After her groundbreaking performance at Coachella as the first African American woman to headline the concert, San Francisco Grace Cathedral decided t
After her groundbreaking performance at Coachella as the first African American woman to headline the concert, San Francisco Grace Cathedral decided to use the inspiration that is Beyonce to take the masses to church. The Vine, a contemporary worship service that combines progressive theology and pop music, yesterday held a special mass devoted to Beyonce.
About 1000 worshipers sang along with Beyoncé’s hits and explored her inspirational history, particularly how she “opens a window into the lives of the marginalized and forgotten particularly black females,” according to the church. The mass included reading from scripture by women of color and a sermon by Rev. Yolanda Norton, who also teaches a course called “Beyoncé and the Hebrew Bible” at the San Francisco Theological Seminary. The church even encouraged all attendants to use the hashtag #BeyonceMass on social media.
“In this year where there’s been so much conversation about the role of women and communities of color, we felt a need to lift up the voices that the church has traditionally suppressed,” Rev. Jude Harmon, founding pastor of the Vine and director of innovative ministry for Grace Cathedral, said.
Harmon addressed critics of the mass, adding, “Jesus used very provocative images in the stories he would tell to incite people to ask hard questions about their own religious assumptions.”
