Saturday, February 7, 1998

Students find chapel meaningful, even if they do have to go

By LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News

At ACU, they've gone so high tech it's practically impossible to skip out on chapel anymore -- not that anyone would want to, of course.

At McMurry, it's not even an issue. Chapel is no longer required at the Methodist university.

Hardin-Simmons still requires attendance, but chapel is held just one day a week, with an assembly on another day.

In some ways, chapel has changed with the times at the three local church-affiliated universities, while in other ways it's pretty much the same as in years gone by.

At Hardin-Simmons and ACU, the major complaint still is that attendance is compulsory, probably the same complaint that the first students at the two schools had when they were founded.

Even though students are required to attend, most acknowledge that the chapel service is meaningful once they're there.

"I'm forced to, but I really get a lot out of it," said ACU freshman Ben Langford of Abilene.

At HSU, a Baptist university, students are required to accumulate four chapel credits over a four-year period, said Palmer McCown, director of religious activities and campus minister.

Attending 20 chapel services or assemblies earns one chapel credit.

"We try to encourage at least half of them to be worship services," McCown said.

Chapel is held on Tuesday at Hardin-Simmons and an assembly is held on Thursday. The Thursday program is structured like a television talk show with a host and guests. It may involve audience participation and usually will include singing.

"Mostly Thursday is a real fun day," said Ami Corley, a student from Lamesa.

Tuesday is "more like a church service," Corley said. A minister from an area Baptist church sometimes speaks to the students.

Students may substitute other campus activities for the Thursday assembly, but not chapel. Not even Sunday church attendance can be used as an excuse to skip chapel.

"That's not one of the options that we've made available," McCown said.

DEVELOPING FAITH

McMurry University's policy of voluntary chapel attendance is pleasing to some, but not to others.

A survey taken by the alumni association a few years ago showed that most of the respondents favored compulsory chapel, said the Rev. Cyril Stone, a retired Methodist minister and former chairman of the Traditions Council of the alumni association.

Stone was a student at McMurry in 1935-37 and again in 1945-46. He and others who were required to go to chapel remember those days fondly.

"There was some sharing there that was rich for us," he said.

Most of the survey respondents said the same thing, he said. The former students said chapel contributed to their religious life, brought the student body together and provided a time for sharing between upperclassmen and freshmen.

"It contributed to the necessity of having a faith and developing that faith," Stone said.

A student attending a recent chapel service at McMurry said he thinks the service is more valuable to him on a voluntary basis.

"I wouldn't get as much out of it if I had to come," said Roman Perales, a freshman from San Antonio.

Actually, Perales does have to attend for a while, but the requirement comes from his peers, not the administration. Chapel attendance is a requirement of the pledging process for a social club Perales wants to belong to. He said he will continue to come voluntarily after the pledging is over.

"It's kind of good to spend some time praying and hearing a sermon," he said.

FAITHFUL ON SUNDAY

The campus minister at McMurry isn't pushing for required attendance, even though it would undoubtedly boost the size of his Tuesday morning congregation. As a student at Virginia Wesleyan, James Wingert wasn't required to go to chapel himself.

"I would have resented it, I'm sure," said Wingert, who is in his fourth year as campus minister at McMurry.

He does believe, however, that requiring students to go to some combination of chapel services and activities such as lectureships wouldn't be a bad idea.

"I really think students ought to be at some of these," he said.

Even though students aren't required at the 45-minute service, a number of them attend regularly and more take part in other religious activities, Wingert said.

A Monday night praise and worship service is very well attended as are meetings of such groups as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Wingert also noted that McMurry students are very faithful about attending worship services in local churches on Sundays.

"If you're ever around on Sunday morning, you can see the cars taking off for church," he said.

A TIME TO COME TOGETHER

With more than 4,000 students required to attend chapel every day (15 absences are permitted each semester), Abilene Christian University had to devise a way to keep track.

Scanners were installed at each entrance into Moodly Coliseum. Students must run an ID card through a scanner on the way in and on the way out of chapel to register.

Originally, they only had to run the card through on the way into the service, but some figured out they could slide their card through and then leave or "slide and glide" as it was dubbed.

At ACU, getting everyone to the coliseum and in place is a much larger endeavor than the 25-minute chapel service itself. The typical service includes singing to lyrics projected overhead, prayer, Scripture and a brief devotional.

"It's an opportunity to come together as the ACU community and worship," said Mark Lewis, coordinator of spiritual development and campus ministries.

This semester, chapel services are taking a more issue-oriented approach.

"We want chapel to be the campus life classroom," Lewis said. "We try to integrate Scripture and daily living."

riday's chapel was an example of making services timely. International students led the worship to celebrate cultural diversity in conjunction with Black History Month.

IMPORTANT PART OF EDUCATION

ACU does not allow many substitutions for the required chapel. The only substitutions are special chapels held by groups such as athletes or missions studies. And those may be substituted only periodically, Lewis said.

As long as chapel is required, some students will complain and administrators will be defending their position.

In a recent article in the ACU student newspaper, the Optimist, dean of students Wayne Barnard said he had thought about making chapel attendance voluntary but had decided against it.

"Chapel has been here since 1906," he said. It's a definitive statement of who we are, and I don't think we should apologize for that."

HSU's McCown agreed.

"We really feel this is important -- as important as any other part of your education," he said.