The New Brunswick Summer Music Festival is coming to Christ Church Cathedral. The annual classical music festival will host its main series, four evening concerts between 11-14 August, inside the Cathedral.
The festival, now in its 28th year, will run over a two-week period and include a variety of musical events, such as concerts, educational components, mentoring opportunities for young artists, free public events, lectures and exhibits.
The 2021 theme will reflect the difficulties of the past year, showcasing music from composers that were affected by previous pandemics. According to the festival website, “From the Influenza in 1918-19 back to others throughout the nineteenth century, several important composers were adversely set back as a result of the health issues of their day. But their lovely music transcends the difficult circumstances, and we will weave their stories with the music. Featured will be compositions of composers such as Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff and others.”
Tickets for the evening concerts in the main series of the festival must be purchased in advance from the NB Summer Music Festival. Ticket prices range between $14.81 – $27.54. The main series will feature well-known performers: David Adams, violin; Sonja Adams, cello; Peter Allen, piano; Christopher Buckley, viola; Sally Dibblee, soprano; Nadia Francavilla, violin; and Richard Hornsby, clarinet. Details about the schedule and performers can be found on the festival website.
An additional event, a free noontime concert on Friday, 13 August, will be held as part of Christ Church Cathedral’s Summer Recital Series, and will showcase a sample of music from the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival. Donations at this concert will be collected, with proceeds supporting the Cathedral Organ Renovation Fund. Please reserve tickets for the noontime concert through the Cathedral website.
The Summer Recital Series returns with nine noontime concerts, concerts, held each Friday until August 27. Join us inside historic Christ Church Cathedral as we present a series of concerts featuring cello, viola, bassoon, organ, guitar and vocalists. View the poster.
Cathedral Director of Music, Thomas Gonder, is excited to host the summer series, his first since stepping into the position in January 2020. He is enthusiastic about the program, saying, "It's my hope that Frederictonians will appreciate, enjoy and be inspired by hearing the abundance of local talent in an outstanding venue. We are blessed to be able to revive this series!"
Seating is limited, so reserve your ticket now to secure your space. Tickets are free but donations encouraged. Proceeds after expenses to the Cathedral Organ Renovation Fund. Online donations will receive a receipt for tax purposes immediately.
Attendees are welcome to wear face masks, and all are asked to be respectful of others' preferences regarding personal space.
Reserve your ticket online at the links below.
August 27 Sally Dibblee, soprano and J. Thomas D. Gonder, organ/piano - Tickets
Throughout the pandemic, Christ Church Cathedral has been able to safely host a variety of musical performances, both public and private, under its COVID-19 operational plan.
After months of small groups of singers and no corporate singing, it is a blessing to hear voices lifted high in worship once again. Under the current Yellow Phase of the operational plan, members of the Cathedral congregation may now also sing during worship, wearing masks and maintaining two metres of physical distance between ‘bubbles. The choir and band continue to lead music, also maintaining appropriate distancing between performers. During Easter worship, an expanded choir was accommodated by using the sanctuary to spread out. The choir met in advance to rehearse and work out the 'choreography' and seating chart required to ensure physical distancing.
A variety of Fredericton musicians have also been welcomed into the Cathedral throughout the pandemic, with safety precautions such as attendance limits, sanitization, physical distancing, and masks for attendees (under public health guidelines, performers may remove their masks while singing if they are able to maintain appropriate distancing).
Public concerts at the Cathedral have included: the Elm City String Quartet; the Fredericton Symphony Orchestra and Atlantic Sinfonia; a concert featuring soprano Sally Dibblee, baritone Luke Noftall, and organist Thomas Gonder; as well as a solo organ concert by Cathedral Director of Music Thomas Gonder. Each of these concerts has been well attended by members of the community, who shared appreciation for the opportunity to listen to live music during this distressing time. We were honoured by the presence of Lieutenant Governor Brenda Murphy and her spouse, Her Honour Linda Boyle, at the Elm City String Quartet performance.
Christ Church Cathedral has wonderful acoustics which have been appreciated by several Music Festival participants, who were able to film their performances in the Cathedral with the assistance of their voice teacher, critically-acclaimed soprano Sally Dibblee.
Muriel Falkenstein will be advancing to the Provincial Music Festival at the Intermediate level. / Landon Garrett performed a song from the musical Hamilton in the Music Theatre class. / Muriel Falkenstein and Anne Marie Murphy. / Gillian Butler is one of two singers from Sally's studio chosen to represent Fredericton in the Junior Vocal Solo category at the Provincial Music Festival.
A mother-daughter pair dressed up for two themed rehearsals of the Fredericton Ladies' Choir.
The Fredericton Ladies Community Choir has combined technology and live performance in their practices. The choir been practicing online using Zoom during the pandemic, but this spring the choir, under the direction of Sally Dibblee, began livestreaming its rehearsals from the Cathedral. With the assistance of Cathedral audio/visual expert Peter Jacobs, physically distanced duos and trios were filmed to help the at-home singers follow along with their vocal parts. Choir rehearsals sometimes included costumes, such as a theme of ‘dress as your favourite choir song’, and a formal evening.
