The Goth Eucharist featured originally on expressions: the dvd - 2: changing church in every place. The Eucharist's Chaplain, Fraser Watts, outlines what's happening today.
St Edward's Church in Cambridge has been offering a Goth Eucharist service in its community since January 2006.
The assistant chaplain at the time, Marcus Ramshaw, had discovered that his friends were fascinated by the supernatural and wanted to create a service for people where they wouldn't be judged by their clothes or attitudes. It was to be a place where 'taboo' subjects such as depression, self harming and grief could be talked about in the same way as the psalmist would approach them.
Marcus wanted to find a mainstream Christian way to help with the things faced by the Goth community. He knew it would be controversial so wanted to do it in a completely orthodox way. A Eucharist service was offered to a small group of Goths who went to a Goth nightclub once a fortnight. Marcus and I sought new ways of making the life of Church meaningful to people from alternative, and particularly Goth, communities.
The service was candlelit with a specially written liturgy, using a variety of modern rock as well as classical music. The structure of the service revolved around the baptismal candle and reflected a serious engagement with the darker sides of life before moving towards a position of hope and joy found in the empathy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The past five years saw fluctuating attendances as the number of Goths in the area decreased and fewer people attended the Eucharist. The Goth nightclub also started to operate at a different time but we still recognised the need for a fresh expression of church in the area.
As numbers dropped to an average of 7-8 people, the Eucharist was relaunched in September as part of On the Edge, a new, broader programme of services. We call it 'On the Edge' because it is for people who are on the edge of church and often on the edge of society too, people whose lives are often difficult and edgy. We want to identify with people on the edge, and using their rather edgy music is one of the key things that make the service feel like their space.
'On the Edge', still brings together contemporary secular music with Christian worship. Goths remain a very important part of the service, but others who don't think of themselves as Goths are also very welcome.
The first 'On the Edge', drew on the life story of the late Amy Winehouse. Associate chaplain Malcolm Guite talked about the tension in her life between creativity and self-destruction. Other issues covered since September have included despair, dependency, depression and death. Like the Goth Eucharist, 'On the Edge' aims to connect with people who have a strong sense of the darkness of life, and may feel alienated from normal church services as a result.
We are less exclusively Goth than we were. The key thing seems to be intertwining hard-hitting 'secular' music with Christian liturgy and preaching on difficult real world issues. We will also be broadening the musical and cultural range, still including 'Goth' but also going beyond Goth to other musical cultures and artists.
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