Interfaith choir from Minnesota heads for the Vatican with a message of unity
About 200 singers and supporters are in Rome to premiere a Minnesota-grown faith project.
A Twin Cities choir will have a rare opportunity to perform at the Vatican in Rome next week, thanks to an unusual Minnesota-grown project to support Christian unity.
The Together in Hope Project has orchestrated three concerts in Rome and an entourage of ecumenical visitors, including 64 choir members and 120 goodwill ambassadors.
Twin Cities Catholic Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Ann Svennungsen of the Minneapolis synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America are accompanying the group.
The concerts are the culmination of three years of work by Celia Ellingson and Gary Aamodt, a Twin Cities husband-and-wife team that has long been concerned about divisions in the church. Music, they said, is a “universal language of beauty,” and can bridge divides.