U2charist Coming to St. Thomas’ Church

“ONE Church, ONE Heart, ONE World”

By Pam Jameson

On Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 5:00 pm, in recognition of “World Mission Sunday”, our Outreach, Youth, and Membership Commissions will combine efforts to host an extraordinary and energizing event called a “U2charist”.

What is a U2charist? A U2charist is an Episcopal Eucharist service that features the music of the spiritually-based rock band U2 and a message about God's call to rally around the Millennium Development Goals and Global Outreach Missions. The U2charist is a exciting opportunity to draw and engage people from all over the community to a unique spiritual experience, and an extraordinarily impactful way to worship and proclaim the Gospel together as ONE.  The actual band will not be in attendance, but their music and messages about global reconciliation, justice for the poor and oppressed, and the importance of caring for your neighbor will be. The music is accompanied by projected images on a large screen, illustrating the message of the service which is all about eradicating world poverty as an expression of our faith. Like "a multimedia rock concert meets Eucharist" – informality, dancing, clapping, and movement both in-place and in the aisle are not only encouraged, but assumed. 

In 2005, the concept of the U2charist was catapulted into popularity by the Rev. Paige Blair at St. George’s Episcopal Church in York Harbor, Maine.  At the 75th General Convention in June 2006, A U2charist was celebrated and the Episcopal Church adopted the Millennium Development Goals as a top mission priority for the Church over the next triennium. To date, over 300 congregations have hosted U2charists which are now celebrated globally from Europe to the Asia Pacific. 

The service, the music, and the message of U2 led by the global MDG ambassador, Bono (pronounced Baw-no), calls people worldwide to a deeper faith and engagement with God's mission. Bono is a passionate and vocal activist on behalf of the poorest of the poor around the world. In 2002, he co-founded the advocacy group DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) and in 2004 he helped to create the ONE Campaign, of which DATA is a member. In 2006, Bono and Bobby Shriver launched Project (RED) to engage businesses in the fight against AIDS. In 2007, Bono was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year”, along with Bill and Melinda Gates, for his efforts in promoting an end to world poverty; he was named the 2007 NAACP "Man of the Year"; and in September 2007, right in our hometown of Philadelphia, Bono was presented with the National Liberty Medal.

What are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?  In the year 2000, the United Nations Millennium Declaration laid the framework for the following eight goals. The goals set out time-bound targets to:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality; improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability world wide 

The eight and last goal of the declaration focuses on maintaining support by building partnerships between developed and developing countries and to establish targets for aid, trade and debt relief.  The declaration established 2015 as the target date for achieving most of the MDGs and is now supported by 191 countries around the world, including the United States. 

What is the ONE Campaign? The ONE Campaign is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans -- ONE by ONE -- to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. ONE does not ask for money, it asks for voice.  It is a coalition of over 2.4 million people from all 50 states and all walks of life and 100 of our nation's most respected non-profit humanitarian and advocacy groups, coming together to call on Americans and our leaders to do even more to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty and transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world's poorest countries. ONE also calls for debt cancellation, trade reform and anti–corruption measures in a comprehensive package to help the poorest nations beat AIDS and extreme poverty.

What is the “ONE Episcopalian Campaign? The “ONE Episcopalian Campaign” began in 2006 as the Episcopal church partnered with the ONE Campaign to help end world poverty. What is so important about the Episcopal Church’s engagement in the ONE Campaign through the ONE Episcopalian Campaign is that it connects the voices of Episcopalians to one another, to other churches and to advocates in the movement, so that we’re speaking ONE by ONE, but we’re all speaking with ONE voice, and that that one voice is loudly and clearly heard by our nations leaders raising the awareness of death by poverty as one that stands at the center of American priorities in how we position ourselves in our world  today. The MDGs are at the center of the Episcopal Church’s mission because a world that is free of poverty and disease that kills so many people every day -- is a world that will look dramatically more like God’s will for it.

U2charist Event Details: 4:30 pm Pre-Service music; 5:00 pm Service; 6:30 – 8:30 pm Global Dish Reception and Raffle in the Parish Hall.

The service offering and post-service reception raffle will benefit St. Thomas’ Global Mission projects including: Our Little Roses Ministries in San Pedro Sula, Honduras; the Honduras Water System Installation Project, and Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA) in Malawi, Africa; all of which directly impact the MDGs. Please mark your calendars and bring family and friends as we join in “ONE Church, ONE Heart, ONE World”. This is likely to be one of the most unique and creative worship services you have ever experienced!