FāVS News News and Commentary about Religion and Ethics in Eastern Washington and North Idaho
On Sunday at 10:30 a.m. St. John’s Cathedral will merge Georg Friederich Händel’s Anthem for the Chapel Royal, “I Will Magnify Thee,” into the regular Sunday morning Choral Eucharist service.
“While the historicity of St Cecilia—perhaps 3rd century Italy—who heard angels singing during her nuptials, may never be proven, the recognition that transcendence interrupts and saturates our commonplace lives is unarguable,” St. John’s said in a press release. “Music heard and sung through our worship also connects us with St Cecilia, the patron saint of music.”
She has been celebrated by the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches as well as the Orthodox and Anglicans.
Cathedral organist John Bodinger will play Handel’s Organ Concerto in A major, op. 7 no. 2, beginning at 10:20 a.m. Throughout the rest of the service, the music will feature the Cathedral Choir and resident Cathedral Collegium Consort, consisting of a string quintet and oboe.
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
