Written by Sophie Rossitto // Photo by Madison Meyer
While most Harding students gather in Benson Auditorium for chapel each weekday, other students and faculty members may spend the hour reading poetry together, holding small group discussions and sharing prayer requests.
Different groups and departments have hosted weekly, 9 a.m. chapels throughout the semester to worship, learn and pray in smaller settings than in the Benson.
The Honors College held its first breakout chapel on Friday, Dec. 2, in the Honors House. Senior Honors Student Association (HSA) secretary Drew Fowler said his group started discussing the idea of breakout chapels in August. He said junior HSA president Isaac Raymond and some of the honors faculty members wanted to create these chapels in order to offer deep, thoughtful discussions in addition to a typical worship period.
“The theme is ‘God at work,’” Raymond wrote in an email to honors students on Nov. 28.
Fowler said this theme is about learning to see God through academic research and studies. He said students can suggest ideas and speakers whom they would like to hear in the chapels.
“It’s run by students pretty much, so it can be whatever we make it,” Fowler said.
The College of Bible and Ministry has held its own chapel called “Tabernacle” every Thursday in McInteer room 150. Senior Daniel Risser, who is on a planning committee for Tabernacle, said that in past years, the event was open to senior Bible majors. However, this year the department allowed all Bible majors to come.
Risser said the theme of Tabernacle this semester is prayer. He said that in one of his favorite Thursday chapels, senior Grant Fitzhugh spoke about the connection between prayer and discipleship, as well as his practice of going on prayer walks. The following week during Tabernacle, participants went on their own prayer walk around campus.
“It’s just really neat to see all the Bible majors, all the professors come together and support each other and be part of something as a group,” Risser said. “And it helps to have a theme and to just be growing in that one area specifically.”
The English Department has also hosted its own chapel every Thursday this fall. Department chair Dr. Jon Singleton said each chapel features singing, literature and scripture readings, periods of prayer and meditation, and small group discussions.
The English chapels are open to all Harding students, Singleton said. The group recently moved their meetings from the Front Lawn to American Studies room 200 because of the cold weather.
Singleton said that in the past, the department held a couple of chapels each semester, but this year they decided to meet each week. Singleton said he felt that English students and professors had not gotten many opportunities to meet as a group since the COVID-19 pandemic, and many students were feeling disconnected. In addition to chapel in the Benson, Singleton said the English Department chapels have offered a way for students and faculty to form closer connections.
“We worship together as a group, but also there’s always time for one-on-one kind of relationship building,” Singleton said. “It’s been so good.”
