The Rt. Rev. Eugene T. Sutton
Presider
Michael E. Hill
Closing the 151st Assembly
Melissa Spas
Reader
The Chautauqua Choir
Joshua Stafford
Director & Organist
Rees Taylor Roberts
Organist
We invite you to quietly prepare your hearts for worship during the Prelude.
* Denotes that the congregation is invited to rise in body or spirit.It is our custom to sing the first and last verses of hymns in unison, the interior verses may be sung in parts.
Prelude
Hymn
“Day is dying in the west”
Chautauqua, William Fisk Sherwin, 1877
Mary Lathbury, 1877
Day is dying in the west;
Heav’n is touching earth with rest;
Wait and worship while the night
Sets her evening lamps alight
through all the sky.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts!
Heav’n and earth are full of Thee;
Heav’en and earth are praising Thee,
O Lord most high!
Prayer of Thomas À Kempis
Above all things and in all things, O my soul, you shall rest in the Lord forever, for God is the everlasting rest of the saints.
Grant us, O God, to rest in you above all creatures,
Above all health and beauty;
Above all glory and honor,
Above all power and dignity
Above all knowledge and subtlety,
Above all riches and arts,
Above all joy and gladness,
Above all fame and praise,
Above all sweetness and comfort,
Above all hope and promise,
Above all desert and desire,
Above all gifts and benefits that you can give and impart to us,
Above all mirth and joy that the human mind can receive and feel,
Finally, above all angels and archangels and above all the heavenly host,
Above all things visible and invisible
And above all that you are not, O our God.
Because You, O Lord our God, are supremely good above all;
You alone are most high,
You alone most powerful,
You alone most full and sufficient,
You alone most sweet and most full of consolation.
You alone are most lovely and loving,
You alone most noble and glorious above all things,
In whom all good things together both perfectly are and ever have been and shall be.
- Adapted from the Chautauqua Hymnal and Liturgy, 1903
Anthem
“The house of faith”
Craig Phillips, 1998
Carl P. Daw Jr., 1990
The house of faith” Carl P. Daw Jr., 1990
The house of faith has many rooms where we have never been; there is more space within God’s scope than we have ever seen.
We dare not limit God’s domain to what our creeds declare, or shrink from probing things unknown lest God should not be there.
The way to God is not escape, though truth does make us free:the life of chosen servanthood is perfect liberty.
Yet still we seek at journey’s end the last and sweetest grace, the gift of room to turn around and know God face to face.
Reading
Chautauqua was founded for an enlarged recognition of the Word. … It was at the start, made universal as to creeds; not undenominational but all-denominational, a place where each denomination or organization, as at the great feasts, brings its best contribution which the particular order would develop as a consecrated offering for magnifying God’s word and work. Not the least of Chautauqua’s mission is to develop and make more practical the teaching of the Book as condensed in the great second commandment, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” How pleasing the thought, as the world is asked to take a survey of the foundations of Chautauqua, that the public platform and private tent were first consecrated by praise and adoration to God, that the first school for increased knowledge was the church school, and that the gathered people sat and ate at one common table! May that spirit ever remain.
-Lewis Miller, The Chautauqua Movement, 1886
Hymn
“Break thou the bread of life”
Bread of Life, William Fisk Sherwin, 1877
Mary Ann Lathbury, 1877
1 Break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me,
as thou didst break the loaves
beside the sea.
Beyond the sacred page
I seek thee, Lord.
My spirit pants for thee,
O living Word!
2 Bless thou the truth, dear Lord,
now unto me,
as thou didst bless the bread
by Galilee.
Then shall all bondage cease,
all fetters fall.
And I shall find my peace,
my all in all.
Responsory
Let us not be weary in well-doing:
For in due season we shall reap, if we do not faint.
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment.
Being filled with the fruit of righteousness, to the glory and praise of God.
And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue;
And to virtue, knowledge;
And to knowledge, patience;
And to patience, godliness;
And to godliness, kindness;
And to kindness, charity.
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord:
And all the families of the nations shall worship before God.
The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,
And instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree:
And it shall be to the Lord for a name,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
- Adapted from the Chautauqua Hymnal and Liturgy, 1903
Anthem
“The Lord bless you and keep you”
John Rutter, 1986
Numbers 6:24
The Lord bless you and keep you:
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
Amen.
Closing Prayers
Let us pray.
Creator God, we thank you for this visionary place of potent ideas and provocative conversations, of sanctuary and stretching, of challenge and comfort — an admixture in keeping with, and beyond the dreams of its founders.
Help this to be a place which continues to feed our souls and expand our minds, even as we carry Chautauqua to all whose lives are linked with ours.
Bring us back again to our sacred grove beside this quiet lake, under our tent, to see anew the many generations of faces in this timeless place. Amen.
-Jared Jacobsen, 2003, alt.
Hymn
“Now the day is over”
Merrial, Joseph Barnby, 1868
Sabine Baring-Gould, 1865
Now the day is over, night is drawing nigh, shadows of the evening steal across the sky.
Jesus, give the weary calm and sweet repose with thy tend’rest blessing may our eyelids close.
When the morning wakens, then may I arise pure, and fresh, and sinless in thy holy eyes. Amen.
Postlude
Largo
George Frederick Handel, 1738
from the opera Xerxes
Use of this piece to close the Sunday evening service has been Chautauqua’s tradition since the dedication of the Massey Memorial Organ on August 6, 1907.We invite your silent appreciation — without applause.
Three Taps of the Gavel
“Sabbath, Shabbat and Sabbatical: A Recipe for the Next 150 Years"
Michael E. Hill
Eighteenth President of Chautauqua Institution, closing the 151st Assembly
CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION
Department of Religion
Melissa Spas
Vice President of Religion
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton
Senior Pastor
Rafia Khader
Director of Religion Programs
Joshua Stafford
Director of Sacred Music & The Jared Jacobsen Chair Organist
Rees Taylor Roberts
Organ Scholar
Owen Reyda
Organ Scholar
Carolyn Snider
Administrative Assistant
Annie Leech
Student Minister