ST. LOUIS (RNS) For 18 years, the Rev. William Rowe has done a little improvising while celebrating Mass on Sunday mornings at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Mount Carmel, Ill.

Now those deviations have led to his resignation in an incident that may be tied to global changes to the Catholic liturgy.

On Jan. 29, instead of saying “Lord our God that we may honor you with all our mind and love everyone in truth of heart,” during the opening prayer, he altered the phrasing to better reflect the day’s Gospel message, in which Jesus heals a man with a troubled spirit.

“We thank you, God, for giving us Jesus who helped us to be healed in mind and heart and proclaim his love to others,” the 72-year-old priest prayed instead.

Three days later, Rowe received a letter from Bishop Edward Braxton of Belleville, Ill., accepting his resignation.

“The problem is that when I pray at Mass, I tend to change the words that are written in the book to match what I was talking about, or what a song is about,” Rowe said in an interview.

The book in question is the Roman Missal, a book of prayers, chants and responses used during the Mass. Rowe has been saying some of those prayers in his own words for years.

But last December, the Vatican-mandated adoption of a new English-language translation of the missal may have given bishops an opportunity to rein in freewheeling priests who have been praying in their own words for decades.

“Since December when the new translation came out, no one has said what would happen to you if you changed stuff,” said the Rev. John Foley, director of the Center for Liturgy at St. Louis University.

“But I find it hard to believe a priest in Illinois would be forced to resign because he wasn’t using the exact words from the translation. It’s not a strong enough offense for that.”

In the wake of sweeping changes in the church as a result of the Second Vatican Council, some priests in the 1970s began using their own words and phrasing in place of the verbatim translations of the original Latin liturgy in the missal, Foley said. He said there has never been an established penalty for improvising nonalterable prayers, and bishops have traditionally looked past an individual priest’s extemporizing.

Monsignor Kevin Irwin, professor of liturgical studies at the Catholic University of America, said there are some prayers said by a priest at Mass in which he is “beholden to the structure, not to the words.”

But there are also prayers that priests are “duty-bound to say,” said the Rev. John Baldovin, professor of historical and liturgical theology at Boston College. Most of the prayers in the missal, in fact, are not optional, he said.

Rowe said his previous bishop, Wilton Gregory, had discussed his off-the-cuff prayer habit with him, referring to the practice as “pushing the envelope.” He said five years ago, Braxton also discussed the matter with him, and asked him to read directly from the missal.

“I told him I couldn’t do that,” Rowe said. “That’s how I pray.”

Last summer, Rowe said, the bishop made it clear to his priests that “no priest may deviate from any wording in the official missal.”

Braxton did not respond to a request for an interview with the Post-Dispatch.

In October, two months ahead of the introduction of the new missal translation, Braxton said he couldn’t permit Rowe to continue improvising, according to Rowe. The priest offered his resignation but didn’t receive a response.

On Monday, Braxton wrote Rowe a letter informing him that he’d accepted his resignation.

The action did not sit well with the nearly 500 families at St. Mary’s.

“The ways Father changed the Mass ritual with his words have only made it more meaningful to us as opposed to distancing us from the church,” said Alice Wirth, principal at St. Mary’s School.

“Everything he does is based on our faith; it’s not just a whim. There’s a reason for every word he prays.”

(Tim Townsend writes for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in St. Louis.)

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In the midst of a governance crisis that threatens to divide the Philippines, several churches say they are marking the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity by setting aside doctrinal differences, praying and working for change.

“Even amidst new political trouble that threatens to polarize again our country, we Christians can take the lead in getting together in prayer,” the Rev. Felipe Ehican of the Lutheran Church of the Philippines told ENInews on 18 January.

The week of prayer usually takes place between 18 and 25 January. Resources such as texts for ecumenical servicees are sponsored jointly by the Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Roman Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.

Ehican was referring to the current Senate impeachment proceedings of Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona, which began 16 January, also the start in the Philippines of the celebration of the week of prayer.

The Rev. Joie Galinato of the United Methodist Church likewise stressed the importance of strengthening the unity of the Christian population to prevent the country’s division as a result of the impeachment trial of Corona.

