Mary Lee Talbot
Staff Writer
“When Being Right Is Wrong” is the title of the Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton’s sermon for the season’s final 10:45 a.m. Sunday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. Sutton, the senior pastor of Chautauqua Institution, has served as liturgist for the Sunday morning services all season.
Reflecting on what he might highlight in his sermon, Sutton wrote, “It’s a pain to be around ‘the world’s foremost authority’ on everything! We need more humility in these times when everyone thinks they’re right. Authority is granted to those who serve, not based on what they say.”
He continued, “It’s not about having the right answers but finding the right questions to ponder. Being curious is more life giving than being right. That’s why we come to Chautauqua — not to have our biases confirmed, but to expand our worldviews to ‘see’ the world as it is.”
Melissa Spas, vice president for religion at Chautauqua Institution, will preside. Kyle Keogh, interim chief executive for Chautauqua Institution, will read the scripture. The Chautauqua Choir, under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, will sing “Unless the Lord Build the House,” by Alfred V. Fedak and “Dear Lord and Father,” music by C.H.H. Parry, arranged by H.A. Chambers and text by John Greenleaf Whittier.
Sutton served as the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and canon pastor of Washington National Cathedral, where he directed the Cathedral’s Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. He has also served as a college chaplain, parish priest and professor of homiletics and liturgy at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. A frequent leader of retreats focused on spirituality, nonviolence and social justice, he has led multiple missions to South Africa.
He cofounded Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington, an ecumenical network of churches and individuals committed to centering prayer and renewing the contemplative gospel for daily living. He is a prolific writer and has contributed to multiple books, including The Diversity of Centering Prayer and Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace: Challenging the Epidemic of Gun Violence. Sutton has been named by the Center for American Progress as one of “Fourteen Faith Leaders to Watch” for his faith-led efforts to promote nonviolent solutions to conflicts.
