A list of "Who's Who" in the Episcopal music world, including founding members of the Association of Anglican Musicians, participated in the service where Litton was installed as director of music, emeritus, and joined parishioners at a reception to honor him and his wife, Lou Ann.

"I don't know that there has ever been a greater gathering of Episcopal musical talent on a Sunday morning," said the Rev. James Sell, interim priest, who introduced many of the visitors to the congregation. Among them were organists and choirmasters, both active and retired, from England, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, Florida, Georgia and Texas.

Dr. George Jones, a respected member of Trinity's choir program since 1972, wrote "Fantasy on a Hymn Tune" (Litton -- Hymn 347) for the service's prelude. The postlude, played by internationally acclaimed organist Gerre Hancock, formerly of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, New York, and now at the University of Texas at Austin, was an improvisation of the music of the final hymn, "Go Forth for God," written in 1982 by Erik Routley for Litton's final service as Trinity Church's director of music.

Litton brought both national and international recognition to Trinity's choirs before he left in 1982 for St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City. But he was never far from Princeton.

He returned four years later to conduct The American Boychoir, which would perform in 49 states and 12 nations in more than 2,000 concerts during his 14-year tenure as music director. During his career, Litton conducted or played on more than 40 recordings, edited several books and collections of liturgical music, published more than 50 articles in professional journals and became one of five Americans to be named a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music.

A former member of the church's Standing Commission on Church Music, he played a leading role in the creation of The Hymnal 1982, the standard hymnal in thousands of churches today.

In retirement, Litton served as interim choirmaster at Washington National Cathedral from 2001 to 2003 and currently is music director emeritus and director of the alumni chorus at The American Boychoir School.

Music transcends differences
In his sermon, Sell described how music can unify the experiences and minds of people in indescribable, but eternal ways.

"Our spiritual journeys are as diverse as we are," he told the congregation. "There are agnostics, pessimists and cynics here, mingled with traditionalists, mystics and fundamentalists. Perhaps we cannot even speak to one another about certain subjects because of the breadth of the opinions we hold. They arise from our experiences and our uniqueness and often create virtually non-negotiable barriers.

"But when we listen to the classical church music of our great choir and organists, there are no opinions. For just a few moments, we are brought together as one. Our fears subside. Our lives are transformed…and we walk away from this place a new people, eternally bound to one another. In some small, holy way, we will be connected to one another forever. We are sisters and brothers in the spirit."

The word "religion" has the same root as the word "ligament," he said. "It is about binding us together… honoring one another…going beyond personal opinions and cultural options to the common bonds of humanity. It is lifting human beings to their highest levels and proclaiming their worthiness as children of God.

"More than any preacher, more than any prophet, it is the musician who can stir the passions of faith," said Sell. "Preachers deal with opinion. Musicians reach up to the eternal."

In addition to Hancock, guests at the celebration included Daniel Beckwith, Litton's first assistant at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York, now head of the opera department at Westminster Choir College; John Bertalot, who succeeded Litton in 1983 as director of music at Trinity and who now lives outside of Blackburn, England; Charles Bickford, the interim president of the American Boychoir School; Raymond Glover, who worked with Litton on The Hymnal 1982 and who completed his career as professor of church music at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria; Bruce Neswick, who worked on the creation of The Hymnal 1982 and is canon for music at St. Philip's Cathedral in Atlanta. Neswick begins his new post as Director of Music at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York on July 1.

Also present were Robert Palmer, who assisted Litton at the American Boychoir School and is on the faculty at Avon Old Farms School in Avon, Conn.; Nancianne Parella, formerly of Trinity Church and Westminster Choir College and now associate organist at St. Ignatius Church, New York; and Harold Pysher, Litton's assistant at Trinity and now associate for music and liturgy at the Church of Bethesda by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Fla.