Sunday’s choral evensong at the Cathedral of St. Andrew will be the final service for John Robert Renke in his role as director of the church’s lauded music program.
Renke resigned from his position following a meeting of the Episcopal cathedral’s governing board on Sept. 27. In a church bulletin, Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick’s announced Renke’s departure to “pursue other professional opportunities.”
That was followed by a cathedral news release on Monday that said, “John has done much to fulfill the cathedral’s desire to be a dynamic presence in the cultural life of Honolulu. The St. Andrew’s Cathedral Choir, composed of choral scholars and volunteer singers, has been considered one of the premier choral ensembles in Honolulu. … He has been passionate in his various roles as an organist, conductor, composer, liturgist and teacher and has strived to embrace the richness of Hawaiian and Western culture that blesses these beautiful islands.”
Renke declined to comment on his resignation except to say, “I’ve been overwhelmed by the support and reactions from the community, and even from former singers whose lives were changed by their experience in the Cathedral Choir.”
After his appointment in 2007, Renke established a weekly concert series and hosted many other concerts each year with the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra and its chorus, Chamber Music Hawaii, the Morning Music Club of Honolulu, Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus, local schools and universities, and touring ensembles from around the world, the release said.
Last year he was the recipient of the Dale R. Noble Award, presented by the Oahu Choral Society “in recognition and appreciation of outstanding contribution to choral music in Hawaii.”
In an interview, Fitzpatrick said a task force of clergy and laypeople will find interim music leadership. The continuation of evensong on Wednesdays and Sundays will depend on leaders and available resources.
“We have to be sure to live within our means,” he said. “The services of eight choral scholars within the 16-member choir will also depend on these factors during the transition period.” The scholars are paid for their training and mentorship of the volunteer singers.
Fitzpatrick said he would like to see the music program, which has focused on classical music under Renke’s leadership, step up exploration of a different direction.
“As a bishop I want my cathedral to be the spiritual center for Hawaiian language, arts and music. I want to emphasize our Hawaiian-ness. … That was our founding; that’s key to us,” he said. King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma were responsible for bringing the Anglican (English) Church to Hawaii in 1862.
“We need to be welcoming, I think, of the diverse cultural expressions of worldwide Anglicanism, and that especially for us means Pacific and Asia,” Fitzpatrick said. “We need to encourage creativity and participation from all the members of the congregation and the (broader Christian) community.”
The cathedral’s news release noted that “John has particularly enjoyed working with the cathedral’s Hawaiian community and directing the Hawaiian Choir for the Sunday services,” which incorporate Hawaiian-language prayers, hymns and scripture, with the sermon in English.
In a Honolulu Star-Advertiser story last year about Renke’s repertoire (808ne.ws/2cUTPaW), the director said he was hired (before Fitzpatrick became bishop) to draw the Episcopalian church more deeply into its Anglican roots, which extend into the Middle Ages. Much of his program’s music is sung in French, German and Latin.
“It’s deeply spiritual music that takes you to a different place,” and it attracted people “yearning for something with guts to it (and) that evokes great emotion,” Renke said in the story.