The Cathedral welcomes members of the community at worship and throughout the week. Inquiries about rentals can be directed to the Cathedral Office by email or phone (506) 450-8500.
1. Daily prayer - Commit to attending the daily office in the morning (8:45 a.m.) or in the evening (4:45 p.m.) or both at the Cathedral Monday - Friday. It takes about 15 minutes.
2. D I F F E R E N C E - Prayer for the coming of God’s Kingdom can take many forms. Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has a passion for equipping the Church to be a reconciling presence in a complex and divided world. It is one of our greatest challenges but it has never been more vital. Co-sponsored by Christ Church Cathedral and the Diocese of Fredericton, we’ll explore ways to be engaged in being part of the solution. We can be a generation that crosses divides!
3. Pray for your FIVE - Choose a time each day to pray for 5 people you know that they will come to faith in Jesus Christ and know his love for them. Use the 2021 Prayer Journal to help guide and record your prayer or find other resources here.
4. Digital Family Resources - A fun-filled 11 part series for kids created in collaboration with the brilliant Cheeky Pandas! View a series of 11 reflections by youth on the daily themes of Thy Kingdom Come. The Digital Family Prayer Adventure Map is a way to help your whole family take part in the 11 days of global prayer.
DAILY SHORT READINGS
FRIDAY AFTER ASCENSION
As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to human beings, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Hebrews 2.8b-10 SATURDAY AFTER ASCENSION
I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8.38,39 SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’ Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive. John 7.37-39a MONDAY
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Isaiah 40.28,29 TUESDAY
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 1 Corinthians 12.4-7 WEDNESDAY
I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit. Joel 2.28,29 THURSDAY
Jesus said, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’ Luke 11.9-13 FRIDAY
In Christ every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes.’ For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen’, to the glory of God. But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first instalment. 2 Corinthians 1.20-22 SATURDAY
The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3.17,18
Join with thousands of Christians around the globe and let's light up the world in prayer! Visit the light up the world page to add a star to the map to light up your area!
ASCENSION DAY Jesus
Jesus shows us what humanity can be like when it is lived God’s way.
FRIDAY AFTER ASCENSION Praise
God is the source and origin of everything, even the breath that we’re taking right now.
SATURDAY AFTER ASCENSION Thanks
Thanksgiving expands the heart. Pray that the whole world may find Christ.
SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION Sorry
The world has to change. But who has the answers? Who do we follow? Jesus says, follow me.
MONDAY Offer
The offer of the Christian faith is the offer of abundant life.
TUESDAY Pray for
Make your life a prayer. Pray for your FIVE. Make your life an offering.
WEDNESDAY Help
We are made for community with God and with each other and we can’t do it on our own.
THURSDAY Adore
Love is the complete self-giving that we see in Jesus. This is the love the world needs if we are to navigate a way though the huge challenges we face.
FRIDAY Celebrate
Faith is not a private thing, but a way of life lived in community. We need to nurture this life in celebration.
SATURDAY Silence
There is a place beyond words, where the heart rests in peace, in the knowledge of being known and loved.
THE DAY OF PENTECOST Filled with the Holy Spirit
God the Holy Spirit sends us into the world: praying for others, and serving them in the name of Christ.
READINGS ON DISCIPLESHIP AND EVANGELISM
And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honoured in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength – he says, ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’ Isaiah 49.5-6
Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. Isaiah 52.8-9
Many nations shall come and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Micah 4.2-3
‘While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’ Acts 17.30-31
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 2 Corinthians 5.16-17
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Ephesians 2.19-21
Jesus said, ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.’ Matthew 5.13-16
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ Matthew 28.16-end
DAILY OFFICE READINGS
to be used at Morning and Evening Prayer
Thursday (13 May) Ascension of the Lord
Morning Psalm 8, 47; Ezekiel 1:1-14, 24-28b; Hebrews 2:5-18
Evening Psalm 24, 96; (Daniel 7:9-14); Matthew 28:16-20
Friday (14 May) St. Mathias, Apostle
Morning Psalm 80; 1 Samuel 16:1-13; 1 John 2:18-25
Evening Psalm 33; 1 Samuel 12:1-5; Acts 20:17-35
Saturday (15 May) Eve of Ascension Sunday
Morning Psalm 87, 90; Ezekiel 3:4-17; Hebrews 5:7-14
Evening Psalm 136; (Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29); Luke 9:37-50
Christ Church Cathedral easily holds 250, but on April 1, Maundy Thursday, about 30 people were present for the Renewal of Vows and Blessing of Oils.
Archbishop David Edwards presided, with Dean Geoffrey Hall assisting. Cheryl Jacobs read the intersessions, while the Rev. Chris Tapera, new rector in the Parish of Bathurst, and Debbie Edwards gave the readings.
Layreaders, one deacon, priests and one bishop renewed their vows during the service. Normally a lunch follows, but with pandemic restrictions in place, no food was served.
