Practice raising your pinky for this neighborhood church’s formal English tea

Tea with Queen Victoria

Sunday, March 26, 3-5 p.m.

Episcopal Cathedral of St. Matthew’s, 5100 Ross

$25

Reserve seats by Monday, March 20: 214-841-0663 or englishtea@episcopalcathedral.org

At the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Matthew’s, a church steeped in Anglican heritage, parishioners don’t just admit their anglophile tendencies — they embrace them.

Perhaps this is never more evident than during the cathedral’s annual tea, a formal English affair. The tea is so authentic that the late Queen Victoria herself makes an appearance — or at least you’ll see a St. Matthew’s parishioner who looks like Queen Victoria.

“She’s as cute as the dickens,” says organizer Sally Sundermann. “We dress her up, and for months afterward, she’s hard to live with.”

Two ladies-in-waiting follow the queen around, and both they and the other subjects who dine at the queen’s table dress in Victorian attire. Everyone else dresses up in modern-day attire, and “you’ll see a lot of hats,” Sundermann says.

The four-course tea consists of fruit, followed by watercress and cucumber finger sandwiches, then scones with clotted cream or marmalade, and it’s finished off with sweets. Nothing is store-bought — every bite comes courtesy of the St. Matthew’s women.

The tea may be formal, but don’t let the watercress fool you — this is no stodgy event. The entertainment is a skit titled “To tea, or not to tea.” It bears no resemblance to the play Hamlet from which its title derives, but instead is a comical take-off of another Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and features a guest appearance by the Beatles.

“We’ve got the queen and the bard and the Beatles all in one place,” Sundermann laughs.

Guests who arrive early are invited to view the six paintings hanging in the cathedral, copies of masters that were brought over from Europe, including one salvaged from a shipwreck. They can also glance around the tables to view the churchwomen’s finest china and read the story accompanying each set.

“You do not want to arrive at 3 o’clock because you want time to walk through the place — you’ve got 40 tables and each one has somebody’s china on it,” Sundermann says.

She also suggests sticking around afterward to stroll through the herb garden or take a tour of the stain-glass windows featuring women of the Bible. They were designed for the cathedral’s former incarnation, St. Mary’s School boarding school for girls.

Though she hopes people take time to appreciate the cathedral’s more than 150-year history, Sundermann has practical reasons for hoping they arrive early and stay late — “You cannot put 320 people in cars in valet parking at one time.”