A new church service based on U2?

The gospel according to U2

By Emily Wiggin
ewiggin@seacoastonline.com /
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/07282005/emily/54966.htm

This Sunday evening at St. George's, the green drapes behind the
pulpit will be replaced with red to represent the Holy Spirit. The
lectern in the corner will be carted away, the windows opened and the
volume turned up. Way up. The priest wants you to "wail."

Paige Blair, priest of St. George's Episcopal Church in York Harbor,
Maine, is a U2 fan. The biblically driven lyrics, socially inclusive
messages (and The Edge's guitar playing), urges people to "get up off
their knees" start doing something for their fellow man.

When some of her Yahoo Group (an e-mail listserve of Gen-X
clergy-friends) realized that many were independently preaching the
gospel according to U2, they compiled the sermons into a book called
"Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog." The royalties are
donated to an AIDS Support Organization in Uganda.

Paige, as she casually introduces herself, thought the congregation at
St. George's was ready for some rock with their religion. No autocrat
(and a savvy seller of ideas), Paige gave the commuters in the flock a
little homework. They were to play their U2 CDs on their way to and
from work, and decide which songs went better with prayer, confession
and communion. People started to get excited, high school kids and
older members as well. The "EU2charist" was born - the music-based
service will be held at 5 p.m. this Sunday, July 31 at the Clark
Street Church.

"Christian rock" has always had sort of a bad name in the music world,
partly because the gospel message is not so much sung, as it is shoved
down the throat. No one thinks of U2 as a "Christian rock" band.
They've resisted being categorized in that way - they didn't want to
preach to the choir (there was no way to avoid that phrase), the
references are gentle, and the musicianship speaks for itself. Paige
says that if you have "ears to hear" the messages are clear.

Am I deaf? I like U2. But I really had no idea the band had this kind
of spiritual following. I guess I haven't had ears to hear. But that's
probably because, embarrassingly, I've never read the Bible. I just
thought the lyrics were well-written. Looking at one of their fan
sites, www.atu2.com, it's clear that many others do get the point.
"Drawing the Fish in the Sand," a page that maps out all the biblical
references in the lyrics, song by song, is the most-visited page on
the site.

This all seems a little "progressive" for an old Episcopal church in
York Harbor. I asked Paige how her contemporary ways went over with
the over-70 set. She laughed. Over the five years at St. George's,
they have all learned to trust each other, she says, but she sometimes
get the feeling they think of her as "that cute girl who does funny
things sometimes."

Being "that cute girl" seems to be fine with her. And she has no
interest in tinkering with what works for her older parishioners,
which is usually a more traditional, contemplative service. Which is
partly why she scheduled the "EU2charist" on a Sunday evening, not a
morning. Plus, people from other congregations can come freely,
without feeling like they are cheating on their own churches. Hmm.
Cute and smart.

I have plans Sunday, so I can't attend. But I really wanted to. A
parishioner with a fancy-schmancy home-entertainment system will be
lending the high-volume speakers for the service of song. He asked
Paige, "Do you want to hear it, or do you want to feel it?"

Did he even have to ask?

Emily Wiggin is the community editor of the Portsmouth Herald. She can
be reached at ewiggin@seacoastonline.com. For a complete archive of
Public Emily columns, visit www.seacoastonline.com/news/wiggin.htm