Beyonce Giselle Knowles-Carter—the Queen of bagged-up hot sauce and pretty much the modern world as we know it—will finally be given the holy praise she deserves.
On the heels of Queen Bey's earth-shattering Coachella performance last weekend, San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral will host a special mass to honor Bey’s cultural influence and musical accomplishments.
On Wednesday, April 25, Reverend Yolanda Norton, a professor at the San Francisco Theological Seminary, will lead the service as part of Grace Cathedral's pop-culture worship series, The Vine. Norton also teaches a class called “Beyoncé and the Hebrew Bible" at the Theological Seminary, so suffice to say she’s a well-versed, studied member of the Beyhive.
The gathering was actually planned from before #Beychella; so just call it divine timing.
"Even in class today, there was this great energy about continuing this conversation in the wake of Coachella, and what it means to do this worship service that taps into what I think is the essence of who Beyoncé is and how that relates to black women, how we relate to God, and how we are seen in community," Norton told KQED. "In the wake of the Lemonade album, these questions about how black women find their voice, how they represent the image of god, and how we as black women provide space for liberation — not only of ourselves, but of all people—I think you find that in songs like 'Freedom' and 'Formation.'"
The Beyoncé mass will give all in attendance a chance to sing along to their favorite songs and discover how the 36-year-old star “opens a window into the lives of the marginalized and forgotten—particularly black females."
So ladies (and gentlemen), are you ready to get in reverent formation? We know we are.
April 25th at Grace Cathedral. Admission is free and the mass will begin at 6:30pm sharp; seating on a first-come first-serve basis.