State-funded LGBTQ group hosted church parties ‘sexualising’ Catholicism

A state-funded LGBTQ group that hosted “unholy nights” at an Australian church has been accused of sexualising and mocking Catholicism by the Archbishop of Sydney.

Divine Playhouse turned the deconsecrated, 158-year-old St John the Evangelist Church into an arts space hosting parties that incorporated religious themes. Promotional materials featured crosses and promised confession, hymns, adoration and processions.

Some who attended the opening night were dressed as nuns and choirboys, while performers dressed as pigs offered McDonald’s chips as “holy communion”.

Anthony Fisher, the Archbishop of Sydney, said the group carried out the “deliberate appropriation and, in our view, sexualisation and denigration of symbols, language and rituals that are sacred to Catholics”.

Divine Playhouse received a grant of 100,000 Australian dollars (£53,000) from the New South Wales (NSW) government. The Archbishop called on the NSW government to withdraw the grant.

After the “queer arts space” opened in July, religious protesters gathered outside and called on the NSW government to shut it down. Fit for the Kingdom, a Catholic apostolate and fitness group, described the arts space as “hateful blasphemy that mocks what we hold most sacred”.

The group was evicted from the church under an obscure “offensive trade” law, typically used to regulate foul smells and industrial waste.

The team behind the short-lived venue, now using the name Unholy/Divine, plan to host a residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) in Sydney next month.

The three-day event is being billed as including an “Unholy Funeral” to lay to rest the memories of Divine Playhouse, followed by an “awakening”. The third night has been advertised as an event to “confess your sins and surrender to a night of delicious indiscretion and very naughty art”.

In an open letter, the Archbishop said he recognised the “right to freedom of artistic expression” but said he was “deeply concerned that the government is financially supporting productions that mock, degrade or deliberately provoke the Catholic community”.

He added: “The government cannot credibly call for religious tolerance and social cohesion, while quietly funding intolerance and division based on religious belief.”

John Graham, the NSW arts minister, said: “I don’t really support people mocking each other, but the idea that the government is going to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to who’s performing on stage is not a principle that we accept.

“It’s up to companies to determine what they’re performing, and we’ll be continuing that approach.”

He added that the money given to support Divine Playhouse could not be withdrawn because it had been spent setting up the original venue, before the promoters were evicted, and funding for MCA would continue.    

Kat Dopper, the founder of organisers Heaps Gay, said she received “constant” death threats and homophobic messages following the opening of her experimental venue, and had taken precautions to remove things others may find offensive from the original venue.

Earlier in September, the London nightclub Fabric announced a collaboration with St Paul’s Cathedral to stage events inside the place of worship.

Religious groups and descendants of those buried in the cathedral, including the family of Lord Nelson, criticised the move.

Sandra Lynes Timbrell, the cathedral’s director of visitor engagement, suggested that a “carefully curated programme of exceptional concerts” would draw new visitors to the site.