During his sermon, David talked of the importance of marking the call of God to ministry.
“Today is in the holiest of weeks, and we gather here to celebrate and remember,” he said. “Some are called to ‘particular and weighty’ roles, though we are share a role.”
The old, old story will be told yet again this year. ("Tell me the old, old story") We who have walked the way of the Cross before will hear familiar words ... "Hosanna to the Son of David! ... Father, take this cup from me ... my God, my God why have you forsaken ... it is finished ... He is risen!"
Holy Week and Easter is a roller coaster of emotion. Lent, the journey from Ashes to Easter, now turns to the shorter one from the Sunday of Palms to the Day of Resurrection. The highs and lows are all part of the story of the redemption of humanity. Easter assures us that even though we die, God gives life. Even though we don't always make the choices best for ourselves and others, God and his mercy endures. Even though the shadows fall and darkness settles, the sun rises again and dawn breaks anew.
It is not by accident that the Church celebrates the mystery of Resurrection near the end of the longest, most trying season of the year. Perhaps Easter celebration this year will have been influenced by what has been an entire year of trying times! The Church year serves to illustrate the seasons of our life. Following a long harsh winter comes spring and the budding of the new. Christians are reminded that the dimming eye and the aged hand are not signs of the end, rather only the nearing of a fantastic transformation from this life into the next. In worship the promise of eternal life rang clearly through prayerful Lenten days this year. Soon, we celebrate the outcome of our trials in bright sunshine and the warming days of Easter.
Join this year in walking the way of the Cross in worship events that have been important to Christian believers throughout the world and through the ages. A schedule is below. If you’re not yet comfortable or unable to join us in person, visit The Cathedral YouTube Channel as we try to provide as many opportunities there as possible. If you wish to make Easter Communion at home, please contact the Cathedral Office.
Wishes for a blessed Easter to you and those whom you love.
Sincerely yours,
Geoffrey Hall (The Very Rev'd)
Dean of Fredericton
Holy Week and Easter 2021 Christ Church Cathedral, Fredericton NB
The Holy Eucharist on 03 April is the first of Easter
Passion/Palm Sunday (28 March 2021) 8:00 a.m. Liturgy of the Palms and Holy Eucharist 10:30 a.m. Liturgy of the Palms, Dramatic Passion and Holy Eucharist
The Elm City String Quartet performs at the beautiful Christ Church Cathedral, featuring works by Haydn, Borodin, and Shaw.
The Elm City String Quartet returns to the beautiful Christ Church Cathedral for their first concert of 2021. Enjoy the charm of Haydn’s “Lark” quartet, the romance of Borodin’s quartet number one, and the dynamism of Caroline Shaw’s “Blueprint.” The concert will be one hour in length with no intermission. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged. Please bring your community mask.
In-person worship at the Cathedral continues and Memorial Hall is open to the public, both with restrictions. Office hours are 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, Monday to Friday.
Pandemic precautions outlined in the latest revision of the Cathedral Pandemic Operational Plan (11 March 2021) will be followed. These include:
Worship gatherings are limited to 90 individuals (based on 50% of total capacity)
Meetings where 2 metres of distance with masks is maintained
2 metres of physical distance between bubbles is required
Face masks are mandatoryindoors at all times (with an exception for “leaders or performers whose activities require vocalization” while maintaining 4 metres of physical distance between bubbles)
Congregational singing with masks and 2 metres of distance between bubbles
Please note that we continue to be encouraged to limit contact outside of single household bubbles, especially in confined spaces. Please continue to pray for those who are at risk and those providing care and helping to keep us safe.
Worship reservations
With current limits of individuals, worship reservations continue to be required. Reserve online by visiting Cathedral Signups by 8:00 p.m. on the previous day. Telephone reservations are needed in real time (not by voicemail). If reserving by telephone, please contact the Cathedral Office (506) 450-8500 during office hours, 9:00 a.m. - 12 noon, Monday to Friday.
A World Day of Prayer video has been created to view at home and with small groups. It is based on the worship bulletin prepared by the women of Vanuatu and edited by the Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada. The one-hour video features a dance performed on the shores of New Brunswick, reflecting the theme ‘Build on a Strong Foundation’. A digital copy of the bilingual service booklet is available to accompany the video.
Tax Receipts will be issued for all donations of $20 or more. Donate by:
Mail:
Individual cheques may be made out to Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada and mailed to:
WICC (Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada)
47 Queen’s Park Crescent East
Toronto, ON M5S 2C3
Online:
Use the 'Donate' button on the WICC website.
The festival, now in its 28th year, will run over a two-week period and include a variety of musical events, such as concerts, educational components, mentoring opportunities for young artists, free public events, lectures and exhibits.
An additional event, a free noontime concert on Friday, 13 August, will be held as part of Christ Church Cathedral’s Summer Recital Series, and will showcase a sample of music from the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival. Donations at this concert will be collected, with proceeds supporting the Cathedral Organ Renovation Fund. Please reserve tickets for the noontime concert through the Cathedral website.
