Faith-based Groups

Faith-based student clubs help to continue the active spiritual formation of our students on the YDS campus. These spaces also enhance specific ritualistic and symbolic practices that may be associated with any one particular tradition of faith. Additionally, these clubs may also help to enhance the DEIB perspectives of our community by drawing from and centering in worship particular to different backgrounds, cultures, or lived-in experiences of our diverse community. Typical experiences range from weekly prayer groups, bible study groups, experimental worship services, and traditional services that help to ground the faith of our community further.

Cultural and Affinity Groups

Cultural clubs can have significant overlap with some affinity clubs. Yet, their programming may be more focused on cultural or regional-specific initiatives that help to celebrate and raise awareness of the diversity of geographical and ancestral cultures present in our student community. Affinity clubs serve to support, empower, and create meaningful experiences for groups and communities historically underrepresented across society. Allyship is often also an important component for some affinity clubs, presenting opportunities for people who don’t identify with said community, but also want to engage, advocate, and educate themselves on the issues such communities can face.

Common Interest Groups

Clubs in this category span a large range of collective interests and passions that often try to meet the conversations and work undertaken in your academics. Such examples of these clubs include activities such as presenting papers or practice speeches on student-led research projects, academic intersections of faith & Christianity and topics such as ecology, innovation, and social justice. Clubs in this category can also often provide space away from the academical nature of the school; offering space to enjoy, try something new, and to take a moment out of the theological world. Examples of these club activities include working in the Divinity Community Garden, learning and engaging in non-Christian practices of faith and theology, and even recreational activities such as crafts and sports.

Anything But (Just) Christian

Anything But *Just* Christian (ABjC) gives voice to community members that are non-Christian, Christian adjacent, Christian pluralist, of diasporic traditions, and spiritual seekers. Our organization's mission is not to take away from Christian formation or space at Yale Divinity School but to add space for those outside of mainline Protestantism. We believe that God does not solely belong to Christianity and that learning from and exploring the religions and religious identities of our community and the broader world is necessary for spiritual, vocational, and professional formation. We additionally advocate for those in our community that have faced distinct and unique challenges at YDS compared to those who belong to mainline Protestant ministries: Evangelicals, lay Catholics, Christian Orthodox, Christian Mystics, and all those belonging to the Pantheologies.

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Roman Catholic Fellowship

The Reformed Student Group hosts weekly student-led worship services intended to make room for non-academic spiritual reflection and build a meaningful community. Created by students in the Reformed Studies Program, the services are often led by students belonging to Reformed and Reformed-adjacent traditions and borrow from Presbyterian (PCUSA) liturgies. In addition to our weekly worship, the group meets for more traditional PCUSA communion services on the first Sunday evening of each month. These services include a student-led homily and are presided over by an ordained minister in the Reformed tradition.

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YDS Anglican Fellowship

YDS Anglican Fellowship is a community-building organization for all those Yale Divinity School students interested in Episcopal (and global Anglican Communion) fellowship, conversation, and community-building. We are an organization welcoming of, but not limited to, students who also participate in Berkeley activities!

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Reformed Students Group

The Reformed Student Group hosts weekly student-led worship services intended to make room for non-academic spiritual reflection and build a meaningful community. Created by students in the Reformed Studies Program, the services are often led by students belonging to Reformed and Reformed-adjacent traditions and borrow from Presbyterian (PCUSA) liturgies. In addition to our weekly worship, the group meets for more traditional PCUSA communion services on the first Sunday evening of each month. These services include a student-led homily and are presided over by an ordained minister in the Reformed tradition.

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Lutheran Student Organization

Through worship, retreats, prayer, and informal gatherings, the Lutheran Student Organization (LSO) provides fellowship for all students involved in the Lutheran traditions. Functioning within YDS's Lutheran Studies Program, students plan Tuesday evening Vespers in the Nouwen Chapel and intermittently assist with Lutheran chapel services in Marquand. The LSO also sponsors guest speakers and discussion forums for issues pertinent to the YDS community.

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Contemplatives at YDS

Our mission is to hold a contemplative space of prayer and practice for the Yale Divinity School community. We are rooted in the contemplative heart of the Christian tradition. We take an inter-spiritual approach of learning from and engaging with the wisdom traditions of other religions. Contemplatives at YDS is a place where all are welcome to simply practice sacred stillness together. Through weekly practice and special events, we seek to equip emerging leaders with contemplative tools for ministry inside and outside of YDS.

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Unitarian Universalists Student Group

The Unitarian Universalists Student Group provides support, denominational fellowship, advocacy, and opportunities for education and theological reflection for Unitarian Universalist students at YDS, as well as Unitarian Universalist worship for the wider YDS community.

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Unapologetically Jewish

The mission of Unapologetically Jewish is to foster unity amongst people who value peace, love, and respect for all people but especially Jewish People. Anyone who is anti-anti-Semitism is welcome to join and learn more about Jewish people, the Jewish religion, and Jewish spiritual, cultural, and social heritage.

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Yale Black Seminarians

Yale Black Seminarians is a faith-based, student-led organization committed to enhancing the lives of black students at Yale Divinity School. The mission of the Yale Black Seminarians serves the entire Yale Divinity School community with a committed focus on mobilizing the presence of black students through advocacy, faith, and the pursuit of justice. Activities have included the Fall Revival, the Martin Luther King Day Worship Service, the Angel Tree Project at Christmas, and the Parks-King Lecture in the Spring. As an integral part of the YDS Community, the Yale Black Seminarians remain committed to diversity among both students and faculty.

