close

Mother Earth is theme for Sacred Song

The Chautauqua Choir sings under the direction of Interim Director of Sacred Music and organist Sonya Subbayya Sutton during the Sacred Song Service last Sunday in the Amphitheater.
SAM HUFFMAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

MARY LEE TALBOT
Staff Writer

The theme for the Sacred Song Service at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Amphitheater is “Mother Earth.” Thanksgiving for the creation and thanks to the creator will be highlighted using traditional Latin and biblical sources and Indigenous peoples and Gaelic readings. The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor of Chautauqua, will preside.

Sonya Subbayya Sutton, interim director of Sacred Music, designed this service. 

The Chautauqua Choir, under the direction of Sutton, will sing “i thank You God for this amazing,” music by Lloyd Pfautsch and text by e.e.cummings. They will also sing “Earth Teach Me,” music by Rupert Lang and the text from the Ute Nation and “A Gaelic Blessing,” music by John Rutter and text from A Gaelic Rune. Owen Reyda, organ scholar, will accompany the choir.

The readings will include “A Song of Creation,” a canticle, a reading from Genesis 1 and “Prayer of the Seven Directions,” adapted from a prayer of Sr. Jose Hobday, a Seneca elder and Franscican sister.

Tags : AmphitheaterSacred SongSacred Song Service
blank

The author Mary Lee Talbot

Mary Lee Talbot writes the recap of the morning worship service. A life-long Chautauquan, she is a Presbyterian minister, author of Chautauqua’s Heart: 100 Years of Beauty and a history of the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. She edited The Streets Where We Live and Shalom Chautauqua. She lives in Chautauqua year-round with her Stabyhoun, Sammi.