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What is a U2charist? It's an Anglican Eucharist (a Rite III informal Communion service) that combines the music of the anti-poverty crusading band U2 with the Anglican liturgy. U2 front man Bono has been very active in the ONE Campaign, raising awareness about the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The last national Episcopal Convention has made the MDG’s one of the Episcopal Church’s top budget priorities. In fact, the Episcopal Church is now an official affiliate with Bono’s ONE campaign? Working with St. Mark's summer intern, Hilary Bogert, a graduate student in theology at Harvard, a group staged a stunning U2charist at the Saturday evening service in late August 2006. Posters spelling out important Millennium Development Goals filled the church's windows. Large screens displayed slides of life in Africa and the words of the prayers and songs. Multicolored lights flashed to the music of U2.
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Bogert hoped the service was a way to inform the church and those attending about the Millennium Development Goals and how we all can be involved in helping relieve extreme global poverty. More information can be found at E4GR.org or by googling "U2charist". |
The service drew people of all ages from all over the state. The service's preacher was the Rev. Jim Quigley, the Episcopal chaplain at Western Kentucky University and associate priest at Christ Church, Bowling Green KY. Besides Quigley, the Rev Paul Jeanes, rector of St. James', Pewee Valley and the Rev. Amy Coultas, vicar at St. James', Shelbyville KY helped Bogert stage the event.
If you'd like to hear and see all of the sermon given by the Rev. Jim Quigley, click here. |
The 7-minute clip below gives you a glimpse of some of the activities. You may need to download Macromedia's Flash player if you don't see a picture queued up below. If you access the web through a dial-up connection, the video may pause from time to time while it loads the next section -- this is normal.
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Episcopal church youth groups in the Louisville area teamed up for a fun evening. They traveled around the area on TARC Trolley buses visiting several churches where they ate, danced and worshiped. St. Mark's presented the worship service -- a full Communion Service -- but with a twist: it was a Rave Eucharist. It started in the United Kingdom in the 1980's with the all night dance parties called Raves. Move the venue from the dance halls to the Anglican cathedrals with lights and music chanting the service from the prayer book, and you have a Rave Eucharist. |
From England the movement ended up in San Francisco at Grace Cathedral in the mid-1990's. Services called "Rave Mass," "Planetary Mass," and "Nine O'Clock Service" were spawned. The multi-media event at St. Mark's included stunning music from the Eucharist CD by the English group called Proost, a PC PowerPoint presentation projected with the words of the service, lots of colored lights and even some smoke. Click here to see a two-minute video clip of the Rave Eucharist. |
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