Christ Church Cathedral in Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

, is the cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

 church of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee

Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee

The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America that covers roughly Middle Tennessee. A single diocese spanned the entire state until 1982, when the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee was created; the Diocese of Tennessee was again split...

 in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The congregation was founded in 1829 and became the diocesan cathedral, by designation, in 1997.

Music and liturgies

The Cathedral Choir at Christ Church has been recognized by the Nashville Scene

Nashville Scene

Nashville Scene is an alternative newsweekly in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1989, became a part of Village Voice Media in 1999, and later joined the ranks of sixteen other publications after a merger of Village Voice Media with New Times Media early in 2006. In 2009 the paper was...

for several years running as the "Best Church Music" in Nashville. The 32-piece choir is currently directed by Michael Velting and performs weekly liturgies at the 11:00 services as well as other services throughout the year.

First Friday

Christ Church is the home of First Friday services, done in conjunction with the church's "Sacred Space" series. First Friday is held on the first Friday of each month and includes a unique blend of Episcopal liturgy, liturgical dance, visual arts, and music. Centered around the Eucharist

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

, the service follows the liturgical calendar and uses the cues of the seasons as starting points for the service. For instance, in the November 2006 service, centered around All Saints Day and the Mexican Dia de los muertos, the Gothic sanctuary was decked out in bright colors, dancers wore bright Mexican-style clothes, and the music was inspired by Mexican conjunto

Conjunto

Conjunto literally translates as "group," and is regionally accepted in Texas as defining a genre of music that was born out of south Texas at the end of the 19th Century, after German settlers introduced the button accordion. The bajo sexto has come to accompany the button accordion and is...

and mariachi

Mariachi

Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind,...

styles.

First Friday has been recognized by the Episcopal News Service as "the Episcopal answer to the turbulent trend of contemporary worship in American religious life".