SKANEATELES - The Russian Orthodox Church is one of the largest churches in the world and like other large faiths, it has produced a great deal of music to accompany its masses to praise its faith.

On Saturday, a small demonstration of the enormous catalogue of music that exists in the Russian Orthodox Church was brought to the First Presbyterian Church in Skaneateles with a performance by the Russian vocal group Lyra.

The Reverend Doctor Craig Lindsey of the First Presbyterian Church, explained that this was the second performance the group gave at the church.

The group first came to Skaneateles in 2007, through a somewhat serendipitous series of events.

“They found us,” Lindsey said. “They were looking for places to perform and they found us and we thought it would be great to have them here with us.”

Since the original performance, the church has been eager for the group to return to Skaneateles, but until this year, the schedules just never seemed to line up, though the church and the group never lost touch with each other.

“Dr. Tom Baker is our choral director,” Lindsey said. “He stayed in touch with them through the computer and we kept in touch and knew that we always wanted to have them back here.”

After a two-year absence, things lined up and the group was performing in Pennsylvania and then came to DeWitt on Saturday, making time for them to bring their vocal stylings to Skaneateles.

It was an event Lindsey and Baker were eager to make happen.

“They are a marvelous group,” Lindsey said. “Just a marvelous group of performers and we are happy to have them here with us.”

The five-person group hails from St. Petersburg, Russia, where they are members of a larger group of about 25 to 30 performers Baker said.

In St. Petersburg, all the members of the group are conservatory-trained musicians, who work in the field of music professionally.

When given the opportunity, small numbers of the group will go on tour to share their music with others around the world.

Sergey Tupitsyn, served as leader of the group Sunday afternoon. He took the opportunity to explain a little about the group and their music.

While Russian composers are often overlooked on a global scale, Tupitsyn said that they did flourish in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, creating works on a scale with the perhaps better known European composers of the period.

While there are many forms of music, the group as a whole was well versed that the focus Sunday was on music expressing faith.

Through songs with titles such as “We Praise You Oh Lord” Tupitsyn explained that people of Russian Orthodox faith expressed their feelings and beliefs.

He said that the Virgin Mary holds a special place in their music.

“We believe that the Virgin Mary is the protector of our country,” Tupitsyn said. “She is very special to us and to our music.”

After performing their faith-based works, the group also shared renderings of traditional Russian folk music, all performed a cappella.

And whether it was for an expression of faith or simply for its sonic beauty, Lindsey was happy to be able to bring this music to the people of Skaneateles.

“I just hope people enjoy the music,” Lindsey said. “It is truly beautiful music and we are happy to be able to share it and be patrons of the arts here at our church.”