“The impeachment trial is now dividing the country between the pro-Corona and the anti-Corona,” Galinato told ENInews. “But we can help a lot in bridging divisions by our coming together in prayer as Christians from various denominations, united in our common desire for righteous and good governance.”

Roman Catholic lay leader Dr. Raylita Calimlim also acknowledged and prayed for Bukal, an ecumenical pastoral group. She said Bukal volunteers from Baguio City travelled to southern Philippines to counsel and rehabilitate traumatized survivors of a deadly storm there last December. “Bukal has been doing a great job in helping bring change,” she said.

The week of prayer in this northern Philippine city was organized by the Baguio-Benguet Ecumenical Group, an interdenominational organization, which has been celebrating the Vatican and WCC-led weekly activity since 1999.

As a spin-off of the week of prayer in past years, the ecumenical group has been actively involved in social and political advocacies such as honest, peaceful and clean elections, anti-gambling drives, and good governance. “We seek to sustain these as we continue to pray and work together,” said Galinato.

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A federal judge ruled Wednesday (Jan. 11) in favor of a teenage atheist who sought the removal of a prayer banner from her Rhode Island high school.

Attorneys for Jessica Ahlquist, 16, argued that a banner on display in Providence’s Cranston High School West’s auditorium titled “School Prayer” and addressing “Our Heavenly Father” is a violation of the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s 1962 decision banning state-mandated prayer in school.

Lawyers for the school district argued that the banner had hung in the school since the 1960s and was more secular than sacred.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux disagreed and ruled that the banner should be removed immediately. He also upbraided school officials for holding community meetings about the mural that “at times resembled a religious revival.” At one meeting, several school officials read from the Bible or declared their faith. Ahlquist needed a police escort to leave one meeting.

“I am hopeful that this case can be looked back on in the future and encourage others to stand up for their rights as well,” Ahlquist said from the Providence office of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented her.

Ahlquist had to leave Cranston High School West due to threats, but said she is considering a return.

Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State hailed the ruling as “a 40-page slam dunk.”

Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, praised Ahlquist. “She fought for the rights of nonbelievers and religious minorities and is an example for everyone.”

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As waves of demonstrators descended on New York City to protest corporate greed, they were met by typical sounds of raucous youth-led protests: drum beats, police sirens and shouted political slogans.

They didn’t expect to hear hymns.

Yet protestors rounding the corner of Zuccotti Park encountered dozens of white-robed worshipers singing spirituals and blessing the demonstrators while holding signs reading “Blessed are the poor” and brandishing handmade Christian crosses.

The group, calling themselves the “Protest Chaplains,” traveled from Boston to join the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, which claims to advocate for “the 99 percent” of Americans against the “1 percent” who control much of the country’s wealth.

The Protest Chaplains, a loose group of mostly Christian students, seminarians and laypeople organized though Facebook, expressed support for the movement the best they knew how: through their faith.

“In a group that had a lot of bandanas and black hoodies, we stood out,” said Marisa Egerstrom, an organizer of the group and doctoral student at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts Sciences. “But people kept coming up to us and saying, `You know, you are the first Christians I’ve seen at a protest … on our side.”’

Religious protesters, once a staple of the American progressivism, have become a rare sight at liberal demonstrations in recent years. But as the Occupy Wall Street movement rapidly expands to Boston, Chicago, Washington and other cities, progressive religious groups are playing an increasingly visible role.

“We had a real desire for there to be a specifically Christian voice of protest,” said Egerstrom, an Episcopalian. “Advocating for the 99 percent is the same vision for the world that Christianity has, only rendered into secular language.”

While many of the religious elements of the Occupy movement have been spearheaded by laypeople and students organized through social media, more established clergy are starting to follow the lead of groups like the Protest Chaplains.

The Rev. Brian Merritt, pastor at Palisades Community Church in Washington, started affiliating with the Occupy movement after delivering peanut butter to “Occupy K Street” demonstrators in Washington’s McPherson Square. He was surprised, however, when organizers asked to hold a “wholeness” worship service on behalf of the protesters.

“I was just really shocked,” Merritt said. “But God is so free, God can institute the church wherever God thinks the church can be.”

