Rhythms of the Chapel

One of the features of Marquand worship is that, unlike almost every other form of Christian worship, our services are only 30 minutes long, and occur within the working day rather than at the weekend. We do not have the leisure of a Saturday night or Sunday morning, so all the forms of worship have to be adapted to fit to a tight time slot.

Although this may sound constraining, it proves true that "necessity is the mother of invention", and it is educational to discover that 30 minutes can seem timeless and rich, rather than rushed, if the service is conceived and executed well. It is surprising to find just how much you can communicate in a 3-minute reflection, or how prayer is transformed by being sung rather than said.

Time seems to stand still when the community learns to keep silence together, and prayer comes to life when it is expressed in many different ways - extemporaneous one day, scripted the next, sung or walked the day after that.

Marquand worship follows a weekly pattern. Monday through Thursday worship lasts 30 minutes.

Every Thursday is "Sung Morning Prayer" – a service unique to Marquand in which we sing almost the entire service, and through the course of the year we sing through the music of many different traditions. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday include preaching services and other services of Word and prayer. On Fridays our services are extended to 45 minutes for a Eucharist, Holy Communion or Lord's Supper, sometimes celebrated in the tradition of a specific denomination, and other weeks in a unique, non-denominational style.

Once or twice a semester we build an entire week's worship around a theme, often to coincide with larger national or community events.

Marquand is shaped by the fact that we are an academic community – the makeup of the community is transient, and our timetable and focus is governed to a large extent by the academic year. Each year in Marquand is a little different as the particular makeup of the School, and its pool of talents and interests, shifts from one year to the next.

One year, dance might be a particular feature, another it might be drama, or various forms of music. And at all times there are connections to be made between what we learn in the classroom or the library, and how we express our worship in Chapel. Throughout the course of each year Marquand's worship is planned around the life of the community – so we design our worship program to coincide with issues raised by conferences, themes of the year and other events such as visiting lecturers or artists.

Marquand also aims to give due attention to our situation in the wider community of Yale and of New Haven, reminding ourselves not to become too insulated in the concerns of our working day, but to allow our worship to reflect our whole lives.

THE ADVENT SERVICE

The Advent Service is the largest Marquand event each year. It marks the end of the fall semester and is followed by a festive celebration the Common Room. The Advent Service liturgy is highly creative, often drawing in a wide range of contributions from the YDS community. Through scripture, song, spoken word, drama, the visual arts and more, we together anticipate the coming of Christ.

PREACHING FESTIVALS

Once or twice a year, Marquand will hose 3x7 preaching festivals, where three graduating students will deliver seven-minute sermons on Friday eucharists.