It is typically a liturgical service (including communion) that features the music of the rock band U2 and a message about God's call to rally around the Millennium Development Goals.
Bono, U2's lead singer, has been a particularly vocal proponent of the Millennium Development Goals, and has been proclaimed as a global MDG ambassador.
Although churches have used U2's music in liturgy for many years, the first U2charist was designed by Sarah Dylan Breuer in 2003, with the service held in Baltimore, Maryland, in April 2004.
[2] The service spread quickly by word of mouth and over the Internet, particularly after the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland held a U2charist at their conference for all diocesan clergy in October 2004, after which many clergy present held U2charists with the assistance of the "Without Walls" worship team throughout 2004 and 2005,[2] with the St. Mary's Outreach Center in Baltimore, Maryland, where the U2charist first took hold, as its base of operations.
Paige Blair, rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in York Harbor, Maine, along with several of her parishioners, held her first U2charist on Sunday evening, July 31, 2005.