Christ Chapel will open its doors to Evensong services for the first time at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Feb 2nd.
“My hope is that it could be a way that we come together as a campus and worship together,” Father Adam Rick, Hillsdale College Chaplain, said.
Evensong, one of music’s oldest choral traditions, is based on the long-established Christian tradition of singing scripture aloud to help direct the worshipper toward God.
“Evensong is evening prayer, sung,” said Rick.
Rick, who will conduct the Evensong services, appealed to the sheer beauty of the service as a means of pointing its participants to God.
As one of the principal motivations behind the Chapel’s construction, the Evensong performances are an attempt to pattern Hillsdale College after the structure exemplified by some of England’s oldest universities.
“Choral Evensongs are sung daily in all of the cathedrals in England and all of the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge,” Rick said.
College President, Larry Arnn has helped spearhead the project.
“I fell in love with that service when I was at Oxford,” Arnn said.
Arnn admires the complexity and meaning behind the Evensong service and says the College hopes to work toward a world-class Evensong choral program.
“It’s transformative, and I hope that we achieve that, Arnn said. “I think we will.”
