All Saints' U2charist Service to Highlight Global Poverty and Social Injustice

Sunday, April 22, 2007
6:30 PM

Location: All Saints’ Chapel at the University of the South
All Saints’ Chapel at the University of the South invites the community to a special “U2charist” service on April 22, 2007, at 6:30 p.m. The U2charist multimedia presentation will feature images of conflict and suffering in Somalia taken by Pulitzer Prize-nominated photojournalist Howard G. Castleberry. Howard is a seminarian at the School of Theology. The U2charist — named after the rock band U2 and the Holy Eucharist — incorporates the Irish performers’ music and lyrics with the traditional elements of the Episcopal Church service. Instead of hymns, worshippers are encouraged to sing or clap along to recordings of such hits as “In the Name of Love,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Beautiful Day,” “In the Name of Love,” and more.

During the service, lyrics, images, and information will flash on large screens to highlight global poverty and social justice issues. The goal of U2charist services is to help educate the public about the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Episcopal Church’s ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History. To date, U2charists in the U.S. have raised more than $60,000 for MDG efforts.

MDGs were adopted by the United Nations in 2000, when it pledged to eradicate extreme poverty and disease by the year 2015. Bono, the lead singer of U2, is the global ambassador for the campaign. Offerings taken up during the service, along with sales of “ONE Bracelets” by Voices Against Poverty will be used to help eradicate extreme poverty and global AIDS.

The U2charist celebration in All Saints’ Chapel will feature the Rev. Chloe Breyer who will address “What One Person Can Do.” Breyer, an Episcopal priest, writer, and activist, serves as associate rector at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Manhattanville in West Harlem, New York City. She expresses her Christian convictions in service through such organizations as Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. She was founder-director of the Cathedral Forums on Religion and Public Life at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and served as chaplain to the Cathedral School.