70s music, there's apparently another option -- a Disco Mass. (H/T to Brad Drell)
The website EpiscopalUrbanCaucus.Org has posted a favorable review on its homepage, written by the caucus' coordinator:
"The opening hymn was a beautiful jazz rendition of “Over the Rainbow.” Musical offerings came from gay men in sequined tank tops and from the Director of Music who was ushered into the service singing a disco number complete with Go-Go girls. The queen of St. Mark’s appeared in full drag to deliver the homily and the closing hymn was, Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” As I stood singing among straight men and women, young parents with their children, gays and lesbians, teenagers in hip hop clothing, Asians, whites, African Americans and Spanish speaking people I realized I was part of the realm of God and I was glad to be there - in a place where God’s creation of a new thing was being lived out."
No word yet on whether the Disco Mass is Windsor compliant....
It's only a matter of time til there'll be a Liberace Lord's Supper and an Elvis Eucharist.
Comments
I've never attended a u2charist, and I can't say I totally "get" it, but the motives aren't really entertainment. The purpose (other than to celebrate Eucharist, of course, which is the vastly most important intention) is to highlight the millenium development goals and the church's response to them.
I don't know about the disco thing, but that is entirely different.
Some of us are old enough to remember the Episcopal "folk masses" from the '60s and '70s, and I don't imagine that U2 and Bono are any worse than they were, and could conceivably be a lot better.
Frank, I do think you do the U2charist a bit of a disservice by mentioning it in passing and then going on to describe the disco mass in detail. This could suggest to the reader that the U2 version is equally silly, when my impression is that it is intended to be a serious worship experience, while the disco mass is obviously a parody or joke.
Editor's note: The u2Charist has been written about so extensively that I just made a passing reference to it. I bet you I've seen a half dozen separate stories on the phenomenon and I may have made the incorrect assumption that others have read about it at great length also.... (I need to remember that most people don't spend their spare time reading news wires....) That said, the Disco Mass article I quoted from was written by the coordinator of the Episcopal Urban Caucus, a bona fide church group. They met with the presiding bishop and reportedly gave her a hero's sendoff just before she flew off to Tanzania. If you are correct and a leader of the Caucus is turning the Lord's Supper into a parody or joke, then that's a pretty interesting story.
Well, it sounded like a joke, but if it's not, so be it. I'm not sure I'd sign off on it, but then thankfully, they don't ask me about these things.
Last year at the Lutheran-Episcopal Campus Ministry at UK, we had members of a local congregation come in and lead us in a "Beatles Liturgy".
I usually like fresh approaches to worship, and while this was unique, it was also very odd. They changed the words of the Beatles hits and invested them with a new theological meaning. This seemed to cheapen the artistic value of the songs and led to some confusion as people instictively sung the "original" words.
I think it was an interesting experiance, but I remain a little uncomfortable with such services.
I realized I was part of the realm of God and I was glad to be there
Um, yeah. Leave me out of that realm.
If you are correct and a leader of the Caucus is turning the Lord's Supper into a parody or joke, then that's a pretty interesting story.
Intentional or not, that's certainly what's being done.
Blecch.
How very TEC!