Groome Church to host choral ensemble for benefit concert
Groome Church will welcome the Choralis Chamber Choir, performing songs of the season under the direction of Gretchen Kuhrmann, from 6 to 7:15 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 14, at 601 Savannah Road, Lewes. Tickets are available online at instantseats.com/events/groome.
The concert is dedicated to and in memory of former Lewes Mayor Ted Becker, who passed away in October. The event recognizes his many efforts to save the forest.
The choir, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, performs widely in the Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia area. Choralis made its premiere performance in Delaware at last year’s Groome Church holiday concert.
Proceeds of Groome’s final benefit event of the season will go to support the Fourth Street Forest preservation campaign organized by the Open Space Alliance under the auspices of the Greater Lewes Foundation.
The Rev. Dr. S. Willard Crossan III, Groome Church pastor, said, “This year’s concert will be Groome’s last for at least a year, possibly two, as we begin this spring a period of renovation and construction that is expected to last 18 to 24 months. With this in mind, we want to use this year’s holiday concert to support an organization, the Open Space Alliance, and a project, the Fourth Street Preserve campaign, that the town is rallying behind and that all of us, and more importantly, the animals, will benefit from.
“I know for me, and many in our congregation whose daily travel takes them on Fourth Street, seeing the deer with their fawns, a fox or two, and sometimes even an eagle, gladdens my heart and brightens my day, and brings to mind a passage from Genesis in the Old Testament: ‘And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – I give every green plant for food. And it was so.’”