On Sunday (Oct. 9), a diverse group of New York religious leaders marched to Zuccotti Square carrying a handmade golden calf fashioned to resemble the iconic bull statue near the New York Stock Exchange.

“We think Wall Street has become idolatrous,” said the Rev. Donna Schaper, minister at New York’s Judson Memorial Church and one of more than 50 clergy who joined the New York protest, independent of the chaplains group.

“I’m not saying God is against the people of Wall Street, but I think God is sick of Wall Street taking more than they deserve.”

Schaper explained that the group’s guiding principle was the biblical “golden rule” ― do unto others as you would have them do unto you ― but stressed the interfaith aspect of the demonstration, noting that the march was followed by a prayer service featuring Christian, Jewish and Muslim speakers.

“The golden rule is not just one that Christians observe … it’s a way that all major faiths can unite,” Schaper said. “We plan to be (at the demonstration) every Sunday and pray with people and thank people for making incredible sacrifices on behalf of our nation.”

Interfaith activities are increasingly the norm for the Occupy movement. Organizers of the “Occupy Boston” tent community partnered with the Protest Chaplains to erect a “Faith and Spirituality” tent in early October. The tent hosts yoga workshops, Muslim prayer celebrations and even a Yom Kippur service that drew more than 125 Jewish attendees.

“The Occupy movement feels like church,” Egerstrom said. “You have to work with people you don’t necessarily agree with, but we also have to eat together, and there is room for everyone.”

One of the Muslim prayer services in Occupy Boston was lead by Nuri Friedlander, the Muslim chaplain at Harvard University, who said his involvement was a natural extension of his religious commitment.

“One of the principles of my faith is to stand up for those who are oppressed, to give to those in need, to bear witness,” Friedlander said.

Ryan Adams, a student at Harvard Divinity School and lead organizer of several Jewish services at Occupy Boston, echoed Friedlander’s spiritual call.

“I think it’s very important for me, as a Jewish person, to be out here supporting this. Your identity as a protester and your identity as a Jew shouldn’t have to be mutually exclusive,” Adams said after a Yom Kippur service.

“As a spiritual people, we have a great responsibility. And if this can be a shofar blast to the world, to recognize the spiritual reality that’s around us, telling us to do less in terms of greed and more in terms of people, that would be good.”

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Three countries, namely China, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam slammed recently a U.S. government religious freedom report which included two of them, China and Saudi Arabia, among eight Countries Of Particular Concern regarding religious freedom.

Vietnam was not included among the eight cited in the U.S. State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report, but was nonetheless mentioned for its treatment of Catholics in detention, including an ailing Catholic priest.

Religious groups backed by China’s government said the report was simply an attempt to smear the country’s image, and denied all of the report’s findings.

“The U.S. report … attempted to smear the image ofChina. The Chinese government has…protected the legal rights and interests of religious people,” a statement from five government-controlled religious associations said, according to the AFP.

“We feel greatly disturbed as the US has tried to interfere in China’s domestic affairs by targeting religion and create chaos among religious people in a bid to harm social harmony,” the AFP reported.

‘World police’

Legal activists and religious scholars in Saudi Arabia also censured the report, and said the US should stop acting as ‘world police’ by meddling in other countries’ internal affairs.

Dr. Muflah Al Qah’tani, chairman, National Society for Human Rights, KSA told Gulf News, “There is a need for those who prepare the report to be objective because there is much focus on individual cases, which are generalized in case of the country. The report ignores reference to any positive or reformatory steps taking place in the KSA.”

Biased, erroneous

Vietnam also rejected the report, and Foreign Ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi told the government-controlled newspaper, Nhan Dan, that the report had “biased assessments” and “erroneous” information, according to World Community.

Nghi claimed that Vietnam’s constitution protects religious freedom and claimed that the nation’s practice of these rights has gained international recognition.

Especially troubling records

The U.S. State Department International Religious Freedom report covers the second half of 2010, and said that China and Saudi Arabia have especially troubling religious freedom violation records, while Vietnam has a “mixed record.”

The report cited methods of active repression in these and other countries, including the use of torture and violence against religious groups, laws on blasphemy and apostasy, restrictions on religious expression and anti-Semitism.