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DivineAbilities

Our goal is to create a space of fellowship and support for people with disabilities, physical disabilities, mental illnesses, chronic illnesses, temporary disabilities, and learning disabilities. We advocate on behalf of current and future disabled students through policy change and institutional compliance with said policy at YDS and Yale. We recognize that many with disabilities and chronic illnesses do not feel like they have a place within religious institutions or have had pain surrounding their experiences. We want to provide justice and reconciliation for disabled people who have experienced systemic discrimination within faith communities. We strive to have courageous conversations about equity and the allocation of resources toward eliminating barriers at Yale. We offer opportunities for allies to utilize their privilege to work toward alleviating the labor, pain, and stress involved in fighting for disability equity. Lastly, we work with faculty to create academic programming that centers and uplifts disabilities and its intersections.

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DivOut

DivOut is a fellowship of Yale Divinity School students, faculty, and staff of all sexual orientations and gender identities dedicated to the full and equal participation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, queer, transgender, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming people in faith communities and society. We are committed to care for one another, to seek justice for those who have been oppressed, and to work for the full inclusion of all people in the family of God. We provide materials on LGBTQIA issues and information to members of the community dealing with related topics. In addition to ongoing discussion groups, DivOut sponsors lectures, panels, worship services, and other educational, social, and cultural events.

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Asian Student Association

Asian Students Association (ASA) provides a place for fellowship in the sharing of an ethnic bond and common faith. ASA is an inclusive space and community for students of Asian heritage, whether domestic or international students, along with fellow YDS students that are interested in advocacy of Asian/American issues. Frequent meetings roundtable discussions on current Asian/American theological issues, academic forums for the advancement of Asian-American theology, and fellowship gatherings.

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La Communidad

La Comunidad, the YDS Latinx/e Student Group, is dedicated to creating spaces for Latinx voices and bodies at YDS to gather and build a community of solidarity and support. La Comunidad also seeks to provide resources to promote theological and cultural education for an entire YDS student body preparing for service to the church and the world. La Comunidad hopes to foster comunidad Latina: an open, welcoming place to learn, struggle, and celebrate.

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YDS Womens Center

The YDSWC is a community welcoming of all people and focuses specifically on issues surrounding those who identify in various ways with womanhood. The YDSWC commits to creating a brave space on campus where women and allies can gather to share resources, knowledge, and stories, and advocate for women's rights.

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Korean Student Group

The Korean Student Group consists of students at YDS who identify themselves as Korean-American, Korean-Korean, or Korean—, who are also exploring and/or practicing their faith in the North American context. This group encourages students to grow and sustain their identities by means of prayers, worship, and fellowship. Our gatherings provide a safe space for sharing individual experiences of bringing Korean culture/heritage into religious and academic settings at YDS and beyond.

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Common Ground

Common Ground student-led group that aims to build a community around caring for and celebrating our communal home. Through platforms of community building, education, and advocacy, Common Ground will provide a space for people to come together to respond to and reckon with environmental issues, giving particular attention to the climate emergency. We seek to deepen our relationships with one another and the ground we share through exploring reparative work rooted in faith, community, diversity, and celebration. At the same time, we acknowledge the fraught and beautiful complexity of "shared ground," and thus commit to grappling with and addressing the ongoing legacies of colonization, patriarchy, and racism. We are guided and inspired by scientific and traditional knowledge, including the practices of Indigenous peoples who have stewarded these lands for millennia, which now comprise the city of New Haven, and the many saints, mystics, and practitioners of different faiths who have called on us to love and care for our one earth home.

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Divinnovation

Divinnovation is an organization that offers an interdisciplinary space where students can explore and collaborate at the intersections of theology, social entrepreneurship, law, business, and other non-traditional ministries. We foster innovation through relationship building, practical skill development, and community entrepreneurial events. Divinnovation maintains a partnership with the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY). The organization seeks to develop alumni and cross-campus ecosystems to support the faith-based projects and social impact work of future leaders emerging from YDS.

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Paracleats

The Yale Divinity School Paracleats are an intramural soccer in the Yale University Intramural League. People of all enthusiasm and abilities are welcome! It does not matter if you played in college or have never kicked a soccer ball, we can find a place for you and want you on the team.

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Divinity Farm

One of the great spaces at YDS is the Yale Divinity Farm. A community garden established in 2009 by students, faculty, and administrators, the Div Farm is a great resource for Divvies. Year-round, people study, contemplate nature, pick herbs, meet friends, and join community events in the beautiful YDS Farm space. They BBQ, sit around the fire pit, play croquet and frisbee, and enjoy the birds and other wildlife. The garden offers a space that allows for us to continue thinking academically about our theology while actively engaging our senses with the extraordinary gift of God's creation.

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YDS SAGES

This YDS Sages is a group that aims to provide peer support and advocacy for those entering divinity school having already spent considerable time in prior occupations, professional careers, parenting or other family support, or other life experiences.

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Knitting and Crochet Club

The YDS Knitting Club is a fun and friendly group for all knitting enthusiasts at Yale Divinity School. Whether you're a pro or just starting out, join us to knit, chat, and unwind. Come make new friends and create beautiful, cozy items together!

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Visual Arts Circle

The Visual Arts Circle has three objectives centered around the religious arts. First, to provide a space for practicing artists (and art enthusiasts) to share their work and receive feedback. Second, to engage with art scholarship and facilitate museum and gallery visits. Third, to grow an artistic community and create collaborative works of art.

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