Harvard Divinity School

Student Life

Student Organizations

The Harvard Divinity School Office of Student Life recognizes and encourages the formation of student organizations. Resources and encouragement are given to those students with new ideas who would like to establish new groups, as well as to the further growth and development of already existing groups. HDS student organizations reflect the diversity of student needs and interests. All student organizations register with the Office of Student Life on an annual basis. Once an organization is organized and recognized, it is eligible for financial support from Life Together, the HDS student government organization.

Life Together

Life Together provides the HDS student voice in the administrative and policy-making procedures of the School. Through the work of the elected student officers and with the approval of the Dean, student representatives are assigned to each HDS committee. Life Together meets monthly with the Dean to discuss student concerns and issues that affect the entire community. Life Together provides opportunities for conversation among students, faculty, and staff through roundtable discussions and town hall meetings. The Life Together officers for the 2008-09 academic year are:

Coordinator for Academics
Andrew Forsyth 

Coordinator for Communications
Scott Dickison 

Coordinator for Events
Taylor Guthrie

Coordinator for Finance
Nathan Willard

Coordinator for Life Together
Elizabeth Leavitt

Coordinator for Spirituality
Jocelyn Gardner

Coordinator for Student Affairs
Mariah Furness

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2008-09 Student Organizations

Email contact information for student groups is available to members of the HDS community in the Office of Student Life section of Student Services on the HDS intranet.

Asian Student Association 

The Asian Student Association (ASA) welcomes all members of the HDS community to join us in exploring the many faces of Asian culture and tradition. We hope to be a "home away from home" for international students from Asia, as well as a common space and platform for all Asian students to express their values and concerns. Through a series of events highlighting our distinctive social, religious, and intellectual values, the ASA also aims to provide an interactive venue for all interested students in the HDS community to celebrate the diversity and vibrancy of Asian cultures. We cordially welcome all new and returning students to join us in the coming year's activities.

Catholics Called to Care

Your caring can move mountains. A shortage of priests locally and globally is causing vibrant churches to close, ending access to sacraments, closing food pantries, and ending outreach programs to the poor. As Catholics, we are called to respond. 

Cult/ure: The Graduate Journal of Harvard Divinity School

Cult/ure is the student academic journal of Harvard Divinity School. Published annually in the spring semester, its mission is to promote scholarship that brings cult and culture—religious worlds and the social, cultural, and political worlds in which they inhere—into creative and constructive dialogue, as well as to cultivate emerging voices in the discipline of religious studies. The journal provides an opportunity for Harvard students early in their graduate careers to advance their own writing and research, and for students to gain experience in editing and publishing for an academic readership.

Submissions are accepted from current Harvard graduate students on a rolling basis, and both incoming and returning students are encouraged to apply for editorial positions. Submissions, inquiries, and requests for copies of past issues should be addressed to culture@hds.harvard.edu.

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Divinity United Church of Christ Students (DUCCS)

DUCCS's activities include the exhortation and support of the Divinity School's UCC population and of the mission of the United Church of Christ.

ECOdiv

ECOdiv exists to promote scholarly discourse around issues of religion and ecology, eco-theology, and environmental ethics. Its aim is to equip various faith communities with the resources to support the environmental movement, to encourage "ecological identity" among HDS students, and to organize environmental justice service projects. 

Emerging at HDS

Emerging at HDS is a community gathered around a conversation. We represent a wide variety of backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives, and we seek to find ways to be a community within those differences. Together, we strive to engage in honest dialogue with one another and to support each another as we explore issues of faith and practice. We locate ourselves within the larger emergent conversation that is occurring worldwide, but specifically in emergent village. Please visit our blog for more information.

Faith for All

Faith for All is the campus BGLTQSI student group. We endeavor to bring together students, staff, and faculty in regard to issues of sex, orientation, and gender by hosting and running events in the HDS and wider Harvard communities, thus raising the comfort and awareness of all, regardless of faith-based background. The steering committee invites all interested members of the community to get involved with campus and Greater Boston community events and to feel free to contact the steering committee members with any questions, concerns, or recommendations for events.

Full Immersion: HDS Baptists

Full Immersion: HDS Baptists is the Baptist student group of Harvard Divinity School. While we are a relatively new group, we hope to offer students from a variety of Baptist traditions a spiritual home at HDS by providing opportunities to discuss and engage in Baptist traditions and ways of thought. We also look forward to contributing to the greater spiritual life of the campus by leading in Wednesday Noon Services and other worship opportunities throughout the year.

Harambee

Harambee (Kiswahili: Let's Pull together!) is the organization for students of African descent at Harvard Divinity School. The organization welcomes African Americans, Caribbean, Latin American, Afro-European, Afro-Asian, and African students. As an organization at a school committed to "scholarship and ministry in a religiously plural world," Harambee welcomes students regardless of religious faith or denomination. Activities are planned throughout the year to engender fellowship, intellectual dialogue, cultural affirmation (in all its varied forms), and spiritual development (in all its expressions).

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Harvard Buddhist Community

The Harvard Buddhist Community (HBC) is a nondenominational Buddhist organization that is governed by the principles of peace, compassion, and tolerance. Our mission is to support those on a journey of awakening and realization of those principles in one's life through the elements of practice, study, and sangha. Our purpose is to provide space and time for students to gather, engage, and practice in community. We offer weekly morning and evening practice sessions; host occasional Wednesday Noon Services; organize afternoon retreats; oversee outreach programs; arrange dharma talks by visiting Buddhist masters, practitioners, and scholars; provide chaplaincy services for Buddhists; and coordinate a community council.

