We all kneel at the altars of different gods, but when it comes to the realms of pop music, few artists are worshiped quite like Beyoncé Knowles.
The iconic pop singer has long stood out as an inspiration to her fans, due to her uplifting messages of empowerment. Tonight, at Stanford’s Memorial Church, a special 90-minute church service entitled Beyoncé Mass will incorporate themes from the artist’s music and career into a religious context.
Originally launched by Rev. Yolanda Norton four years ago, with events at Grace Cathedral and the San Francisco Theological Seminary, the mass has since been given in cities ranging from Washington D.C. to Lisbon, Portugal. This will be the first time the sermon has been delivered in the Bay Area since 2019.
A full production team, including musicians and choir singers, flew in for the event to perform a selection of songs from Beyoncé’s catalog. Rev. Norton will also be in attendance to deliver a sermon.
Although music is the through line in the mass, Rev. Sakena Young-Scaggs, the pastor of the church and a school dean of spiritual life, wants to make clear that the ceremony doesn’t deify Beyoncé herself.
“It’s a traditional Christian workshop service,” Rev. Young-Scaggs told SFGate. “What’s not traditional about it is that it’s a liturgy woven together with Beyoncé’s songs that are geared towards a message of liberation with a particular thematic framework.”
One of the primary threads in the sermon is womanist theology, a term coined by Alice Walker as a response to feminist texts that didn’t take race into account. “Lived experiences of Black women are centered in this kind of event,” Rev. Young-Scaggs said; however, she also stressed the inclusiveness of the womanist school of thought.
Beyoncé Mass will be the first large-scale event at Memorial Church since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The church seats 1285 people, and entry to the event is free, but requires registration through Eventbrite. Attendees are required to show either proof of full vaccination or a negative test result within 72 hours before arrival.
The above comes from a Feb. 23 story in SF Gate.
Blasphemy.
Queen Bee, as she is known, speaks to a lot of people so maybe this is a great evangelization event. I can’t attend so I’ll leave to others who do to critique its adherence to apostolic teachings. Or maybe I shouldn’t since I know there are an awful lot of hypersensitive knees on this site ready to flinch at anything not TLM or Gregorian chant.
We are sick of the the continued attempts to remake the Church in the image of the world. What you call hypersensitive I call defense of the Church.
This is not the Church.
If one clicks on the blue “Beyonce Mass” link in the article above then scrolls down to the video where the young black woman interviews the “priest”, she clearly states that Beyonce is the goddess. This is the same as if one were to deify the singer, performer Madonna. This is a mockery of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – a performance mixing aspects of Christianity with paganism — and has nothing to do with real Christianity.
And why is tis relevant to Catholics?
It isn’t. It uses a word that we use, ‘Mass’ but like other words we use like ‘love’ and ‘marriage’ the meaning is something completely other. So sue us, Mass means something to us.
I’d call it cultural appropriation, but I think it’s more ignorance than anything else. I bet the music is catchy tho, so there’s that…
They do not worship God– they worship Beyonce and her rock star songs and womanist beliefs.
Maybe this will bring more youth back into the church. Something has to be tried.
The way to bring the youth back into the Church is to follow its teachings on sexuality and have more children within Holy Matrimony, Worshipping a “Queen Bee” only makes them her drones (slaves) who do all the work and become enslaved to sin.
Got it?
This seems almost as if it would be something from the Babylon Bee. Hopefully, no one thinks it’s a Mass of any sort. (We don’t generally name Masses after people.) And, how could Rev. Dr. Young-Scaggs seriously describe this as “a traditional Christian worship service?” She is “an itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.” But, nothing in this seems to be part of Anglican or Methodist or African traditions. I think CS Lewis and the Wesley brothers would find it unrecognizable. It’s a free country, so I don’t object to them putting on this misguided performance, but it seems it lacks some truth in advertising. And, it’s ironic that this is happening at Stanford. Maybe it’s part of their atonement for the sins of the university’s founder. Governor (and Senator) Stanford was a widely known racist, Blacks and Asians bearing the brunt of his animus. At least the vaccinated don’t have to be “boosted” in order to attend. Although Beyonce headlines this womanist “service,” will there be appearances by The Mamas and (No More) Papas and Pachamama?
Okay. This has nothing to do with Christ. This is just progressive, leftist, woke ideology wrapped in celebrity worship. They could have done it with any pop star, but they chose Beyonce. The people who attend aren’t there for Christ or spirituality. They’re there for a Beyonce cover band performance.
This is just the next development of what started with praise and worship music. It’s a further secularization of Christianity to such an extent that it’s no longer Christianity: it’s Secularanity.
I don’t know why it’s called “Mass” because it is just, as others have said, a Christian worship service with a “justice” and “God loves all and all whom you love” theme. Here’s a recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t_dSoqdPsU I wish the group would not have used the word “Mass”.
Episcopalians often use the term “mass” for church services also, and many have been into goddess cults for a long time. There is a more orthodox African branch of Anglicans that have only male priests and follow the Ten Commandments on sexual issues. The latter would most likely look upon St. Charles Lwanda, a Catholic, and his martyred companions (Anglican/ Episcopalians) as saintly heroes instead. They were murdered because they refused the homosexual advances of a pagan African chief. St. Charles Lwanda and Companions were martyred for their adherence to Christian virtue.
Following the 10 Commandments on sexual issues means: Thou shalt not commit adultery and Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.
I think you need to refresh your memory on the martyrdom of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions.
So now that story is being twisted to suit the unholy. It figures.
How does them being martyred for refusing to renounce the Christian faith suit the unholy?
That is what a martyr is.
I might be wrong, but it seems to me the poster called “refresh your memory” was implying that one of the martyrs had committed adultery or was implying that sodomy is not against the Ten Commandments, which it is. The subtitles under the breakage of the commandment against adultery also include fornication, incest and sodomy. Some being worse than others as they are a perverted use of the reproductive function. The person could have meant, though, that all Anglicans follow the adulterer Henry VIII.
No absolutely not. That was not implied in any way. Dirty minded.
It had nothing to do with Henry VIII.
I can’t believe people are continuing to put up with the vaccine proof and mask nonsense. For all their talk about freedom, they really are just slaves.
Catholic Mass is held in the Stanford church.
The so-called Beyonce Mass has nothing to do with the Catholic Church and is not a Catholic Mass. It is put out by Grace Cathedral, a dissent form of the Episcopalian denomination. It is a mixture of paganism, Christianity and whatever.
but … people who go to Stanford
are superior to all the rest of us … so there’s that
Yes the criminal ruling class….
Chelsea Clinton went there
if that’s what you mean
or …. Herbert Hoover
Is the Rev. Sakena Young-Scaggs
related to Boz Scaggs?