"nobody has done, in modern times, as much as i have done to radicalize the church" -rev. cecil williams

there was an article in the san francisco chronicle today about glide. among other things, the author noted a general crisis of faith at the church, an exodus of glide members with the exit of rev. douglas fitch and the entrance of rev. donald guest, and too many white folk in the pews.

never one to waste time, rev. cecil williams had a response ready to go by the 9am service. he discounted each of the article's main points (especially the point about cecil being "hippity-dippity") and then he still had time left over to deliver a sermon on "the black preacher". a sermon, mind you, that included cecil singing a song that brought his ministry team to tears (or at least donald...though to be clear, donald is somewhat of a crybaby.).

here i am with the superstar himself, cecil williams (he's not actually shorter than i am...in my quest to become girly this year, i've been wearing an awful lot of ridiculously high heeled shoes).

whether cecil is talking about the subprime mortgage crisis and its effects on people of color or the lack of free hiv testing in san francisco for people who identify as straight, he knows how to talk to people to move them to take action. glide is about the religion of power to the people.

although cecil is a legend in his own right, i don't go to glide strictly to bask in his fame and brilliance; i also go for the music. the glide ensemble and the change band get everyone up out of their seats and moving from the second each celebration begins. as a collective they are uplifting and amazing. some of the soloists, however, are downright unbelievable.

vernon bush is one of these soloists. how fricking adorable is he?kiki and i have been obsessed (in a healthy way) with vernon for over two years now. when vernon opens his mouth he truly gives everyone in the room a highspeed wifi connection to whatever higher power they call on. listening to his singing is the kind of musical experience that brings people down to their knees (not in a dirty way). don't believe me? see for yourself:

vernon sings @ glide from blissforkface on Vimeo.

vernon is my official boyfriend of the week, and don't you go trying to steal him.

if you live in san francisco, and you want to check out glide, just holla' at me. i'd be glad to drag you along. be warned though...a few people (namely kiki and phtoizzle) got dragged along by me once, and never ended up leaving.

just for fun, here are a few shots of kiki and i post-glide:

big thanks to photizzle for taking all of the pics (and for signing up for a pro flickr account so that he can post his photographic gems for the world to see). i would also like to send love to kiki, and thank her again for FINALLY moving back to the bay area. i love all of my new friends here, but there's something comforting about hanging out with people who i've already gone to hell and back with. they've seen me at my best. they've seen me at my worst. they've seen my 80085. there's not much else for them to see...and yet they still stick around. god bless 'em (or as we glide folks say: "amen. hallelujah. right on. shalom. salaam. namaste. ")

here's one more article about glide, in case you're curious