U2charist @ Cherokee Tomorrow

Since its 1980 album Boy, the Irish rock band U2 has played a vibrant role in popular culture, their music and image evolving to fit changing times and tastes. But through the years and the changes, two things have remained constant with U2: first, the same four individuals who formed the band so long ago are the same on tour around the world in 2009 and 2010; second, and more importantly for this morning's service at Cherokee, the band's recordings and live performances remain infused with distinct and challenging Christian imagery and spirituality. This longevity of character and belief is evident in the music you'll hear today: "40" is from U2's third album War (1983); "Magnificent" is from the thirteenth album No Line on the Horizon (2009); other songs come from the range of albums in between.

The U2charist combines the music of U2 with the celebration of the Eucharist to create a service that has been described as "meaningful and fun." The first U2charist was held in 2004, and since then variations on the service have been held around the world and across denominations. U2 is aware of these services and allows its music to be used without licensing cost. The band asks in return that the event be a worship service, not a concert, and that a donation be collected to support the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, among which are the end of poverty and hunger, the promotion of universal education, of child and maternal health, gender equality and global partnership.

The organizers of the first U2charist at Cherokee United Methodist Church have chosen to donate today's special offering to a program called Nothing But Nets, an approved project of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. The pennies and dollars donated this morning—100% of them—will go to purchase and distribute protective mosquito netting to help prevent the spread of malaria in Africa, where a child dies of this preventable disease every 30 seconds and a million children and adults die of it every year.

Welcome to the U2charist! Sing along! Dance! Worship!

U2charist @ Cherokee

Songlist for the U2charist coming up on 15 November at Cherokee United Methodist Church:

"Beautiful Day"
"Pride (In the Name of Love)"
"Yahweh"
"Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own"
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
"Magnificent"
"One"
"40"
"Where the Streets Have No Name"

Return to DC

I'm in Washington, DC, for the third time in 2009. Two colleagues from ETSU's Honors College and I drove up yesterday for this year's conference of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC). It was a nasty day for driving. Rain, rain, rain, all the way from Tennessee to DC, over 400 miles of rain from the sky and spray from beneath the tires of fellow travelers. We left Johnson City a little after noon—causing me to miss my second 4 O'clock Club meeting in October—and arrived at the Grand Hyatt on the corner of 11th and H Streets at a little after seven o'clock. As a consolation for the 4 O'clock meeting, my colleagues and I went across the street to eat (and drink) at Capitol City Brewing Co., where I had some calamari, a fine turkey burger and a couple of glasses of their "Prohibition Porter."

This morning I woke up a little before six o'clock (as usual), but after staying up for a bit, I went back to bed (not as usual) and dozed until around nine. Then I got up, put on my walking clothes and headed for the Mall—not the shopping mall—where I did a bit of walking and jogging. The place was splashy and smelled of earth after the nearly two inches of rain that fell here yesterday and last night. I passed by the Washington Memorial and the World War II Memorial. As is my wont, I paid an emotional visit to the Lincoln Memorial and then headed back toward my hotel. On the way, I stopped at a little diner called Ollie's Trolley (http://www.olliestrolleydc.com/) for a breakfast of French toast and bacon.

It's now nearly one o'clock, and I'm heading out to find some lunch and walk around the city. The rain has moved out. The sun is shining from a blue sky. And I'm hungry.

17 October 1814: Act of God?

From the Writer's Almanac:

The London Beer Flood occurred on this day in 1814. At 6:00 on a Monday evening, a torrent of beer came rushing through the streets of the St. Giles district of London.

It started at the Horse Shoe Brewery at Tottenham Court and Oxford Street, where there were huge vats of porter perched on top of the roof. They contained beer, which had been fermenting right there for months. The wooden vats were enormous — some as tall as 22 feet — and were structurally supported by large iron hoops, dozens of them. They sat on the roof of the Meux Brewing Company, each of them containing hundreds of thousands of liters of beer.

The largest vat had started to strain under the weight and pressure of all that porter, and on this day, around 6:00 p.m., one of the iron hoops gave way and all the porter in the 22-foot-tall vat came gushing out. There were about 600,000 liters of beer in there, and when the vat burst and all that beer came exploding out, there was a chain reaction and the surrounding vats on the roof also burst. More than a million liters of beer toppled the brewery's brick wall (it was 25 feet tall) and began flooding the streets of St. Giles.

People came out onto the streets of St. Giles with mugs and buckets and pots and pans to collect the free beer; others leaned over and drank directly from the streams gushing down the streets. But many people were injured by the torrent and sent to the hospital, where inpatients smelled the beer and nearly rioted to get their share.

Nine people died. About half were children who drowned or sustained fatal injuries from the flood, which had also crushed the roofs of buildings near the brewery, adding heavy timber to the gushing rivers of beer. One man died a few days after the flood from alcohol poisoning. Trying to prevent all of it from going to waste, he had drunk a lot of beer in the span of a few days. People brought a lawsuit against the Meux & Company Brewery, but in court the flood was ruled an Act of God, and the brewery was not held legally responsible.

In 1919 there was a molasses flood in Boston, Massachusetts, after a massive tank of molasses crumpled and burst. The molasses flood destroyed houses and trains and killed 21 people.

Mushroom

From today's Writer's Almanac:

Today is Constitution Day in the United States, because it was on this day in 1787 that the final draft of the Constitution was signed. There were 55 delegates working on the Constitution, and they had been showing up day after day for almost four months to the State House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Nashville Years II (Related Diary Entries II)

Here's a diary entry I ran across. It's not related to my experience with Ron or Earl, but I thought it worth posting. I'd forgotten this event, so I was surprised by the reminder and the remembering. The entry is from 6 December 1981:

As seems almost usual for me on Sunday morning, I woke up ill at the world. The Lord knows how hard it is for me to get up before 11 AM. I almost decided not to go to church, like every Sunday, thinking that I got nothing from the small, country service. Then I realized, as always, that they are my people and, even though I may get nothing from the service but seeing them and feeling their friendship, that is enough. Then I also came face to face with the fact that the singing I dread with such passion is for them and not for me, and that, being graciously given the gift from God, it is my duty to sing for them. It should also be my desire to do so.

Well, Allen met me at the door asking if what he heard about me signing with Capitol was true and he was followed closely by Butch asking the same. I quickly gave them my practiced explanation about Townhouse [Records] but they were still pleased.

When time came for me to sing came around, as I was getting my guitar, Raymond spoke up about my struggles with my music and my witness for the church and my hopefully impending record deal. Then totally unexpectedly he suggested a standing ovation for me and I was overwhelmed. If it is not the Lord's will that this all go through all right, He sure is planning to teach me a great lesson in disappointment. Evan at that, though, this morning was a great blessing and I am very thankful for all the people there. . . .

Oh, in church I sang "A Song for Carolina" and "Dear Mother."

Although I've mostly lost track of Butch, Allen and I are friends on Facebook. Raymond is dead now, as are most of the people who were there that December Sunday morning in 1981. In the end, I left that little church behind without much in the way of second thoughts or regrets. But the reminder of this moment fills my plate with a range of emotions—a pinch of nostalgic joy, a big helping of nostalgic heartache, a spoonful of anger at God (along with a double spoonful of confusion) regarding this "great lesson in disappointment." Such thoughts and memories raise questions, and their answers are not forthcoming.