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Churches unite voices in sweet sound

The annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast features a community choir.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 10, 2007

Daniel Downing, 15, plays bass guitar while Michelle Rego, music director for the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle, plays piano as she leads a community choir rehearsal Monday evening.
	[Dirk Shadd | Times]

St. Petersburg- This year's Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, an annual event that draws close to 1,000 people, will offer a community choir of singers from close to a dozen Pinellas County churches. Monday evening they rehearsed in a music room at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle.

Though only the third time the group had practiced together, they gave enthusiastic performances of the three pieces they will perform Tuesday morning at the St. Petersburg Coliseum. The event is organized by the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg.

This year's keynote speaker is Chip Ingram. A pastor for more than 20 years and author of four books, Ingram is heard on Christian radio stations WTBN-AM 570 and 910 Tampa Bay's Christian Talk. He is the host of Living on the Edge, which reaches more than 1-million listeners a week.

This will be the sixth annual breakfast and offers religious leaders an opportunity to reflect and pray for our armed forces, families and communities, organizers said.

There are two basic questions Ingram said he'll answer at the Tuesday breakfast: "What are the practices that make for great people in God's eyes? When God looks down on people, how does he measure greatness, and how can you become one of those people?"

Ingram, who said he grew up in "a negative religious environment" that turned him off from church, began exploring religion when he was about 18. After college, he said, he toured the Caribbean, South America and Asia, a trip he calls the turning point of his life.

Next week's program also will include prayers by religious leaders and community members. Interspersed throughout will be performances from the interdenominational, multicultural community choir led by Michelle Rego, music director at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle.

This is the first time Rego is conducting the choir. She said St. Jude's choir members who participated last year told her it had been a good experience, so she jumped at the chance to lead the group when asked by prayer breakfast committee member Sue Brett.

"I wanted to do something out of the cathedral that would support the civic community," she said.

Those who attend can expect to hear music that transcends religious divisions and emphasizes unity, charity and simple petitions to God. One song will be Order My Steps, a gospel piece by Glenn Burleigh.

"That's such an inspiring piece of music and it's a great arrangement and very accessible to choirs; in other words, it's not that terribly hard to sing, and it sounds wonderful," Rego said.

The choir also will sing a piece Rego describes as sort of a mantra, Live in Charity and Steadfast Love, that will be performed after each of five prayers.

A third piece, We Are Many Parts, was chosen with special consideration for the mayor, because it can be accompanied by guitar, Rego said. Mayor Rick Baker will play guitar.

The choir director said she hopes the choir will inspire the audience.

"I think that music is praying twice, and you're using a part of the psyche that you don't necessarily use when you're speaking. It's just a powerful way to pray together. It unites people rather quickly. I'm hoping that people feel that."

Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at wmoore@sptimes.com or 727 892-2283.

Fast Facts:

If you go

The YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg's Sixth Annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by Anderson-McQueen Funeral and Cremation Centers and WTBN-AM, is at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at the St. Petersburg Coliseum, 535 Fourth Ave. N. Doors open at 7 a.m. Tickets are $13; tables for 10 can be reserved for $130. Call (727) 895-9622, ext. 231.

[Last modified October 9, 2007, 21:56:21]