Ash Wednesday started off the Lenten season last week at Azusa Pacific University during morning chapel through placing blessed ashes from the previous year’s Palm Sunday on the foreheads of participants. For many students on campus, that’s not done in their home church, as it is part of a high church tradition.
“There are a number of different denominations and traditions within the Christian faith represented at APU, but within that diversity as a university we’ve generally found our commonality in the core beliefs of historic Christian doctrine and practice,” Campus Pastor Jason Le Shana said. “In chapel, we’ve tried to stay in step with that ethos by observing a number of practices from various streams of the faith. For example, for many (but not all) students, the first time they’ve been exposed to historic practices of the church like Lent of Advent happen at APU.”
According to the Statistics Office of Institutional Research and Assessment 2013 Undergraduate Survey, 6.5 percent (or 426 students) claim Catholicism as their religious preference. Evangelical denominations make up a majority of the different student backgrounds.This reinforces the idea that many students encounter unfamiliar chapel experiences.
“APU was my first exposure to those more traditional aspects of a church service,” said junior political science major Anna De Graaf. “When first attending liturgical and prayer chapels freshman year, it was an interesting experience, since I grew up in a Free Methodist church that hardly ever referred to or participated in the traditional aspects of a church service.”
Many students have been exposed to various spiritual practices on campus. Their experience with different traditions has created a unique understanding.
“I have appreciated the opportunity to find new ways to worship and learn about Christ. Since being at APU, I have had the opportunity to grow in my understanding of the traditional church and have overcome some of my ignorant prejudices against more formal and traditional religious practices. I think services such as Liturgical Chapel or Ash Wednesday are an important part of APU’s chapel programs as they give all students, no matter their denominational background, a chance to worship in multiple ways,” De Graaf said.
APU was founded in 1899 by Christians from the holiness tradition and remains a predominately evangelical institution in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. According to Chapel Programs Director Tim Peck, this continues to inform religious diversity and the format of chapels on campus.
“In chapel programs we acknowledge that most of the worship experiences we are going to be crafting are going to be in the evangelical Holiness traditions, yet with an acknowledgment that the Christian community is broader than that,” Peck said. “So we actually use the six categories of a book by Richard Foster called ‘Streams of Living Water’ that identifies six different categories throughout church history of how to approach the Christian life theologically and they are: evangelical, holiness, charismatic, incarnation (or sacramental), social justice and contemplative.”
According to Peck, the Office of Chapel Programs uses these six streams to pick chapel speakers each year as well. The Executive Chapel Committee selects these after praying over those recommended, considering the following year’s learning outcomes, university passage and the representation of different denominations.
“You can locate all denominations throughout Christian history within those six streams. … We try to build around that, representing the other streams. Liturgical Chapel is a great example of the incarnation sacramental stream, where the center of it is around communion. Evening Prayers is a good example of the contemplative stream, where there is a focus of silence and listening,” Peck said.
The committee is co-chaired by Lead Campus Pastor Woody Morwood and Peck. Also on the committee is the dean of the School of Theology, the vice provost, dean of students and the executive director of the Student Center for Reconciliation and Diversity.
However, some students still feel like they don’t necessarily see their specific practices reflected on campus.
Senior English and economics double major Jeremy Verke is a Catholic student who said, “Catholicism isn’t represented in any capacity in any of the chapels.”
“I think I see a pretty common formula for APU chapel. I’m not saying it’s a bad formula, but it seems to follow a Western evangelical tradition of the church service. I don’t think there’s really any diversity in that,” Verke said. “I think the closest they come is Liturgical Chapel, but I think at the core of Liturgical Chapel it is still evangelical by the way they treat the Eucharistic rite. It would seem they treat it as symbolic, which is a staple of evangelical services.”
Additionally, Verke added, “Liturgical [Chapel] is a good attempt at portraying Catholic liturgy,” but that it does not fully portray that.
“I’m happy that no one ever claims Liturgical Chapel is the same as Catholic liturgy because it’s not, and I’m happy that chapel programs doesn’t claim that it is,” Verke said. “However, I think a common misconception among students is that it would be similar to a Catholic liturgy is dismaying to me. I’m happy that students are exposed to a liturgical format. It’s a liturgical service, but it isn’t Catholic.”
For students experiencing something new in chapel or those who aren’t particularly keen on a speaker, Le Shana says he can relate.
“I’ll speak confessionally: If my own heart is right (which is definitely not all the time), when I am listening to a chapel message or sermon at church and it’s not connecting with me, I am hopeful it is connecting with someone else,” he said. “Maybe a speaker’s message or their style just doesn’t do it for me for whatever reason, but what would it look like for me to recognize, ‘Wow, there’s a distinct possibility that God is using this message in somebody’s life, and it’s exactly what they need to hear.’ … What would it look like to be excited about the possibility that God is working in hearts other than mine?”