A SATURDAY-NIGHT congregation set up for the young gay community in New York is the subject of a new off-Broadway musical featuring a young teenager wrestling with faith and family issues.
The musical, Saturday Church, is based on a ministry offered by St Luke in the Fields Episcopal Church, New York, an inclusive church that became involved in ministering to people with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s.
The church offers hot food and support for LGBTQ+ young people every Saturday evening at “Art and Acceptance” gatherings. About 50 people attend each week for food and arts activities.
The musical tells the story of a New York teenager, Ulysses. Its promoters describe the musical as capturing “the joy of embodied liberation and the profound power of faith, with a score that soars from the transcendence of gospel to the exhilarating vibrations of house music and pop”.
The congregation of St Luke’s is used to the theatrical spotlight after a film was first made about the Saturday gatherings by the writer and director Damon Cardasis. He has now turned the film into this musical. He said in a TV interview that “it was fascinating that there was a programme that was helping and providing social services to a lot of at-risk, LGBTQ+ youth, especially given the sort of contentious relationship between Christianity and this community.”
The Rector, the Revd Caroline Stacey, told the Episcopal News Service: “Anything that connects the world that most people live in and the joy of the gospel is a good thing”.
The Revd Andrew Ancona, who oversees outreach ministries at the church, said that the show was a “wonderful representation of . . . the kind of chosen family that exists within the queer community, and the way that the church comes alongside that.”
He said that the church’s ministry wasn’t about “just saying we’re glad you’re here”, but “uplifting the experiences of queer people and making sure they’re loved”.
The run ends tonight, at the New York Theatre Workshop, but producers hope that it might translate to Broadway, after a sell-out run.