Imagine my horror as I ate my white chocolate Easter bunny around brunch today while reading the S entertainment section of my Sunday paper The Sun Herald, to see this

PARTY OF THE WEEK

Vodka O Passion for Purity commitment

ceremony Paddington Uniting Church

Various highlights of the evening according to Amy Cooper of S5 of the Sun Herald were an invitation only crowd of Sydney party circuit goers, many wearing virginal white, crosses and even veils being greeted at the door by Father Ben. There was a massive bar laden with vodka cocktails, hymns were played and a version of the Lords Prayer was said “Thy kingdom come, Vodka O will be drunk, on earth as in heaven” Then a weird version of the ten commandments was followed by Vodka O being poured into the baptismal font and the “virgins, a scantily clad man and woman dressed in white swimmers” were anointed with it by a huge nun, who was in fact a man in drag .Then to cap it all off the lights went down and flames erupted from behind the cross, some clever ploy by bartenders setting Vodka alight. A DJ then appeared in the pulpit and the music of Madonna blasted out of the church.

So that was all from the paper but to fill you in a bit the church in question is not a decomissioned church, I checked online and they do have worship services there and also provide a long list of services to the needy but it appears that over the years they have compromised themselves to do those good works. I found out here that they applied for a liquor license in 2005 for the church hall as they hired that out to various parties for entertainment purposes that I assume provides income for them. So they have a history of doing unconventional things for I guess what they see is the greater good.

However I see no greater good here, in fact all I see is a perversion of what at this time to Christians such as myself is a most important and joyous time, Holy Week. You may have noticed that vodka in the Sun Herald story had a capital letter, the way we have for God or the Son or the Father. Many things concerned me about this article apart from the obvious, I wonder if anyone left this service or were they all so ignorant of the sensitivities of Christians that it did not occur to them? Maybe they were unchurched as some people where we used to go to church used to say…and were not aware of what was occurring or maybe it is just what I most fear, that pursuit of parties and fun and being seen in the right places is more important than whatever conscience or morality they may have.

Interestingly a few weeks ago my husband and I were watching an episode of the British programme Lewis and they showed a gay nightclub based in a decommissioned church in Oxford, so it must be a new thing in the entertainment field, shock venues, although we are way behind the times in that case as that episode of Lewis was from 2005.

I have sent emails to the head of The Uniting Church and to the Minister of that church telling them of my concerns that they would knowingly rent out a church that is used for worship for such purposes. I am aware that in Britain some Catholic churches have social clubs that serve alcohol but believe them to be more for keeping the community together than being used to subvert the Christian message. Wil of the online SMH was pretty disgusted, thank goodness a few people are unafraid to speak out.

So I say shame on you Ben Anderson, aka Father Ben, who created the vodka brand O for exploiting something that is very precious to Christians and all in the name of the glorious god, Money.