YORK Minster is to host an unusual communion service set to music more often heard in the West End.

The tunes from Les Miserables will form the backdrop to the service at 7.30pm tomorrow.

It has been arranged by Transcendence, a team which holds a regular multimedia Eucharist at York Minster.

The Rev Sue Wallace, who will be preaching at the service, began Transcendence with The Rev Jeremy Fletcher and a group from the Visions multimedia arts collective.

She said: “When the film of Les Miserables came out, the Transcendence team were planning a service at the Greenbelt Christian arts festival, and we wondered what would happen if we took Les Mis and did a Mass based upon it. It was one of those ideas that seemed silly at first, but we soon realised that the themes in Les Mis, of freedom, redemption and sacrifice, fit in with what we celebrate at a normal communion service.”

The service at Greenbelt was so popular that 300 people had to be turned away, and the team thought congregations in York might enjoy it too.

Sue said: “People may think it’s odd to use a musical in a church, but the church has always used the artistic tools of the culture to help explain the gospel.

“People complained when Bach first did the Saint John Passion.”

There will be a singing practice open to all before the service at 6.15pm.