Summer 2018 tour
 
The Prophet Isaiah spoke God’s words of promise to those
who are welcomed to a place of peace, a place of Shalom:
You shall call your walls Salvation,
and your gates Praise.
The sun shall no longer be your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night;
but the Lordwill be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory. (Isaiah 60.18-19)
 
Peace is the theme of this music, a theme wider than the sky
and deeper than the ocean.
Part 1 explores peace in the community, with music drawn primarily from two sources, namely the Shakers, a mid-18thcentury split from the Quakers in England who settled in the northeastern United States.
They lived simple lives, reflected in their furniture designs and their music.
Their most important teaching is that, above all else, God is love,
and our most solemn duty is to show forth in the world that God, who is love. 
The second source is music from theAfrican-American church,
music whose roots sprang from having been sold into slavery in the U.S.,
their choice to adopt the hymns and Christian stories of their masters,
and their religious experiences they brought with them from Africa.
Lively song and incorporation of their entire bodies and energies into singing.  And there were also many layers of meanings drawn from past and present.
 
Part II explores peace within the individual, with themes of fear and comfort, doubt and faith, consolation, assurance, and the desire that our hearts might be filled with perfect love and sweet peace.
This section includes three prayers,
the first of which was found written on the wall of a concentration camp]
at the end of World War II: 
I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining.
I believe in love, even when it is not felt.
I believe in God, even when God is silent
The second is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray
when they asked him to teach them, “Our Father…”
Christians around the world have cherished these words; version is sung in the Swahili language. 
The third is the magnificent prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi that begins, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”
 
The recording ends with the quiet and confident words of security,
that we willwalk through the valley in peace… if Jesus is our leader.