The Chatauqua Institution opened its 136th season this morning as Institution President Tom Becker delivered the ceremonial three taps of the gavel. I helped open the interfaith service with a Hebrew recitation of the first day of creation from Genesis. It was, they tell me, a "first." My week-long tenure at Chautauqua will be a series of "firsts." I am staying at the just-finished Everett Jewish Life Center on the Institution's grounds. This apparently makes me the first guest in the house (yes, we had the obligatory 'shehechiyanu' moment).
I am here as a participant in the New Clergy Fellows Program, a interfaith gathering of clergy who have been ordained for seven years or less. We started last night with a tour, introduction, dinner and social hour. This morning, like all Sundays at Chautauqua, was even more religious than most. Every denomination held its own worship services before the community wide service for 3,500 people in the Amphitheater. The New Fellows were assigned to divide and visit - each of us to a different worship service. I attended the Catholic mass, my first since sleeping over Chris Callanan's house in the seventh grade. I'm off to Vespers with Reverend John Buchanan and later I will do my best to sing the hymns at the sacred song service. This will be, as I'm sure you could guess, my first vespers service. What a week of firsts it will be!
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