Ascension Day Evensong Service May 26 with Guest Choirs, International Musicians

With three guest choirs and three guest musicians, Duke Chapel will hold a Choral Evensong worship service for the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord on Thursday, May 26, at 7:00 p.m. The service is part the Chapel’s partnership with the Royal School of Church Music in America (RSCMA).

The service is free and open to the public. Paid parking is available on a first-come-first-served basis in the Bryan Center garage at 125 Science Drive with ADA parking the parking lot at the same address. Masking in the Chapel is optional for those who are fully vaccinated; if you have not been vaccinated, Duke requires that you wear a mask in all Duke facilities.

View/Downlod an online version of the service bulletin.

A livestream of the service is available at this link.

The service celebrates Jesus’s ascension into heaven after having risen from the dead and spending forty days among his disciples. It includes a reading from the Gospel of Luke about the ascension as well as hymns and anthems on the theme.

For the service, the Chapel’s Evensong Singers will be joined by the Choir of the Chapel of the Cross from Chapel Hill; the United Church of Chapel Hill Youth Choir, also from Chapel Hill; and the Choristers of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church from Winston-Salem.

Contributing to the musical leadership of the service are: Hugh Morris, director of Royal School of Church Music, which is the United Kingdom-based parent organization of RSCMA; Joseph Causby, director of music and organist at Chapel of the Cross and president of RSCMA; Simon Lole, director of music at St. Mary’s Church in Swanage, England; and Christopher Jacobson, organist for Duke Chapel and Duke Divinity School.