By Kevin Jones, Director of Music
On Sunday, June 29, we’ll celebrate Pride Sunday at all three services. These services will celebrate the full inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community in the life of our parish, with readings, prayers, and music chosen to highlight the diversity and goodness of all God’s creation. Learn more about the music selections for these services and the composers we will celebrate.
At Sunday’s 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services, two hymns are programmed that come from a relatively new hymnal, Songs for the Holy Other.
Conceived and published by The Hymn Society of America, this hymnal contains new hymns and tunes that affirm the LGBTQIA2S+ community.* The two we will sing together, “Sing a new world into being” and “The love that goes unspoken” were authored by Dr. Mary Louise (“Mel”) Bringle and are sung to familiar tunes. Bringle, professor of philosophy and religious studies at Brevard College, self-identifies as a member of the LGTBQ community.
At the 10:30 a.m. service, nearly all the music played and sung was written by LGBTQ composers. The quartet sings two anthems by Ned Rorem (1923–2022), internationally recognized composer of vocal music, choral music, and opera. Mr. Rorem was also a distinguished author and made his mark by his then-scandalous Paris and New York Diaries from 1951–1961.
The organ prelude was written by David Conte, a native of Lakewood, Ohio.
The postlude is from a suite of pieces by Calvin Hampton, a prominent church musician in New York City, who was among the first casualties of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. Hampton was raised in Ravenna, Ohio, and graduated from Oberlin College in 1960. In New York City, he made Calvary Episcopal Church, Gramercy Park, famous through his series of Friday midnight organ recitals which ran for nearly 10 years. He is also the composer of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei that have been sung all month long at this service.
*LGBTQIA2S+ is a longer form of the more common initialism “LGBTQ.” The longer form stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, 2–Spirit, plus.
Photography credit: Jim Ptacek