MARY LEE TALBOT
Staff Writer
“I am ecstatic. I am energized. I am excited. And I am grateful. I think we showed what John Heyl Vincent had in mind when he said that in the idea of Chautauqua, religion belongs everywhere,” the Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor of Chautauqua, said.
Eugene Sutton will preach at the 10:45 a.m. Sunday worship service in the Amphitheater. His sermon title is “Just Cut it Down.”
He reflected on the 2026 Season for worship at Chautauqua, his fourth as senior pastor. “We showed that we can move to other venues (than the Amphitheater) and worship can be just as meaningful. We learned we can innovate, experiment, involve other instruments and styles of worship. I think of Chautauqua as a blend of tradition and innovation. We are not stuck in tradition, nor are we chained to innovation. We build on them.”
For his sermon on Sunday, Sutton is exploring what we can learn from Jesus’ relationship with trees. “He cursed one tree, gave another tree a second chance and looked up in a tree to see Zacchaeus. He had an interesting relationship with trees.”
Robert Wilson-Black will preside. Kyle Keogh, interim chief executive of Chautauqua, will read the scripture. The Chautauqua Choir will be under the direction of Sonya Subbayya Sutton, interim director of Sacred Music.
Eugene Sutton, who retired as the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland in 2025, currently serves on the staff of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C.
He served as canon pastor of the Washington National Cathedral and director of its Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. A noted leader of retreats and conferences on spirituality, nonviolence, the environment and reconciliation, he co-founded Contemplative Outreach of Maryland and Washington, an ecumenical network committed to the daily practice of Centering Prayer. He is a contributor to the books The Diversity of Centering Prayer and Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace: Challenging the Epidemic of Gun Violence.
Eugene Sutton testified before the U.S. Congress for the H.R.40 bill that calls for the establishment of a bipartisan commission to study reparations as a step toward racial reconciliation. He has appeared on National Public Radio, Fox News, PBS and other networks on the need for reconciliation in America. His board memberships include the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, the Institute for Sustainable Communities, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Bishops United Against Gun Violence.