In China, some 500 Protestants were imprisoned in the past year, according to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

China was also cited for imprisoning dozens of Catholic priests who did not register with the government, and for destroying places where Christians meet—all of which China denies.

Perhaps the highest incidence of persecution of Christians in China which has gained publicity internationally is that of Shouwang Church in Beijing, which has not been allowed to meet since Easter. (See http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/06/more-members-of-shouwang-arrested-in-china-on-eighth-week-showdown-16180/).

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has been cited for disallowing the public practice of any faith except Islam. News reports have cited imprisonment of Christians, including two Pentecostal Indian nationals who were jailed in Saudi Arabia for six months on trumped up, faith-related charges. (See http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/07/2-christians-released-from-saudi-jail-after-six-months-imprisonment-16808/).

Vietnam

In the case of Vietnam, the freedom report cited issues of religious harassment in provinces and villages, including the treatment of detainees arrested for protesting the closure of the Con Dau Parish Catholic cemetery, and the re-imprisonment of Catholic activist, Father Nguyen Van Ly who is frail after enduring a number of strokes while in detention.

Media reports often cite harassment, repression, and pressure on Christians and other people of different faiths to coerce them to renounce their religious beliefs.

Also mentioned in the report as Countries Of Particular Concern are Myanmar, Eritrea, North Korea, Sudan, Iran and Uzbekistan.

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A new study of Evangelical Christians in the United Kingdom showed recently that more than half of total respondents support the Allied intercession in Libya, but three-fourths were against the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The study, Does Belief Touch Society? was conducted by the Evangelical Alliance and Christian Research, to help provide a more comprehensive profile of U.K. Evangelical Christians in the 21^st century.

The survey was conducted online with over 1,000 Christian respondents hailing from various denominations including Charismatics, Methodists, Anglicans, Free Evangelicals, Pentecostals and the Church of Scotland.

The study follows up the breakthrough 21^st Century Evangelicals Survey conducted last year with some 17,000 respondents. Both studies are designed to look into Evangelicals’ behavior, habits, practices and beliefs.

Steve Clifford, general director of Evangelical Alliance said in the study’s introduction, “We hope that this report, by holding up a mirror, will inspire us to seek — and be certain of — God’s truth in our lives and our communities.”

Demographics

The respondents to the study are a balanced representation gender-wise and come from a wide range of churches. However, limitations to the study are the under-representation of ethnic minorities and youth. Most respondents are highly educated. Because of the study’s limitations, only raw figures were presented.

The study’s validity lies in its contribution to the unfolding of a full census of U.K. evangelicals that may, in due time, provide a more nationally-representative demographic.

Findings revealed the following:

Faith

Most evangelicals overwhelmingly prescribe to the central Christian belief of Jesus’ death for the sins of all men and his resurrection. Furthermore:

• 99 percent believe the message of the cross changed their lives.
• 91 percent believe Jesus rose with a physical body from the dead.
• 85 percent strongly believe that Christians have eternal life.
• 82 percent strongly believe the resurrection shapes how they live now.
• 78 percent strongly believe that they will have eternal life after they die.

Practice:

•  95 percent went to church on Easter Sunday, but only 65% went to church on Good Friday.
• 57 percent go to churches that participated in inter-church activities during Easter.
• 41 percent participated in an evangelical activity over Easter.
• 23 percent visited friends, family, or went on holiday during Easter.

Public life

The study showed that most respondents are active participants in public life, with one-fourth of the total being trustees in a registered charity, nine percent serving as school governors, and four in 100 being with a political party. Nine out of 10 respondents voted in the AV referendum (compared to the national turnout of 42 percent).

Clifford said, of the findings, “There is much to celebrate in this report. Evangelical Christians are not bystanders. We are actively involved in our communities. But yet we must also rise to the challenge presented to us by some of these figures.”

To download the complete study, go to http://www.eauk.org/snapshot/does-belief-touch-society.cfm.

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I was in the hardware store when I first heard the news, though I did not know what I was hearing. As the cashier tallied my purchase, I overheard a reporter on the store’s radio make the peculiar announcement that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. At the time, I thought of it as little more than a curiosity. How wrong I was.

