ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ

DALLAS (ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ)– The Perkins School of Theology community will celebrate the season with its annual Advent Service on Tuesday, December 2, at 6 p.m. in Perkins Chapel, 6001 Bishop Blvd., on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The event is free and open to the public.

Musical leadership will come from the Meadows Chamber Singers of ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ’s Meadows School of the Arts, under the direction of Prof. Margaret Winchell, along with two alumni of Perkins’ Master of Sacred Music program: Hilary Donaldson (M.S.M., 2010) of Toronto, past president of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and Ottawa-based organist Joshua Zentner-Barrett (M.S.M., 2017.) Zentner-Barrett, a former student of Christopher Anderson, Associate Professor of Sacred Music at ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ, will perform on Perkins Chapel’s historic 1927 E.M. Skinner organ, Opus 563, installed in 2022.

With the service centered on the text of John 1:1-18 (In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,”) the service will include a Latin motet by Paul Hindemith, a 17th-century motet by Andreas Hammerschmidt, and Which Was the Son of…—a setting of Luke 3:23-38 by renowned Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, presented in honor of Pärt’s 90th birthday this year. A new work by Marcell Silva Steuernagel, Associate Professor of Church Music and Director of the Master of Sacred Music and Doctor of Pastoral Music Programs at ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ, will also be premiered during the liturgy. Written specifically for the Chamber Singers, this composition is inspired by the angel’s words to Mary in Luke 1:30: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” According to Silva Steuernagel, “Christmas is always good news, but given the world we live in right now, the hope of Advent is absolutely crucial… In confusing, polarized times, Advent anchors us in the promise of Christ’s coming and reminds us to center our lives in relationships of grace and hope,” in resonance with the words of the angel to Mary in the biblical passage.

First held in 1959, the Advent Service was instituted by Professors Grady Hardin and Lloyd Pfautsch. Closely tied to the history of Perkins’ Master of Sacred Music Program, the service continues to be planned and sponsored by the program. This year, the service will take place on a Tuesday rather than the traditional Thursday. “Because Tuesday evenings at Perkins are historically associated with vespers, the service will follow a vespers format,” Steuernagel said.

Parking and streaming information will be made available in the next few weeks.  

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Perkins School of Theology, founded in 1911, is one of five official University-related schools of theology of . Degree programs include the Master of Divinity, Master of Sacred Music, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Arts in Ministry, Master of Theology, Doctor of Ministry, and Doctor of Pastoral Music as well as the Ph.D., in cooperation with The Graduate Program in Religious Studies at ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.