Beyoncé mass holds in a cathedral in San Francisco, pulls massive audience

The San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral looked and sounded more like a concert than a church for a first-of-its-kind Beyonce Mass.

The Wednesday night vine service which usually have 50 people in attendance had 900 attendants with the Coechella queen‘s name included.

Speaking of the mass, Reverend Jude Harmon says  “We didn’t expect this response,” Adding that Grace Cathedral put the invite to the service on Facebook and it blew up.

“We thought it would be kind of a small exploration as a community about what it means to lift up black female voices because traditionally the church hasn’t done a great job of that. I use Beyonce as a central figure to have these conversations about the realities that black women face,” says Reverand Yolanda Norton of the San Francisco Theological Seminary who is the brain behind the Beyoncé Mass.

Norton who gave the sermon on Wednesday night is a professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary and teaches a class on Beyonce and the Hebrew Bible.

She explains that she’s using Beyonce’s wide appeal to bring a diverse group of people together. Adding, “I know people think we’re worshipping Beyonce. None of that is true. This is a way to just have different kinds of conversation.”