Presented by Dr Katherine Firth.

‘Restless, yearning, sick, like a bird in a cage… hungry for colours, for life, for birdsong’.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a theologian for our times: an intellectual who worked across barriers of race, denomination and language. For his role in heading an underground seminary, and his work with the resistance against the Nazi regime, he was imprisoned, interned in concentration camps and executed. Bonhoeffer’s writings invite us to ask about what captivity really means, and what it is to have freedom.

Dr Katherine Firth is a librettist and academic. Her research has focused on the relationship of music and poetry in the mid-20th century and in German protestant religious music, most recently publishing ‘Martin Luther’s “Mighty Fortress”’, A. Loewe and K. Firth, Lutheran Quarterly (June 2018). An active librettist, her recent commissions include ‘Southern Cantata’ with Andrew Schultz (2017), an anthem Trinity College Melbourne with Peter Campbell (2017), and an Advent Carol with Daniel Riley for Christchurch South Yarra (2018).

The Choir of St James’ Concert Captivity and Freedom follows at 5pm (tickets for the concert must be purchased separately).