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All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena has resurrected a popular series of rock masses that don’t promise a stairway to heaven, but do deliver an evening of live music that moves worshipers to dancing in the aisles.

“It’s not the typical Sunday morning church scene,” says All Saints Music Director Ray Egan. The twilight masses, which enjoyed a brief run in the 1970s, are set to music with a little help from the Rock Mass Band and Singers.

The term rock is applied loosely in selecting the music for the Mass; one definitely won’t find any head-banging heavy metal performed by this professional troupe of a five-piece band and six

singers. Tonight’s pairing of liturgy and song around the topic of world peace will feature the work of New Age vocalist Toni Childs, reggae legend Bob Marley, Sting, Aretha Franklin and Jackson Browne. Future masses will feature the standard rock fare of Bruce Springsteen, U2 and the Doobie Brothers.

The rock masses reach out to people who shy away from the traditional church. Egan says: “The liturgy must respond to the times and feelings of the people.”

Tonight’s Mass will be celebrated at 7 p.m. and the series will continue on the first Sunday of each month through June. All Saints Episcopal Church is at 132 N. Euclid Ave. in Pasadena.