Chancel Choir
The Chancel Choir is the adult choir of the First United Methodist Church, Downers Grove. It provides music each week for the 10:00 a.m. service and performs two Cantatas each year, one at Christmas and one in the spring. New members are most cordially invited!
The Chancel Choir goals are to:
- Provide music for Christ-centered worship that stimulates the hearts and minds of singers and congregation.
- Provide service opportunities for singers to give of their talents to the church community.
- Include a variety of choral styles of quality choral literature which accommodate the talents and limitations of the choir membership.
- Feature anthems and responses that address sermon themes and liturgical seasons.
- Provide two special services (cantatas and themed programs) annually.
- Provide a supportive, friendly social community for choir members.
On December 4, the Chancel Choir will present their annual Christmas Cantata. The choir will perform 20 carols from countries across the globe and will include a visual presentation to serve as a road map on this Christmas journey.
DGFUMC is hosting international choral celebrity, Alice Parker, the woman who shaped the face of choral music in America, and who will lead the congregation in discovering the beauty in hymn singing on Sunday, November 6 at our 11:00 a.m. worship service. She will build the musicality of each and every person present; and this service is one you will remember for years to come. At 90 years old, Mrs. Parker is making her victory lap, and this trip to the Midwest is to be one of her last out of her home state of Massachusetts.
The Chancel Choir will be presenting an evocative contemporary cantata, Sunrise Mass, by Norwegian-American Ola Gjeilo on Sunday, April 17 at the 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. worship services. Gjeilo, widely regarded as an important new composer, has created “a most beautiful and satisfying music for our time, a beacon of hope in the world.” 
Alice Parker is a living musical legend whose work teaching congregations to sing and music directors to arrange and interpret has inspired thousands around the world. Alice’s arrangements and recordings with the Robert Shaw Chorale served to popularize choral music in our country. The program will feature ensembles and choir, and congregational singing.
God, as known to us in Jesus Christ, welcomes all.
We welcome people of any race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, social or economic status, employment status, or life situation; including people with physical or mental illness or disability.
We practice loving acceptance of each person and respectful discussion
of our differences.
Affiliated to Reconciling Ministries Network
Recent News
Sunday Worship Service - July 30 at 10:00 am
July 30, 2023 - 9:51am
Sunday Worship Service - July 23 at 10:00 am
July 23, 2023 - 9:48am
Sunday Worship Service - July 16 at 10:00 am
July 16, 2023 - 10:17am
Vacation Bible School
July 14, 2023 - 10:10pm
Sunday Worship Service - July 9 at 10:00 am
July 9, 2023 - 9:53am