EQUAL TIME
Chris?
What up?
You’ve been a little rough on the Roman Catholics the last few days. What say you rag on the Episcopalians for a while or something? Fair is fair.
Live to serve. Your assertion, however, is inaccurate since I don’t think I’ve been rough on Roman Catholics at all. I’ve been rough on fake Catholics, Episcopalians in Catholic Drag, Roman Episcolics, Roman Cathlopalians, LibCats, heretics, apostates or whatever your favorite term happens to be.
But I see you working. It’s just that making fun of pseudo-spiritual institutions that aren’t self-aware enough to know that they shot their way past public drunkeness-level humiliation toward whatever lies beyond that a very long time ago isn’t as easy as it sounds; it’s the hardest thing in the world to make jokes about jokes.
To wit.
The Rev. Fountain directs the Editorial and the MCJ readership’s attention hither. Apparently some New York City TEO outlet is going to do this, does it every year and, for reasons known only to whatever it is that its members worship, actually thinks that this egregiously ridiculous crap is a really good idea:
Like most churches, St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery holds Christian services in its sanctuary every Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Unlike most churches, on the last Sunday in June, the Episcopal church hangs the disco ball, turns up the music and invites a disco diva to lead their music ministry for the annual Gay Pride Disco Mass.
Known for its commitment to the arts, poetry theatre and dance space, St. Mark’s in the Bowery is a fixture in New York City’s East Village. It is also one of New York’s most historic churches — its cornerstone was put down in 1795.
The outside of the church made an appearance in the HBO version of Angels in America as the location of the funeral of a drag queen, and the church has long played a prominent role within the LGBT community.
“The Disco Mass at St. Mark’s is a longstanding tradition that offers the church a way to celebrate Pride weekend festivities in a worship style that has ranged from camp and drag to liberationist,” explains St. Mark’s pastor the Rev. Winnie Varghese, herself an out lesbian.
“The service invokes the community feel of the era of gay liberation before AIDS. We open with ‘Love Train,’ use the readings assigned for the day, which always seem to work out well. We include ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ as the preparation for communion, and end with ‘We Are Family,’ which turns the sanctuary floor into a dance party.”
Jeannine Otis, who was resident Diva at the 2010 Disco Mass at St. Mark’s believes that disco music has played an important social role in the history of LGBT people. In a video about the Disco Mass she explained how, especially after AIDS, disco “became the basis of bringing everybody together with a lot of love, bonding — and fun.”
“We need to always find a way to do that, to mix spirituality with fun. We are all part of God’s rainbow.”
Whatever, sunshine.
Just about everybody above a certain age, Catholic or Protestant, has been through the ordeal of the “relevant” church. And I don’t mean bearded seminarians named Greg who quoted Grateful Dead lyrics in their sermons.
I mean the efforts churches used to make to interest the Young PeopleTM and keep them in church, efforts that were as embarrassing as the way old American TV shows or TV movie from the 60′s or 70′s used to portray hippies or rock music.
The hippies all looked exactly the same and the worse-than-bland “rock and roll” sounded like it was played by the same studio band. All the Young PeopleTM looked alike, all the “rock and roll” sounded alike and there was nothing either threatening, challenging or real about any of it. All of them were actors playing an assigned role as well as a frantic appeal to the Young PeopleTM by adults who didn’t understand the Young PeopleTM at all.
Many churches, my own included, did much the same thing. You Catholics weren’t the only ones afflicted by the St. Louis Jesuits; when my own parish went through its “guitar Mass” phase in the 70′s and early 80′s, SLJ stuff figured prominently. And Your Editor freely admits that he and his mother sang in a choir that performed quite a few SLJ songs.
What’s interesting was that right around that time, I was pretty much the only person of my age group who regularly attended that parish (and there weren’t all that many other people of any age) so you can see how well that approach worked. Guitar Masses never got me any dates, let me tell you.
It was only when my parish finally ditched guitars and went back to pipe organs that our numbers began to pick back up. When we once again strived for transcendence rather than relevance, if you like.
I don’t know how many kids attend St. Mark’s but I suspect that most of them are not going to profess the Episcopal religion when they’re older. Some will be atheists (“If all you’re going to do is tell me what I want to hear, what do I need you for?”) while others will call themselves Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Shintoists or whatever other exotic “spirituality” happens to be hip when these kids come of age.
Of those who still believe the Christian religion, a few will be Protestants of some kind but most will be Roman Catholics or Orthodox. Listen to the crap they’re going to play at St. Mark’s in the Bowery for this unmitigated disgrace of theirs. Listen to this. And then tell me which of the two will get you out of bed on a Sunday morning.
