Mary Lee Talbot
Staff writer
Many religious traditions have prayers that are said almost automatically. Every once and a while someone will ponder the words slowly and deliberately and find new meaning in words that might have become tired.
The Sacred Song Service in the Amphitheater is often a space where Chautauquans can slow down and reflect on the activities of the day and week. At 8 p.m. Sunday in the Amp, the theme for this week’s Sacred Song Service will be “Save Me from the Soothing Sin,” focused on the “Collect for Purity” from the Book of Common Prayer.
In the Book of Common Prayer, the “Collect for Purity” reads, “Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
The readings throughout Sunday’s service come from theologian and Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann’s Prayers for a Privileged People, published in 2008. The readings are in sections with the following titles: “Unto whom all hearts are open,” “All desires known,” “From whom no secrets are hid,” “Cleanse the thoughts,” “Perfectly love” and “Worthily magnify.”
The Rt. Rev. Eugene T. Sutton will preside. There will be a variety of readers. The Chautauqua Choir, under the direction of Director of Sacred Music and Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist Joshua Stafford, will sing “Insanae et vanae curae,” by Joseph Hayden, and “As a chalice cast of gold,” music by K. Lee Scott and words by Thomas Troeger. The Sacred Song Service always begins with the hymn “Day is Dying in the West,” music by William Sherwood and words by Mary A. Lathbury, and ends with “Now the Day is Over,” music by Joseph Merrill and words by Sabine Baring Gould, and the playing of “Largo” from the opera Xerxes by George Frideric Handel on the Massey Memorial Organ.
