St. Johns is a small Episcopal parish, a little gem of a church in a tough corner of the Mission District. For two decades, it has been a predominantly gay congregation that sees itself as "a community of faith welcoming all colors, cultures and sexual orientations."

But that has not stopped a bitter fight between the old pillars of the church and the Divine Rhythm Society, a group of mostly young and straight seekers with roots in the ecstasy-fueled rave scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s.