Greg Garrett, the author, teaches English at Baylor University and writing at an Episcopal seminary. He was writing for a music magazine and interviewed the band in their early years.
Garrett says he left his faith behind for many years, but was always a U2 fan. A person can listen to their music and its messages without caring about the spiritual context from which it came, he said by phone.
“You can say, ‘They are a perfectly good rock band and work for peace and justice, and I can get on board with that, but don’t talk to me about Christianity,’ ” he said. “But to leave those things out is to ignore where their passion for peace and justice come from.”
The U2charist:
[blockquote]Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation (E4GR), an Episcopal grass-roots movement to seek and serve Christ in the extreme poor around the world, will sponsor a “U2charist” at St. John’s ProCathedral at 7 pm on Friday, April 17.
A U2charists is a service of Holy Eucharist using the music of the Irish rock band U2 instead of traditional hymns to raise awareness about the eight Millennium Development Goals, which address poverty throughout the world.[/blockquote]
http://episcopalnews.ladiocese.org/dfc/newsdetail_2/11
Diocese of San Diego:
[blockquote] A springtime U2-charist raised $2000 for the Millennium Development Goals[/blockquote]
http://www.edsd.org/pages/16-HISTORY/16-PARISHES/16-prshhist-stpeters.htm
Cui Bono?
When you do a search of which band has the most biblical allusions and spiritual themes, U2 comes up as No. 1.
I find this hard to believe. More than Dylan?
On a side note, I like the U2charist. Here is a 5 minute Nightline piece on it from All Saints Briarcliff, NY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MfPrkkzc3k
Another liturgical idea with a half-life of a few milliseconds. If it lasts much longer it gets the name “Tradition”, doesn’t it?
I, 4 1, 10d 2 pre4 str8 GGGGGus, the 1 way, 1 truth, 1 life, 0 other way 2 d 4’ther.
I, 4 1, 10d 2 pre4 str8 GGGGGus, the 1 way, 1 truth, 1 life, 0 other way 2 d 4’ther.
As a person who enjoys (and performs for his own amusement) various genres of rock music from oldies to punk to rap and who can claim that coveted under-30 demographic (if only for a few more months) and who has fond memories of youth group days of [i] actually being able to perform Petra and dc Talk during the worship service [/i] the U2charist has to be the most inane idea I have ever heard of in my life. I am sick and tired of hearing words like “spiritual” being thrown at bands like U2 and Creed just because they put a couple of almost-Bible-verses in their songs and think Jesus was a pretty cool guy (by that criterion the Doobie Brothers would be the most spiritual band ever), and I am downright fed-up with the sycophantic hordes worshiping the ground upon which Bono walks just because he’s got a charity and is, like, really aware of important things and, like, not afraid to make statements to people about, you know, [i] issues [/i].
But, what really scares me… I remember two types of churches with “contemporary” services. In the first type they would take the traditional hymns and “jazz it up”, with whatever band could be supplied from the musically talented members of the Church. This was often a quite edifying form of worship for me, and the style of the music suited to the tastes of the congregation as a whole. In the second form they used whatever banal “praise and worship” songbook (they often come included with tapes, later cds, of pre-recorded instrumentals when you order enough for the whole congregation) was popular (and affordable), often skewing toward the worst of the 70s and 80s, and, because the wire binding on those songbooks is just so darned expensive there’s not enough to go around they had that most horrid of all contemporary service decorations: the overhead projector.
If we were not speaking of such serious matters, I would say it’s nice to see my generation passing on the tortures of our horrid taste to the next generation as my parent’s generation did to me. Oh, won’t someone please think of the children?!
When I tried to look at examples of the U2charist, this was the first I saw – thankfully, it is not an Episcopal church.
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/tumc-u2-eucharist-where-the-streets-have-no-name/4272968724
To me. it looks like the U2charist is being used as a fundraising event in a church.
Piggybacking on Didymus’ post:
Why not a Petra-eucharist, or a “Third Day” Eucharist? Or Twila Paris, John Michael Talbot, Eden’s Bridge, Michael Card, City on a Hill, Audio Adrenaline, etc.?
Why does it have to be a secular ‘force a Christian face on them’ band? Why not a solid Christian Rock Group? Or Worship singer/Group? Or Celtic Band? I could really get into a Eucharistic service that used Bagpipes, bodhran, tin whistle, etc., more than I could into many other styles.
In His Peace
Jim Elliott <><
Oh, a point I wanted to bring up:
Most of the artists I mentioned above also support Christian Charities and missions, so the offering could go to those, whether Mercy Corps, Youth With a Mission, Feed the Children, etc. Just as well as the other can.