Chapel Services

Being a theological school, chapel services are part of the daily and weekly routine here.  Attendance is encouraged, but not compulsory (for example, I don't have classes on Fridays so I don't anticipate making the trek over to school very many weeks for Friday chapel).  Monday, Tuesday, and Friday the service is quite short - 15-20 minutes only - usually with hymns, readings, and prayers.  On Thursday, it is a bit longer - 45 minutes or so - with a guest preacher from either the school or the community.

Planning and presiding is done by teams, and teams rotate from week-to-week.  It is ideal if there is a mix of denominations, as well as year of study on each team.  There is also one faculty member with each team.

Being the keener that I am, I signed up to be a part of the team for the very first week.  Hey - why not grab hold of the chance to take part before the course workload gets too overwhelming?!  And so our team of three students (a 2nd year and a 3rd year and me) and one professor planned out the services for the week.  Each day, each one of us took part in the shared leadership of the services, taking turns leading the prayers and reading the scriptures.  On Monday, the chapel organist was away so I even had a chance to play for a service.

And I had so much fun, that I have signed up to be part of a team one week near the end of term in November.

If you are an observant reader, you may have noticed that I skipped over Wednesday in my schedule above.  Wednesday afternoons we meet with our denominational groups, and so each denomination worships separately at different times in the chapel, in the style of our own denomination.

And so my adventure at seminary continues.  I've handed in a couple of assignments at this point, and feel a bit more on top of my readings this week.

(a view of the chapel from the organ loft)