It’s been ten years since that September morning, and still I can recall the horror and heroics of that day. The pancaking towers, the daring and duty-bound firefighters, the dust-soaked city of New York, and the ash-covered-walking-wounded, stumbling like ghosts through Manhattan.

Each September since 9/11, when the proper and solemn remembrance ceremonies begin, I am tempted to believe the now faded bumper stickers that were so common in the months following the tragedy: The stickers read, “We Will Never Forget.” Not true. We will forget.

No, those who lived in the cities directly attacked will never forget. Those who huddled around television sets as bewildered and confused witnesses will never forget. And of course, those who buried their loved ones murdered in the attacks would easier forget their own names as forget that Tuesday morning.

But those following us will forget. They are not calloused or forgetful. They are simply too young. Most of the students who entered college this fall were in elementary school ten years ago, and many of this generation (including my own children), were even younger or not yet born.

This is more than a generation that thinks Starbucks and cell phones were created shortly after Adam and Eve; that can text eighty words a minute, but can’t write in cursive; that has never known the limitation of having only three network television channels, and can’t imagine life without Google and YouTube. This is a generation that will come to maturity in the shadow of a dreadful event not even in their collective memory.

Yes, I want my children (and the generations to come) to remember and reflect upon these events. I want them to forever hold in their memory the suffering and injustice of that day and the days that have followed. But I do not want them to cloud their memories with the notion that the “world was changed forever on 9/11,” for it was not.

Violence, retaliation, the suffering of the innocent, and the struggle for power have been around for all of human history. 9/11, rather than changing that status quo, was another brutal, heart-rending chapter in the same narrative. To say that 9/11 is the defining, irreversible mark on human history is to give evil and injustice far too much credit; and for followers of Jesus to say such a thing, it is a loss faith.

Consider, that whenever Christians gather, they gather to remember, celebrate, and hopefully integrate into their lives a profound event from the past, an event to which the Eucharist and the Creeds point: “Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, and was buried; but on the third day he rose again.”

Our faith informs us that Jesus took all the hate, evil, retaliation, death, and rejection the world could muster, and when the world had done its worst, he responded with his best. He overcame all of these with resurrected life, goodness, and hope. This is the defining event of our past, the memory we will never forget, and the trajectory for our future.

Yes, I will bow my head and say a prayer for those taken away from us a decade ago. I will give thanks for the rescue workers, the firefighters, and those who tried to save and serve the hurt and dying. I will ask God to assuage the sorrow of the families and friends left to grieve.

But when I am finished praying, I will work for peace; I will seek to overcome evil with good; I will pursue the example of Jesus; and I will teach my children to remember properly. Remember that grace, not hate, will have the final word.

Ronnie McBrayer is a syndicated columnist, speaker, and author. His books include “Leaving Religion, Following Jesus” and “The Jesus Tribe.” Visit his website at www.ronniemcbrayer.net.

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Christian leaders have expressed concern that clergy are not going to play a role in New York City’s 10^th year anniversary of 9/11.

Fernando Cabrera, pastor of New Life Outreach International in the Bronx, said he felt there was an element of shortsightedness in the decision, pointing out that government has limitations on what it can or cannot do.

Cabrera, who is also a New York City councilman, told CNN, “There’s certain things that government cannot do, and answering questions of meaning of ‘Why are we going through this?’ and ‘Where am I going to get strength from?’ those are existential questions that can only be answered from a spiritual aspect.”

Cabrera, who has started a Facebook page challenging the mayor’s decision, said that religious leaders are “one of the pillars that carried us through. They were the spiritual and emotional backbone, and when you have a situation where people are trying to find meaning, where something is bigger than them, when you have a crisis of this level, they often look to the clergy,” The Christian Post reported.

Even the former deputy mayor of New York, Rudy Washington, was outraged by the exclusion. Washington, who was in office when the attack occurred 10 years ago, said, “This is America, and to have a memorial service where there’s no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me. I feel like America has lost its way,” according to The Christian Post.

Focus on families

Evelyn Erskine, spokeswoman for New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said the focus of the 10^th year anniversary will be on the families of the victims.

