From left, the Rt. Rev. Eugene T. Sutton, senior pastor of Chautauqua Institution; Joe Lewis, co-host of the Everett Jewish Life Center; and Khalid Rehman, longtime Chautauquan and instructor of the “Islam 101” courses, light candles during a Sacred Song Service dedicated to the Abrahamic religions on Sunday, July 16, 2023, in the Amphitheater. This year’s interfaith Sacred Song is at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Amp.
The term “The Family of Abraham” may no longer be unusual at Chautauqua, but there was a time when the three branches of the family — Jews, Christians and Muslims — did not worship together.
The latest celebration of this form of “The House of Faith” will take place at the Sacred Song Service at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Amphitheater.
Since 2003, Sacred Song has been the venue for exploring the relationship of the three faiths. For that first event, Jared Jacobsen, the late, long-time organist and director of sacred music at Chautauqua, worked with Joan Brown Campbell, then director of the Chautauqua Department of Religion, to bring San Francisco-based liturgical artist Nancy Chinn to create five banners called “The Reunion of the Family of Abraham.”
Those banners will be part of the stage design on Sunday evening. The central banner is Abraham, with Sarah and Issac on one side and Hagar and Ishmael on the other.
Chinn worked with volunteer Chautauquans to cut out the design for each banner. The banners are made of Tyvek so they would not absorb moisture and would not rip or tear easily in the wind.
Over the years, objections have been raised about the banners portraying Isaac and Ishmael because the banners include depictions of guns.
In a 2003 interview in the Daily, Chinn said that “the guns represent all the wars fought in the name of religion.”
“I don’t want them to be fairy tales anymore. That’s not reachable to me,” she said. “In Ishmael and Isaac (banners) there are guns, and that is because for me, we are still sending our children to be sacrificed in the name of God. … As I was cutting out Ishmael and Isaac, I had a great sadness. … I sensed how tragic it is that we think we can kill another person.”
This special Sacred Song Service is also a chance for this year’s Abrahamic Program for Young Adults coordinators to lead Chautauquans in worship. Started in 2006, APYA was on hiatus for the last several years due to the pandemic, but is staffed again this summer.
Over the years, the flow of the service has changed. Several times, the APYA coordinators developed a service around the symbols of water or light. For the last three years, the program has been developed by Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist.
Participating in the service this year are APYA coordinators Allison Blackwell, who is Christian, and Zackary Steinberg, who is Jewish. The Muslim coordinator could not be here this Sunday, so Khalid and Sabeeha Rehman, who teach Islam 101 at Chautauqua, will be the Muslim participants.
The service is wrapped in the traditional beginning and ending of a Sacred Song Service, the hymns “Day Is Dying in the West” and “Now the Day is Over,” and “Largo” on the Massey Memorial Organ.
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor for Chautauqua, will preside.
The three organists, Stafford, Rees Taylor Roberts and Owen Reyda, organ scholars, will accompany the Chautauqua Choir and the congregation.
