During the 10 a.m. service on Sunday, May 3, the CCC Chancel Choir will present the Indiana debut of “Our Wildest Imagining,” a work commissioned to honor the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Bishop in the Episcopal Church, elected in 2003. His election as the ninth Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire was a momentous milestone in the life of the Episcopal Church.
This music was born from Bishop Robinson’s own words: his sermons, his stories, his lifelong insistence that God’s love has no edges. Commissioned by a consortium of institutions, including CCC, “Our Wildest Imagining” is composed by Dominick DiOrio, Professor of Music at IU’s Jacobs School of Music. The text moves through three simple, powerful calls: Be held. Be still. Be loved…..before arriving at its heart: “I am love, and you are love, and God is love… and we are all loved beyond our wildest imagining.”
Dominick DiOrio, who completed this work just this past January, is one of the most celebrated choral composers and conductors in America today, but the heart behind this piece is deeply personal. As a young gay Catholic, DiOrio remembers exactly what it meant when Gene Robinson was elected the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church in 2003. “Suddenly, I felt like there was hope,” he writes. “Surely there were paths for my own life that I had not yet imagined.”
Bishop Robinson, whose courage changed the Church, has spent his ministry as a fearless advocate for human rights, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and the full welcome of every person in the life of the Church. He delivered the invocation at President Obama’s 2009 inaugural ceremonies, has written widely on faith and love, and currently serves as Bishop-in-Residence at St. Thomas’ Parish in Washington, D.C., one of our fellow commissioners, and a community that knows firsthand the gift of his presence.
Bishop Robinson will preside at the 10 a.m. service, and he will join us for conversation afterwards.
