Cambridge U. service: the queering of the liturgy of Evening prayer

Cambridge University theological college apologises for 'subverting the teaching of Christ' in church service  ...The theological students held the evensong service on Tuesday with a programme explaining their version was a “queering [of] the liturgy of Evening Prayer”.

The trainees used Polari, the language championed in the 1950s and 1960s by the comedians Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick in BBC radio’s Round the Horne.

The popular show used gay innuendo at a time when homosexuality was still illegal.
A note produced along with the order of service explained that the service was “a liturgical experiment” and an “attempt at queering the liturgy of Evening Prayer, locating the queer within the compass of faith”.

A gay activist group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, has produced a version of the Bible in Polari, in which God is ‘Gloria’; the Lord is turned into “the Duchess”; the Holy Spirit becomes “Fantabulosa Fairy”; and Jesus is feminised to “Josie” and referred to as she. Psalm 19 was reworded to refer to “O Duchess, my butchness”... image

At Tuesday’s service, much to the horror of many of the devout worshippers, they were invited to respond to the line: “O Gloria make speed to save us,” with the words “O Duchess make haste to help us.”