I leave for Chautauqua in 10 days, so today I want to tell you how I’ll fill my days while I’m there.
During the summer, Chautauqua runs nine weeks of thematic programming, beginning in the last week of June and running through August. Here are the themes for this year:
We’ll be at Chautauqua during Week 4, so I’m going to explore this theme a little. Here’s what the Chautauqua website says about The State of Believing.
When we talk about the concept of “belief,” what do we mean? Some of our most deeply held beliefs aren’t just religious ones — they’re philosophical, political, intellectual, emotional. They can take the forms of faith and trust (or lack thereof) in institutions, or in each other. What we believe in private does shape our public identity, but long-held conventions have dictated that we leave our faith at the door of our public lives. How is this changing? What can science, religion, public opinion and politics teach us about the nature of what we believe, and why we believe it? In this week, we confront some of the hardest questions about ourselves, each other, and the world we must live in together.
Chautauqua has its roots in religious education, so it’s not surprising that this week’s theme addresses the role played by faith, broadly defined, in our national life. Every morning at 10:45, a speaker addresses the theme in an hour-long presentation. There is no fee to attend these lectures. Here’s how this week’s speakers plan to focus on this theme:
On Monday, Almar Latour, the CEO of Down Jones and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, will examine how legacy institutions can best serve the public in a moment when readers’ reactions range from disbelief to outright distrust in the media ecosystem
On Tuesday, author and associate professor of American Religious History at Duke Divinity School Kate Bowler continues the conversation with a presentation on the forces — both religious and cultural — that she studies, including the stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether or not we’re capable of change.
On Wednesday, physicist and string theorist Brian Greene returns to the Amphitheater with an exploration of our state of belief in science, our planet, and our cosmos.
On Thursday, Setti D. Warren is Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. He will how share how he’s worked within government, from the federal to the local level, and in his current role at the Institute of Politics, to rebuild belief and trust in our elected officials and our government.
On Friday, Mónica Guzmán — Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, America’s largest grassroots organization dedicated to political depolarization — will outline her proposal as to how we may detach ourselves from our own belief to consider others’ with generosity and good faith, and why we must do this work to build a true, shared reality
Every afternoon at 2:00, the Department of Religion offers an Interfaith Lecture Series at the Hall of Philosophy. These lectures are also free. Here’s the schedule for these lectures:
On Monday, the lecture will be offered by Casper Ter Kuile, who will share his insights on the future of community and spirituality, exploring how we’ll make meaning, deepen our relationships, and experience beauty in the 21st century. He’s the author of The Power of Ritual and the co-founder of The Nearness, a dedicated space to explore life’s big questions with likeminded people.
On Tuesday, the lecture will be offered by Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi, resident bishop of the Pittsburgh Episcopal Area and one of the assigned bishops of the Harrisburg Episcopal Area. She served as pastor of a small church in East Baltimore and as associate pastor at Calvary UMC, a large congregation in Annapolis. I couldn’t find the details of her planned presentation.
On Wednesday, the lecture will be presented by Simran Jeet Singh, Executive Director of the Religion & Society Program at the Aspen Institute and the author of the national bestseller The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life. His work focuses on how leadership relates to bias, empathy, and justice across corporate, university, and government settings.
On Thursday, the lecture will be presented by The Rev. Tyler Ho-Yin Sit, who is the pastor and church planter of New City Church, a community in Minneapolis led mostly by queer people of color. Sit is a second-generation Chinese American, trained community organizer, and United Methodist pastor. He earned a BS in Communication Studies from Boston University and a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology, and he has lived in four continents. He is also a co-founder of Intersect, which trains people to start ministries through the lens of intersectional justice.
On Friday, the lecture will be provided jointly by Katherine Smith with Kate Bowler. Smith is associate dean for strategic initiatives at Duke Divinity School, where she develops and supports programs and initiatives to advance the school’s mission, sustainability, and institutional effectiveness. Bowler is a New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and associate professor of American Religious History at Duke Divinity School. She studies the stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether or not we’re capable of change, and it is an examination of these forces — both religious and cultural — that she’ll present in this lecture.
When we’re at Chautauqua, we almost always attend the morning lecture and frequently attend th afternoon lecture, unless we have something else to do. There is no “right way” to spend a week at Chautauqua. Sometimes on the night the symphony is performing we decide to just sit on the porch and listen to the music from afar – we’re a whole two blocks from the Amphitheater.
· One note – even though I’m with friends while I’m at Chautauqua, we make our individual decisions about what we’re going to do and when. We’ll eat dinner together most nights, so we’ll coordinate that. If we decided to go to the same event, we’ll text one another so we can link up. Sometimes in the evening after a concert, we’ll wander to a bar or café and have a little late-night sumpin’-sumpin.’ It’s very much a “do what you want when you want to” week.
Lest you think this is about listening to lectures, let me tell you about the other things that will be going on.
Every night at 8:15, there’s a performance in the Amphitheater (also free). Here’s what our options are for the week we’re there:
On Saturday, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra will present an Opera and Pops Concert.
On Sunday, there will be a Sacred Song Service in the Amphitheater
On Monday, the concert will be presented by the Music School Festival Orchestra with the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory: Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica. These are two one-act Puccini operas. I don’t know anything about these pieces but I’ll find out a little about them before July 17.
On Tuesday, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra will perform Symphony #4 by Anton Bruckner, nicknamed “Romantic” by the composer. The orchestra’s maestro will stay after the concern to talk with members of the audience. I don’t know this piece either.
On Wednesday, we’ll hear from Chanticleer, a men’s choral ensemble. The group’s repertoire is s rooted in the renaissance and has continued to expand to include a wide range of classical, gospel, jazz, popular music, and a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements. I’ve heard them before but I’ve never attended a full concert. I’m looking forward to it.
On Thursday, we’ll hear from the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra again, this time playing the following pieces: Joseph Bologne: L’amant anonyme Overture; Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 82 (‘The Bear’); and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 31 in D major, K. 297 (‘Paris’)
On Friday, we’ll be entertained by Melissa Etheridge, one of rock music’s greatest female icons. She’ll present an array set of her greatest hits, deep cuts, and fan favorites.
In addition to all of this, there are a variety of smaller-scale musical productions all over the place throughout the day. I have tickets for the opera Carmen on Thursday at 4:00 pm and for Sweeney Todd on Friday at 4:00 pm.
And in my spare time, I plan to continue my daily walks. The grounds are mostly free from automobile traffic, and there’s lots of shade and pretty places to stroll. Some friends from Williamsburg have a house at Chautauqua where they spend the entire summer, so I’m planning to go over to their house and have a glass of wine while we – yes, sit on their porch. A mutual friend who lives in Rochester is planning to drive down and join us for the occasion.
There’s no wrong way to do Chautauqua.
Melissa Ethridge?! Wow. That's worth the price of admission. I have always thought faith referred to religion, which I generally don't dig. But I have a lot of faith in other areas that your week will touch upon and that sounds great. I would definitely be sitting on the porch to listen to the music every evening. The music lineup sounds great. I'll be in Lakeside Chautauqua with the fam and there are lectures (the culture of belonging sounds good), the Glenn Miller Band, discussions, and Blood, Sweat and Tears (who I remember and generally like their music), yoga, pilates, and our keynote speaker will be Jamar Tisby, who I don't know, but he sounds like a pretty interesting fellow. We'll both have a great time, individually. Be safe.
I’m still planning on seeing you and the others! 😎