This fall, Blessed Sacrament Church relaunched their church-reform series known as “Church on Fire: Stay With Us!” with an expanded format of lectures, concerts, events and services (as we posted here).
What better time to kick off the concert series than the holiday season in which music is most a part of the experience? And who better to kick it off than one of the top church choirs and choirmasters in Buffalo?
This Sunday evening Frank Scinta & Friends will present an Advent Candlelight Recital at 7:00 pm in the church located at 1029 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209. Mr. Scinta is currently the organist/choirmaster of St. Louis Church and adjunct professor of fine arts at Canisius College. Prior to St. Louis, he was the organist/choirmaster at Blessed Sacrament Church-Buffalo for 33 years.
This concert comes against the backdrop of the recent announcement by the Diocese of Buffalo of its intent to create a “parish family” for the downtown churches. This reorganization is a result of the “Road to Renewal” restructuring program, which plans to create two dozen such families of churches throughout the diocese.
The downtown parish family will include these churches:
- St. Louis
- St. Joseph Cathedral
- Blessed Sacrament
- St. Anthony of Padua
- St. Michael
- Our Lady of Perpetual Help
As a co-founder of the Buffalo Mass Mob (our next Mass Mob is this Sunday morning – look for an article soon) I’ve had the opportunity to visit all of these downtown churches. Each of them has its own strengths and unique culture and traditions. That is fully on display during the Christmas season, when each church digs out decorations that may go back decades. I hope the parish family concept will be about drawing from and sharing these uniquenesses and strengths, and not just teeing up another round of church closings.
But you clicked on here to find out about the music, so here’s what’s happening:
The Parish Pastoral Council of Blessed Sacrament Church is pleased to announce that the first program of the Deborah A. and Louis J. Cercone Concert Series of the Church on Fire: Stay With Us! program will be given on Sunday, December 12, 2021. Frank Scinta & Friends will present an Advent Candlelight Recital at 7:00 pm in the church located at 1029 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209.
The Recital will feature a series of carols for Advent and Christmas from the 16th century to the 20th century. The music will be performed by Mr. Scinta’s “Friends,” six sopranos: Lenore Brown, Pearl Brown, Mary Dylik, Asha Herle, Erin Peradotto, and Emilie Tothero. These women are part of the soprano section of St. Louis Choir, directed by Choirmaster Frank Scinta.
The community, friends, family and neighbors, is invited to attend this free recital. Free, off-street parking is available in the Catholic Academy of West Buffalo parking lot, located behind the school. Access to the lot is made at 1069 Delaware Avenue and Lexington Avenue. The lot can also be entered from Linwood Avenue. Free-will offerings for the recital are appreciated.
The public is asked to make reservations for this event. They can go online to www.BSCBuffalo.org/events or by contacting Michael Pitek: Michael@thepitekgroup.com or by calling 716-480-8313.
The Advent Candlelight Recital is one of many programs that are being offered at Blessed Sacrament Church-Buffalo in 2021-2022. The series will feature an expanded format of lectures, concerts, events and services that will provide ten months of programming, appealing to a variety of ages, genders, ethnicities, and spiritualities. The parish is opening its doors to all: long-time parishioners, new parishioners, curious non-parishioners, and community friends and neighbors…ALL!
Find more details on the series here.
For more about Blessed Sacrament Church, see my article about the 2019 Buffalo Mass Mob there.
Lead image credit: 109913207 © creativecommonsstockphotos | Dreamstime.com