Melissa Spas, Rev. Eugene Sutton
Chautauqua Institution has announced the appointment of two nationally recognized leaders for its religious life and programming.
Melissa Spas has been named the Institution’s new Vice President of Religion. She is currently the acting director of Lake Institute on Faith & Giving at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The Right Reverend Eugene Taylor Sutton will become the Institution’s Senior Pastor. He is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.
The appointment of two individuals to what previously was a combined leadership position represents a significant investment by the Institution in its Religion pillar. Spas and Sutton join longtime Director of Religion Maureen Rovegno, a signature curator of Chautauqua’s Summer Assembly program, in charting a refreshed course for Chautauqua’s religion program.
Chautauqua Institution’s Department of Religion provides a wide variety of worship services and programs to community residents and patrons that express Christian heritage and an interfaith commitment in spirit and practice.
In the role of vice president of religion, Spas will be responsible for the strategic vision and administration of all worship, faith/ethics-based programming, and ecumenical interfaith communication at Chautauqua Institution. She will oversee the creation of a robust religion program during Chautauqua’s traditional nine-week Summer Assembly and also serve as the architect of a new year-round set of programs and partnerships to ensure Chautauqua’s religion pillar is a differentiator of the Chautauqua brand.
As senior pastor, Sutton will be in residence each summer to preside over the Institution’s Sunday and daily ecumenical worship services in the Amphitheater, curating and expanding a diverse roster of guest chaplains. He will also serve in a pastoral role for the Chautauqua community, both locally and nationally.
The Reverend Natalie Hanson, a longtime faith leader within the Chautauqua community, will serve the Institution as interim senior pastor during the 2022 Summer Assembly, while Sutton completes his tenure as bishop of Maryland.
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