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Dr. Crystal Sellers Battle, director of the Bluffton University Gospel Choir, directs the choir and Hesston (Kan.) College’s Bel Canto Singers and Chorale in a combined performance during “A Celebration of Gospel: Music and Worship in the African-American Tradition” Oct. 27 at Hesston Mennonite Church.

The concert featured each individual choir as well as the combined choir with guest composer, arranger and gospel historian Dr. Raymond Wise of Columbus, Ohio.

The combined choir also sang in Hesston’s Oct. 28 chapel service, where Bluffton campus pastor Stephen “Tig” Intagliata shared a short message.

The Bluffton choir used the trip as a way to connect and collaborate with Hesston College, its Mennonite Church USA sister institution.

In addition, Bluffton President Dr. James Harder delivered the Sunday-morning message at Shalom Mennonite Church in nearby Newton, Kan. The Gospel Choir event was made possible in part by a grant from the Marpeck Fund.

(Photo by Larry Bartel, Hesston College)