York Town News
U2charist returns to St.George's on Sept. 17
YORK HARBOR - In response to the movement "Make Poverty History," St. George's Episcopal Church will celebrate a special U2charist next Sunday, featuring music from U2's catalog, including such favorites as "Where the Streets Have No Name," "Yahweh," "Love and Peace (or Else)," "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and "Gloria."The event will begin at 5 p.m. on Sept. 17 at the church's 407 York St. location in York Harbor.
The Rev. Dr. Paige Blair, who is rector of St. George's, New England coordinator for Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation and the priest responsible in large part for the U2charist's current incarnation, will preach a sermon entitled "What can One Person Do?" as a part of the Sept. 17 celebration.
"For the first time in human history we have the opportunity, and therefore the obligation, to make extreme poverty history," she said, adding, "30,000 children die every day due to extreme poverty, and 8,000 people die of HIV/AIDS. That is the equivalent of ten Sept. 11s a day, or a Dec. 26 tsunami every week."
The U2charist has recently received international media attention, from newspapers to BBC World Service presentations, for its innovative use of the band's biblically-rich lyrics and social justice message, for its ability to bring people of many different generations together in a context of worship and as a tool for raising awareness and empowering communities to respond to the Millennium Development Goals, endorsed internationally by nations and political leaders to eradicate extreme poverty and global AIDS. Many churches, including the Episcopal Church, have endorsed the goals as well.
Accordingly, the offering at St. George's special U2charist will benefit the Millennium Villages Project in Myange, Rwanda, and AIDS Response Seacoast, which through their work, are also in engaged in realizing the Millennium Development Goals.
Bono, the lead singer of U2, has always been outspoken on issues of social justice, and since the Live Aid concert of 1985, has been involved in efforts to eradicate hunger.
Bono founded DATA (Debt, AIDS and Trade for Africa accessible at www.data.org) to continue to address the realities of extreme poverty and global AIDS, and to educate and empower people to action.
The climax of U2's recent Vertigo tour was Bono's invitation to the audience to sign the ONE Declaration (see www.one.org - "We're not asking for your money. We're asking for your voice."), which is an effort to rally Americans to use their voices together to bring about change, namely for an additional one percent of the federal budget to be dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and global AIDS.
Bono was recently named Person of the Year, along with Bill and Melinda Gates, for his work on behalf of the poor and people living with HIV/AIDS.
"We as people of faith are called by our Creator to embrace this call to do what we can to make poverty history. As Bono has said, this is our generation's 'moon shot,'" Blair wrote of the importance of the Millennium Development Goals in the U2 Eucharist.
For more information about the upcoming U2charist at St. George's please call 363-7376.
