Chapel Assignment

Each day at St. Olaf, some of us gather in our chapel-in the middle of campus, in the middle of the morning, in academic prime time. At this daily chapel service, members of different faith communities-which is not all of us-gather to hear words of scripture, and words of reflection on those scriptures. It's a place for paying attention to the spirit in the world, the convergences of the natural and supernatural, and the serendipities that some people call grace. Chapel speakers include faculty and administrators, students and staff and visitors, connecting the words of sacred scriptures with the worlds of their own experience and concern.

Because religious language is a resource for environmental thinking, and because religious people are an important part of environmental changes at St. Olaf, we scheduled our class to present a chapel service during Earth Week. We offered no guidelines for the assignment, suggesting merely that the class could use the 20 minutes of chapel time to teach people some of the things we learned in the class. And we allowed people to participate at their own comfort level.

Both believers and non-believers took part in the planning and performance. Students assembled an eclectic orchestra to play music before and after their meditation. And they pulled it off beautifully. Both Elise and I were so proud we cried.

Discover a sample of ideas expressed in the service.