2024 Bailey Concert & Lecture

THE 2024 CONCERT & LECTURE FEATURES

The Rev. Dr. Sam Wells & St. Martin’s Voices Emerging Artists

May 17-19, 2024

A FUTURE THAT'S BIGGER THAN THE PAST. Inspiring, creative, and faithful: The Rev. Dr. Sam Wells addresses the hopes and challenges of being the Church today. St. Martin’s Voices enriches the program with sacred music, opening our hearts for deeper connections with one another, our neighbors, and the divine.

Click HERE to register. All programs are free and open to the public, generously supported by the Bishop Scott Field Bailey Lecture Endowment Fund, established in 1986 by O.V. Bennett, Jr. to honor Bishop Bailey.

About The Rev. Dr. Sam Wells

Sam Wells has been Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, since 2012. He is a widely known preacher, pastor, writer, broadcaster, theologian and institutional leader. He was ordained in 1991, and served curacies in Newcastle and Cambridge. He was a vicar in Norwich from 1997 to 2003, and Cambridge from 2003 to 2005. From 2005 to 2012 Sam served in North Carolina as Dean of the Chapel at Duke University and Research Professor of Christian Ethics at Duke Divinity School.

Sam studied at Merton College, Oxford, at the University of Edinburgh, and at the University of Durham. His Ph.D. is in Christian Ethics. He is Visiting Professor of Christian Ethics at King’s College, London. Since 2014 he has been a regular presenter of ‘Thought for the Day’ on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He has published 46 books, including studies in ethics, textbooks, an apologetics, collections of sermons, devotional works, and books to build up lay faith and ministry. He has also jointly written a collection of Eucharistic Prayers for every Sunday of the three-year Revised Common Lectionary cycle, published as Joining the Angels’ Song, and jointly created an enquirers’ course, Being With. His most recent book is How to Preach (Canterbury 2023).

Sam has long understood being with the poor as a significant dimension of his vocation. He has spent 11 years living and working in urban priority areas. In Norwich he helped to found and lead the first development trust in the East of England. He jointly founded HeartEdge, an influential movement for church renewal, in 2017.

Sam is married to Rt Revd Dr Jo Wells, who is Deputy Secretary General of the Anglican Communion. They have two adult children.

About St. Martin’s Voices Emerging Artists

St. Martin’s Voices is one of the UK’s finest and most versatile vocal ensembles. As the flagship professional choral ensemble of London’s iconic St. Martin-in-the-Fields, they sing for concerts, broadcasts and special services at St. Martin’s and beyond.

St. Martin’s Voices is passionate about offering development opportunities for young artists across the UK, aiming to nurture the next generation of talented ensemble singers and choral conductors. The St. Martin’s Voices Emerging Artists programme provides an opportunity for six singers to enjoy an intensive, focused period of training with others of a similar standard and interests and is an integral part of the exciting choral music programme at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The scheme is aimed at choral singers who are in the first few years of a professional career in singing and wish to develop their skills as choral and consort singers to a high level. Recent highlights have included tours to the USA, the Netherlands and Belgium, alongside recordings and performances at Lambeth Palace, the Houses of Parliament and the Greenbelt Festival.