Sunday, November 16, Combined Bilingual Ingathering Service: A Day of One Body - Worshiping Together as One Body

At 10:00 a.m. on November 16, 2025, the Treble Choir of Houston at Christ Church Cathedral will join the Cathedral Choir in singing in the Bilingual Service in the sanctuary of Christ Church Cathedral.  This combining of languages allows us to fully express the unity and richness of our diverse Cathedral family. By lifting our voices together in both languages, we come together as One Body in Christ, celebrating the breadth of God’s love.

The 10:00 a.m. Combined Service replaces the regular 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 1:00 p.m. services.

You can watch a live stream of this service here:

https://www.christchurchcathedral.org/stream/

For the Offertory Anthem, the Treble Choir, together with the Cathedral Choir will sing “A Gaelic Blessing” by Sir John Rutter.

“A Gaelic Blessing” was commissioned by the Chancel Choir of First United Methodist Church in Omaha, Nebraska, for their conductor Mel Olson in 1978.

The format of the text is based in a similar format to that found in some Celtic Christian prayers and songs, such as those found in the Christian-era Scottish Gaelic collection, the Carmina Gadelica.

Rutter has said that his English-only composition is based on "an old Gaelic rune", and that he added a line mentioning Jesus and the word Amen, to make it also a Christian anthem. However, most surviving prayers with this structure, in both Gaelic and English, already include Christian elements.

The original, English-language piece that the central lines of Rutter's piece are directly excerpted from is a poem in the book The Dominion of Dreams: Under the Dark Star, by Celtic Revival writer William Sharp / Fiona Macleod; while not containing the words "Jesus," or "Amen," the poem does mention both "the Son of Peace" and "the heart of Mary," along with other Christian imagery.

Rutter scored the piece for four vocal parts (SATB) and organ, or orchestra. Marked "Flowing and tranquil", the music is in E major and 3/4 time. 

There will be a free Ingathering Celebration Lunch following this service.

You can RSVP here to attend the luncheon:

https://www.christchurchcathedral.org/events/ingathering-lunch-loyalty-sunday-celebration/