Erskine told CNN, “The ceremony was designed in coordination with 9/11 families with a mixture of readings that are spiritual, historical and personal in nature. It has been widely supported for the past 10 years and rather than have disagreements over which religious leaders participate we would like to keep the focus of our commemoration ceremony on the family members of those who died.”

Not everyone buys the explanation.

John Long, of the Federation of Fire Chaplains, told The Christian Post, “You can’t have a memorial service without religion. If it wasn’t for God and his direction, you couldn’t have memorial services to begin with.”

The issue of inclusiveness and the difficulty that would come in representing all faiths in the NYC 10^th anniversary of 9/11 was also raised by those who agree with Bloomberg’s decision.

However, Long told The Christian Post, “For the National Day of Prayer they include different religious groups. What’s the difference between the National Day of Prayer and the 10th anniversary memorial?”

In 2001, shortly after 9/11, Washington, who was New York’s deputy mayor at the time, organized a Prayer for America service at Yankee Stadium. Leaders came representing all major religions, who addressed the large crowd in the event, which was also televised.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield wrote in Fox News, “Mayor Bloomberg has rightly defended the inclusion of the so-called Ground Zero Cross in the 9/11 Memorial and also defended those who want to build a mosque and Muslim community center nearby.

“So why now, at a critical moment when faith is so central for so many New Yorkers is the city officially unable to find a way to honor that reality and recall the important role faith has played in the lives of so many people both in New York City and around the world – both in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and in the days and years since?”

Cabrera told CNN, “This is not a message of unity when you begin to exclude people who were crucial in the turnaround moment that we needed.”

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Protective barriers are going to be set up around the Washington National Cathedral, in the country’s capital, in anticipation of Hurricane Irene, which is expected to hit the country’s mid-Atlantic region.

The cathedral suffered heavy damage during the magnitude 5.8 earthquake that hit the area last Aug. 23. As a precautionary measure, it will remain closed at least until Sept. 4. Hurricane Irene is expected to touch the mid-Atlantic any time from Aug. 26-28.

Protective fencing and perimeters will be set up over the weekend around the cathedral in order to lend further protection for the staff and public.

Damage assessment ongoing

Amid preparations for Hurricane Irene, a team of architects, stone masons and engineers continue to assess the extent of the damage that was rendered to the cathedral, both structurally and aesthetically, after last Tuesday’s earthquake. They will also draw up a plan on how to proceed with repairs.

Three spires out of four that were situated atop the central tower snapped off, while the fourth has become misaligned. These were the most imposing features of the cathedral’s edifice, and they are expected to be the most difficult parts that will be repaired.

Huge fissures were detected in the cathedral’s east end on its flying buttresses. Some of the oldest parts of the building have cracks, including some of its 700 limestone angels and other figures on the cathedral’s exterior.

Smaller spires also are being checked, some of which also revealed fissures. Repair work is being done to ensure that these artistic figures will be sufficiently stabilized to avoid accidents of any additional falling debris.

Engineers have said that the damage rendered to the British Gothic cathedral is reparable, and overall, the 300-foot-high edifice remains structurally sound.

It has been estimated that millions of dollars will have to be raised for repairs. The insurance policy of the cathedral does not include coverage for damage caused by earthquakes.

The cathedral had already been tightening its budget lately. Some years ago the staff was cut down from 170 to only 70, and spending was cut in half amid an economic slowdown that affected its endowment.

Symbolic space

The Washington National Cathedral has been the site of the country’s most high-profile public events, and is a symbolic space for worship in the country.

It has been the site where presidential memorial services and state funerals have been held, and was also a place for prayer when the country faced times of difficulty. The cathedral was built in stages from 1907 to 1990.

The cathedral, which on the average attracts some 300 tourists daily, will be closed up to Sept. 4, at least. Its four regular Sunday worship services will, for the time being, be celebrated at Washington Hebrew Congregation.

The scheduled commemoration of the 10^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, focusing on the theme, A Call to Compassion, is likely to proceed as planned, including a special performance of a Brahms Requiem by the Marine Chamber Orchestra. The United States Navy Band Sea Changers will also perform with the Cathedral Choir on Friday. The commemoration will be capped on Sunday evening, Sept. 11, with A Concert for Hope, featuring Denyce Graves, Patti LaBelle and Alan Jackson.

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