U2charist

On Sunday, I had a wonderful experience with my friend Greta. We attended a U2charist at St. Andrew's in Framingham. She had read a recent article in People magazine about it, and had heard that there was going to be one held in the area, so she asked me to come along. I'm glad I did!

So what is a U2charist? According to their website, "A U2charist is an Episcopal Eucharist service that features the music of the rock band U2 and a message about God's call to rally around the Millennium Development Goals." In 2000, 189 countries, including the US, supported the Millennium Declaration, whose development goals are:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger .
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainabilty.
8. Create a global partnership for development with targets for aid, trade and debt relief.
Bono of U2 is a "global ambassador" of these goals.

The service itself was great. In many ways it reminded me of a variety of Catholic retreats I have been on. I was curious to see if the music would be done by a choir, band, or recorded (I do love music ministry, after all!). It turns out it was arranged like a powerpoint presentation, with the songs accompanied on a large overhead screen that had the lyrics to the songs and interesting facts about the songs themselves.

Since this was a special event, the church was really crowded, and some interaction with the audience revealed that people had come from all over New England. The U2Charist team itself comes from York, Maine, and travels to different parishes. It's led by Reverend Paige Blair, who was very enthusiastic and genuine. She had previously been involved in Episcopalian youth ministry (she was describing a girl's leadership retreat she had run in the past) and she had great charisma. Although the U2charist is not specifically a youth-based service, many young people were in attendance and knew all the words. Most everyone was up and dancing during the musical portions, and attentive during the sermon (based upon global poverty and ways the average parishioner could make a difference) and regular parts of the church service.

Here's an article about the service from the Boston Globe. There was a reporter at the church taking photos (some of us!) but I didn't spot any articles in the major Boston newspapers about it yesterday.

I found it very refreshing to hear women reverends. Both the U2Charist leader and the reverend of St. Andrew's were relatively young women. Perhaps it was their youth in additional to their gender, but they were each very welcoming, profound, and sincere in their discussions with the parish. I do love the Catholic Church, but after an event like this it makes me think about how much the church is missing out on by not fully incorporating women into its hierarchy.