Our family made a trip to NYC in May so we could see our good friends Scott Ramsey, Laura Cunningham, and their two kids, Will and Ginny. The NYC trip was also planned so I could interview Mary Foulke at her parish, St. Luke in the Fields in Greenwich Village.

Picture: Mattie Foulke-Hill, Mary, Renee Hill, Helena Foulke-Hill

I first met Mary during my first year at Union. Mary was in her final years of the dissertation process, getting her Ed.D from Columbia University, Teacher's College. I don't remember what circumstances led to my meeting of Mary but I was drawn to her liturgical creativity, institutional knowledge of Union, and the power she revealed when resisting social and ecclesiastical privilege.

Mary has this incredible gift of analyzing the social construction of power (race, gender, orientation, class.....) plus has the right-brain ability to create liturgical wonder and have an incredible pastoral presence. She's a triple threat.

My favorite worship service at Union was during the week of Halloween in my first year. Queer Caucus + All Saint's Day + Halloween Week in NYC = boundary-breaking imaginative worship. The Queer Caucus at Union was leading worship and I remember coming in during the first hymn, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Coming down the middle of James Chapel was nothing other then a catwalk.

Worship continued with a sermon by Andy Corbin, a Union student, wearing a t-shirt with Jesus in a robe and the words, "Jesus Loves Drag." (I've been looking for that t-shirt ever since). Andy focused on Jesus' use of the word "pervert" and Jesus' ability to subvert language and culture.

Next up: Gay Saints. The catwalk came alive when queer Union folk took turns reading words from Gay Saints. After each reading, the reader(s) would strut down the catwalk while Paul Rauschenbush, great-grandson of Walter Rauschenbush, wearing black leather pants and jacket chanted, "This is the House of Liberation." These words were said over and over while house music pumped through James Chapel.

Janet Walton, professor of worship at Union, uses the video of this worship service as a model for how to create and lead worship.

This service has set the standard for me in how to look at worship and what to expect from a liturgical experience. Worship is a laboratory, an experiment with the truth, a womb where we practice how we want to live and be together, a sacred endeavor to create a House of Liberation. In our everyday lives, we are a symbolic action of the Holy; indeed, revealing the energy and power in how we live, move, and have our being. This service took risk after risk. It could have been a complete bomb. Instead, it was an incredible experience of community, queer culture, risk-taking, prophetic voices and.....a catwalk.

Who was behind this liturgical masterpiece? Mary Foulke.