In celebration of its 50th anniversary, the Yale Institute of Sacred Music will hold an ecumenical hymn festival in Woolsey Hall on May 5, 2024, at 4 p.m. A community choir of 300 voices will sing hymns around the theme “All Creation Sings,” celebrating the diversity of our creation and our duty as faithful people to care for it. The audience will be invited to join in with hymns such as Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, Just as I am, and All Creatures of our God and King.

Conducted by Dr. Felicia Barber, the choir will have Yale Camerata at its core and will be accompanied by Dr. Nathaniel Gumbs and Dr. Bruce Neswick on the Newberry Organ, Dr. John Paul McGee on keyboards, and by brass, percussion, guitars, and a gospel ensemble. The Rev. Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor and the Rev. Dr. James Forbes will be the special guest preachers.

The event is free and open to all.

Guest Preacher Biographies:

The Rev. Dr. James A Forbes, Jr (link is external), is president of Healing of the Nations Ministries and the senior minister emeritus of the interdenominational The Riverside Church (link is external) in New York City. He was the first African American minister to lead the congregation, and he served it for 18 years. He was also the first Joe R. Engle Professor of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he taught homiletics for thirteen years. As a passionate educator, administrator, community and human rights activist, and interfaith leader, Dr. Forbes has twice been designated as one of America’s greatest Black preachers by Ebony magazine. The author of several books, Dr. Forbes is also a featured TEDx speaker and a frequent contributor to national media outlets.

The Rev. Dr. Barbara Brown Taylor (link is external) is the New York Times bestselling author of “An Altar in the World”, “Learning to Walk in the Dark”, and “Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others.” She has been an Avon lady, a cocktail waitress, a horseback riding instructor, and a hospital chaplain, but her favorite job was teaching world religions at Piedmont College for twenty years before putting the chalk down in 2017. She now divides her time between writing, speaking, and caring for the land on which she lives. Barbara and her husband Ed tend a small farm in the foothills of the Appalachians.