Annual Perkins Advent Service Planned for Thursday, Nov. 30 at Cox Chapel
The Perkins School of Theology community will gather for an Advent Evening Prayer service at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, in Cox Chapel at Highland Park UMC.
DALLAS (SMU) – The Perkins School of Theology community will gather for an Advent Evening Prayer service at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, in Cox Chapel at Highland Park UMC.
This year's program features the Seminary Singers joined by alumni of the Master of Sacred Music and Doctor of Pastoral Music programs, under the direction of Dr. Marcell Silva Steuernagel – who composed a new setting for the second stanza of the traditional Advent hymn "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" by Phillip Nicolai – and organ music performed by Dr. Christopher Anderson that gravitates around the theme by Lizst, Reger and other composers. The event will also feature music performed by the Hilltop Singers and a performance of von Bingen's “Ave generosa,” under the direction of MSM student Leanne Seabright (M.S.M. '24).
The Advent service was instituted in 1959 by Professors Grady Hardin and Lloyd Pfautsch and is closely tied to the development of Perkins’ Master of Sacred Music Program. A forerunner to this tradition was established in 1948 when Perkins Prof. Fred Gealy led the Seminary Singers, a non-auditioned ensemble of theology and sacred music students, and the Perkins community in a program of Christmas music during the last chapel service of the fall semester.
The service will take place in Cox Chapel because of the installation of a new pipe organ in Perkins Chapel. Guests can enter through Wesley Hall at Wallace Building or directly through the Cox Chapel entrance on Mockingbird Lane. Limited parking will be available at HPUMC. Guests can also park south of Mockingbird Lane and in the Meadows and Hillcrest parking garages at SMU.
Perkins School of Theology, founded in 1911, is one of five official University-related schools of theology of The United Methodist Church. Degree programs include the Master of Divinity, Master of Sacred Music, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Arts in Ministry, Master of Theology, Doctor of Ministry, and Doctor of Pastoral Music as well as the Ph.D., in cooperation with The Graduate Program in Religious Studies at SMU's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.