Beyonce Bought A Historic Church in New Orleans

Beyonce Bought A Historic Church in New Orleans

Beyonce Bought A Historic Church in New Orleans
By Pete Sekesan from New York, USA (DW2Q0596) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
The church Beyonce purchased is over 100 years old.

A media house specializing in entertainment news reported that Beyonce purchased a New Orleans historic church.[/tweetit] She reputedly paid $850,000 for the structure built in the 1900s. The church is not active and has been unused for a long time after all its congregation passed away. Solange Knowles, Beyonce’s younger sister and a pop star herself, lives nearby.

Beyonce Bought A Historic Church in New Orleans[/tweetthis]

What Beyonce will do with the building is a matter of speculation. Many have speculated whether a trend has started of celebrities purchasing religious structures only to convert them into personal homes. Katy Perry is one example of this trend. A few have even vocalized the idea that the singer may open her own Church of Bey after some time. This kind of use may not be far off as a church in San Francisco held a highly controversial Beyonce mass. Reverend Jude Harmon, the Innovative Ministries Director at Grace Cathedral, conducted the mass and insisted that such an activity gels perfectly with Gospel. To bolster the argument, Harmon pointed out that like Beyonce, Jesus Christ used provocative images in stories He told his followers.

Harmon continued, declaring that Beyonce's music opens windows into the lives of forgotten and marginalized people, especially black females. Harmon said the church felt a requirement to lift the voices of the traditionally suppressed. Beyonce’s music explores such themes in an easily accessible manner. Beyonce's music can be a conversation starter on such issues. The Grace Cathedral announces the same on its website. It exhorts readers of the site to visit The Vine SF and sing their favorite songs of the singer. They will discover the way her art opens a much-needed window to the less fortunate. It assures that Reverend Yolanda Norton, who is the assistant professor of the Old Testament subject at the San Francisco Theological Seminary, will be preaching. Norton is credited with the creation of the class “Beyonce and the Hebrew Bible.”

The Episcopal Cathedral provides The Vine service, offering progressive theology and contemporary worship. Harmon is aware of the many detractors vilifying their church. Harmon knows there are people who will say they are using Beyonce to get people to come to their church. Harmon then compared the singer with Jesus, saying Jesus and Beyonce both used provocative images to push people to ask tough questions on their religious assumptions and said they are merely following the path laid by Jesus.

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