Recent News & Publications

Have you seen the new Saint Paul’s parish video, ‘Renew Your Mind’?

If you missed its debut at the Annual Meeting on 5/19, watch it here: 

Each year, Rector Cliff Cutler selects a theme for the parish that begins and ends at the Annual Meeting. Last year’s theme was ‘Praise’. The 2013-14 theme is ‘Renew Your Mind’.

Chestnut Hill, Pa – The Saint Paul’s Labyrinth is open Mondays from 5-7 p.m. and during the lunch hour on Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Other times, please check in at the office to open the church for your labyrinth walk. To see the Saint Paul’s Labyrinth Dedication photo album, go to our

Facebook Page.

Lauren Artress, founder of Veriditas, the World-wide Labyrinth Project, will dedicate the stone labyrinth embedded in the west end of Saint Paul’s Church, 22 East Chestnut Hill Avenue, Philadelphia on Sunday, April 21 at 10:15 a.m. Artress is an Episcopal priest and pioneer of the ancient practice of the labyrinth for spiritual meditation and renewal. She serves as Canon of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

The threshold to the Labyrinth at Saint Paul’s is formed by three stones cut from a single stone that had been set in Ely Cathedral in the 11^th century. This stone connected stone carver Kevin Schanbacher with an unknown mason from a thousand years ago. Schanbacher mused, “The tools that each of us used have not changed much over all that time.” Across this ancient threshold one enters a five circuit, octagonal labyrinth patterned after the shape of the church’s baptistery and baptismal font. The life journey of baptism and the journey of the labyrinth are both pilgrimages. There are no blind alleys to a labyrinth. If one stays to the path it is impossible to get lost. It is a perfect metaphor for any spiritual journey.

The center of the labyrinth is patterned after the four large, interlocking circles of the church’s rose window. The linked circles convey a sense of interconnection and wholeness. The center is a place of openness to whatever insight or wisdom may be received. When replenished, one leaves the center by the same way that one entered. On the return many experience clarity and discover a new resolve.

The labyrinth is made possible through the generous gift of Edith R. Dixon who is committed to the healing space of Saint Paul’s. The labyrinth is open to the wider community as well as to members of the church. For more information about the labyrinth and its dedication on April 21 please call: 215-242-2055.

The Laurentian Singers of St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY will be present a concert at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill on Sunday, March 10 at 5 p.m. as part of their spring break tour. The concert is open to the public

and free of charge.

The Laurentian Singers, a select coeducational choir of 24 undergraduate singers, continues its 67-year tradition of choral excellence at St. Lawrence University in 2012-13. The group has won wide acclaim since its founding and in addition to their many performances on campus and in the community, the ensemble has toured extensively. In recent years, they have toured in Puerto Rico, France, New York and Boston, New Orleans and Central Europe, singing for enthusiastic, packed audiences and meeting with other choirs. Their wide-ranging repertoire, drawn from musics of many styles and countries, reflects the spirit of the liberal arts experience at St. Lawrence.

The Laurentian Singers includes undergraduate students who represent a wide variety of academic majors and interests. For this year’s tour repertoire, director Barry Torres has chosen an eclectic mix of American, European and African-based music.

The program opens with 3 Traditional American folk hymns: Down to the River to Pray as arranged by accompanist Barbara Philips-Farley, and Alice Parker’s beloved arrangements of Wondrous Love and Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal. The Singers then pay a musical visit to Leipzig, singing J.S. Bach’s magnificent motet for double choir Singet dem Herrn. Continuing in a European vein, they will sing several Romantic selections including music by Brahms (O schöne nacht), Schumann (Du bist wie eine blume), Elgar (The Snow and a stunning arrangement of Nimrod from the Enigma Variations) and Grieg (Hvad es du dog skjön). A set of African based songs follows including Stevie Wonder’s Sir Duke, selections from Paul Simon’s Graceland, South African composer Paul Van Dijk’s Horizons (written for the Kings Singers) and the popular Baba Yetu, from the video game Civilization IV. Civil Rights Movement songs Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ‘round and I’m on my way to Freedomland bring the concert to a rousing conclusion. The program will feature several Laurentian Singers as instrumentalists playing violin, fiddle, guitar, African percussion and ukelele.

Located in an ideal location in the northern part of New York State between the St. Lawrence River and the Adirondack Mountain range, St. Lawrence University is a diverse liberal arts learning community of inspiring faculty, serious students and accomplished alumni, guided by tradition and focused on the future. The mission of St. Lawrence University is to provide an inspiring and demanding undergraduate education in the liberal arts to students

selected for their seriousness of purpose and intellectual promise.

Founded in 1856, St. Lawrence is oldest continuously coeducational institution of higher learning in New York State. Explore St. Lawrence University at www.stlawu.edu and on Facebook and Twitter