York Town News
BBC to record St. George's U2charist in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Jennifer L. Saunders
This week, residents from near and far will have the chance to honor the life's work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with a special U2charist celebration at St. George's Episcopal Church. Meanwhile, last week, students at Coastal Ridge Elementary School had the opportunity to learn about King from Rev. William Humprey. Humphrey, a Civil Rights speaker, shared his firsthand experience witnessing King's work and hearing his speeches with the fourth-grade students on Friday, Jan. 12. He urged the students to follow King's model of making the nation a better place by completing their assignments, being on time, listening to their teachers and, referring to King's own words, being the best at whoever they may be.
Photo by Jennifer L. Saunders
This week, however, a special U2charist will be celebrated to commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Saturday, Jan. 20, and a crew from the BBC will be joining the congregation to record the event. In fact, portions of the service will be part of an Easter broadcast to be aired later this year in the United Kingdom.
A key element in the U2charist celebrations is to teach participants about the "Millennium Development Goals" to end extreme poverty and global AIDS.
"For the first time in human history we have the opportunity, and therefore the obligation, to make extreme poverty history," St. George's Rev. Dr. Paige Blair, who is also the New England coordinator for Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation and the priest who has been credited with U2charist's current incarnation, said in an announcement of Saturday's special event.
At the 5 p.m. U2charist in honor of King, Blair will preach a sermon entitled "What Can One Person Do?" The theme of U2charist, she noted, is in keeping with King's own life's work to make the world a better place.
As she put it in the announcement of this week's event, "30,000 children die every day due to extreme poverty, and 8,000 people die of HIV/AIDS. As Bono (lead singer for U2) has said, this is our generation's 'moon shot.'"
To those ends, in the approximately 18 months since the first U2charist was held at St. George's back in July of 2005, the service has developed an international following and has been recreated far beyond York's borders.
In describing U2charist, Blair wrote, "The liturgy itself is pretty traditional - it has all the usual required elements: a Gospel reading, prayers, and communion from an authorized prayer book. The music is really what is different. And yet not so different. It is rock, but it is deeply and overtly spiritual."
U2charist also incorporates such features as multimedia presentations of facts on extreme poverty set to the songs of U2.
The U2charist has been gaining attention from media outlets across the nation, not only for its innovative use of U2's spiritually-rich lyrics but for bringing people together across generations to worship and work toward a common goal.
With the Millennium Development Goals in mind, all donations during the offering at the U2charist celebration of King's life will benefit Five Talents International and AIDS Response Seacoast.
U2charist is open to anyone who wishes to attend, from York and beyond, and more information is available by calling the church at 363-7376.