Thought so.
What up?
You’ve been a little rough on the Roman Catholics the last few days. What say you rag on the Episcopalians for a while or something? Fair is fair.
Live to serve. Your assertion, however, is inaccurate since I don’t think I’ve been rough on Roman Catholics at all. I’ve been rough on fake Catholics, Episcopalians in Catholic Drag, Roman Episcolics, Roman Cathlopalians, LibCats, heretics, apostates or whatever your favorite term happens to be.
But I see you working. It’s just that making fun of pseudo-spiritual institutions that aren’t self-aware enough to know that they shot their way past public drunkeness-level humiliation toward whatever lies beyond that a very long time ago isn’t as easy as it sounds; it’s the hardest thing in the world to make jokes about jokes.
To wit.
The Rev. Fountain directs the Editorial and the MCJ readership’s attention hither. Apparently some New York City TEO outlet is going to do this, does it every year and, for reasons known only to whatever it is that its members worship, actually thinks that this egregiously ridiculous crap is a really good idea:
Like most churches, St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery holds Christian services in its sanctuary every Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Unlike most churches, on the last Sunday in June, the Episcopal church hangs the disco ball, turns up the music and invites a disco diva to lead their music ministry for the annual Gay Pride Disco Mass.
Known for its commitment to the arts, poetry theatre and dance space, St. Mark’s in the Bowery is a fixture in New York City’s East Village. It is also one of New York’s most historic churches — its cornerstone was put down in 1795.
The outside of the church made an appearance in the HBO version of Angels in America as the location of the funeral of a drag queen, and the church has long played a prominent role within the LGBT community.
“The Disco Mass at St. Mark’s is a longstanding tradition that offers the church a way to celebrate Pride weekend festivities in a worship style that has ranged from camp and drag to liberationist,” explains St. Mark’s pastor the Rev. Winnie Varghese, herself an out lesbian.
“The service invokes the community feel of the era of gay liberation before AIDS. We open with ‘Love Train,’ use the readings assigned for the day, which always seem to work out well. We include ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ as the preparation for communion, and end with ‘We Are Family,’ which turns the sanctuary floor into a dance party.”
Jeannine Otis, who was resident Diva at the 2010 Disco Mass at St. Mark’s believes that disco music has played an important social role in the history of LGBT people. In a video about the Disco Mass she explained how, especially after AIDS, disco “became the basis of bringing everybody together with a lot of love, bonding — and fun.”
“We need to always find a way to do that, to mix spirituality with fun. We are all part of God’s rainbow.”
Whatever, sunshine.
Just about everybody above a certain age, Catholic or Protestant, has been through the ordeal of the “relevant” church. And I don’t mean bearded seminarians named Greg who quoted Grateful Dead lyrics in their sermons.
I mean the efforts churches used to make to interest the Young PeopleTM and keep them in church, efforts that were as embarrassing as the way old American TV shows or TV movie from the 60′s or 70′s used to portray hippies or rock music.
The hippies all looked exactly the same and the worse-than-bland “rock and roll” sounded like it was played by the same studio band. All the Young PeopleTM looked alike, all the “rock and roll” sounded alike and there was nothing either threatening, challenging or real about any of it. All of them were actors playing an assigned role as well as a frantic appeal to the Young PeopleTM by adults who didn’t understand the Young PeopleTM at all.
Many churches, my own included, did much the same thing. You Catholics weren’t the only ones afflicted by the St. Louis Jesuits; when my own parish went through its “guitar Mass” phase in the 70′s and early 80′s, SLJ stuff figured prominently. And Your Editor freely admits that he and his mother sang in a choir that performed quite a few SLJ songs.
What’s interesting was that right around that time, I was pretty much the only person of my age group who regularly attended that parish (and there weren’t all that many other people of any age) so you can see how well that approach worked. Guitar Masses never got me any dates, let me tell you.
It was only when my parish finally ditched guitars and went back to pipe organs that our numbers began to pick back up. When we once again strived for transcendence rather than relevance, if you like.
I don’t know how many kids attend St. Mark’s but I suspect that most of them are not going to profess the Episcopal religion when they’re older. Some will be atheists (“If all you’re going to do is tell me what I want to hear, what do I need you for?”) while others will call themselves Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Shintoists or whatever other exotic “spirituality” happens to be hip when these kids come of age.
Of those who still believe the Christian religion, a few will be Protestants of some kind but most will be Roman Catholics or Orthodox. Listen to the crap they’re going to play at St. Mark’s in the Bowery for this unmitigated disgrace of theirs. Listen to this. And then tell me which of the two will get you out of bed on a Sunday morning.
Thought so.
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