Rev Canon Sue Sheriff, vicar of Tadcaster, explains how Divine Divas replaced Hollywood with Yorkshire for A Night at the Oscars.
Divine Divas is a group that is clearly Christian but not off-putting to those who don't happen to be involved in church life. In the past we've had things like belly dancing, an evening based on the Loose Women TV panel show and Come Dine with the Divine Divas.
All of the gatherings we organise take place in a venue away from a church building. We tend to get 20 to 40 somethings made up of about 25% churchgoers and 75% non-churchgoers.
Earlier this month we had Divine Divas go to the Oscars – a brilliant night, one of the best so far. The local carpet shop even provided a red carpet for us!
In preparation for the evening, we spent hours compiling a much-debated list of the top four movies in certain categories, including Best Action Film and Best RomCom. We didn't want to just have so-called chick flicks; instead we tried to do something for all age groups. My colleague, curate Claire Cullingworth, did a short talk using themes drawn from various films to illustrate the Christian message.
Divine Divas – with 'Diva' standing for Dynamic Inspirational Vibrant Adventurous women – doesn't seem to be a clear bridge to bringing people into church because, for some of them, Sunday church is not appropriate or convenient or they don't really relate to it. At the moment Divine Divas seems to be developing a community in its own right but it's very much at an early stage.