It is our hope that any seeker may find and make a way within the HBC community, and it is our intention that our community benefit not only its members, but also HDS, Harvard University, and the wider world. Please visit our website.

HDS Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists

The Harvard Graduate Humanist Group began meeting several years ago with a group of nonreligious students seeking community. The ideas outlined in the Humanist Manifesto, in all its iterations, provided a common ground for discussion. We do not all agree with everything in the Manifesto (that would be no fun!), but it offers a good starting point for the kind of community we wish to create.

Our members come from each Harvard graduate school and our discussions are as diverse and interesting as our membership. Our discussions range from being political and philosophical—covering topics such as church-state separation and how one might lead an ethical life—to discussing personal and spiritual matters, such as how to live with a religious partner, and asking, "Can one be a religious Humanist?"

But we are not all work and no play! Come join HASH for our bi-weekly pub nights at the Queen's Head on the ground level of Memorial Hall, or join the Humanist Small Group for their biweekly Sunday brunch. Come to one of our movie nights and discuss the role of religion in film and media.

HDS Bioethics Society

The HDS Bioethics Society is a student group dedicated to encouraging and inspiring members of the HDS community to think about contemporary bioethics. We intend to spark thoughtful, sensitive, and lively discussion of contemporary bioethical issues, including genetic engineering, reproductive rights, infectious diseases and public policy, end-of-life care, and stem cell research. No familiarity with bioethics is required to attend Society events, neither is it necessary to enjoy them. Students and faculty of all backgrounds and faiths are encouraged to attend any event that the Society organizes. The broad, interdisciplinary, interfaith perspective that the Divinity School community offers has historically been an invaluable asset to bioethics as a field, and it enriches our Society as we strive for rigorous engagement with the many complicated bioethical dilemmas that require wide-minded solutions. 

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HDS Catholic Students

The HDS Catholic Students group is committed to providing the HDS community with an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the Roman Catholic tradition through a variety of events, including weekly prayer, mass, educational events, and social gatherings.

HDS Christian Fellowship

The HDS Christian Fellowship exists to encourage its members to think and live in such a way that the minds and imaginations of the HDS community will be challenged with the credibility and beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ touching every area of life. We meet weekly to pray for our community, and we come together throughout the semester for fellowship dinners. We also join other Harvard graduate school Christian fellowships for worship. All are welcome!

HDS Eastern Orthodox Student Association

The HDS Eastern Orthodox Student Association provides opportunities for Eastern Orthodox Christian students and those interested in Eastern Christianity to gather for discussion, events, and liturgy. We seek to educate through events geared toward Eastern Christian studies. We also provide a venue for our members to collaborate with other religious groups and participate in community events and services.

HDS Episcopal Student Fellowship

The HDS Episcopal Student Fellowship was formed to promote networking, worship, and dialogue among Episcopal students at HDS, and also to facilitate social/vocational/service conversations between the HDS and Episcopal Divinity School communities.

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HDS Family-Community

We plan events, programs, gatherings, and outings to facilitate and enrich our various purposes and aspirations at HDS. Family-Community is open to all youth, to all those who remember being young, and to the youthfulness in us all. Through this lens, we will share experiences and advocate for services that may enhance a sense of family-community at HDS and throughout the wider Harvard community.

HDS Innocence Project Engagement Group

HDS Jewish Student Association

The Jewish Student Association (JSA) seeks to provide communal space for Jews at HDS and also to reach out to other religious groups on campus. Our past programs have included interfaith events focused on holidays or particular topics, Shabbat dinners, Sukkah building, Purim parties, movie nights, and lectures. Whether you crave text study, theological debate, new perspectives on old ideas, celebration of ancient holidays, or sticky-sweet rugelach, please come join us!

HDS Latter-day Saint Society

The HDS Latter-day Saint Society is made up of students belonging to or interested in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our goals are academic, social, and spiritual. We seek to promote research interests about Latter-day Saints and to provide a forum for LDS students to discuss issues of faith in the context of the study of religion. Our primary activities include regular social gatherings. We also sponsor lectures for the HDS community by scholars who have contributed something to the field of Mormon studies.

HDS Lutherans 

We offer opportunities for Lutheran and interested non-Lutheran students at the Divinity School to gather for discussion, worship, and fun. Weekly gatherings for reflective worship are followed by times for conversation over refreshments. Monthly "Table Talk" gatherings bring us into conversation with church leaders in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and from the Episcopal Church/Anglican Communion. Our gatherings provide a chance to explore the diversity of our liturgical tradition and offer opportunities for students to plan and lead worship. For detailed information on what we're doing, please visit the Lutheran Campus Ministry website. 

HDS Methodists

HDS Methodists students gather throughout the year for fellowship, prayer, and support. Some of our other activities include hosting a Methodist Covenant Group and leading worship opportunities at HDS. 

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HDS Outing Club

HDS Outing Club exists to encourage HDS students to play off-campus by coordinating outdoor activities such as climbing, camping and backpacking, ski trips, impromptu Frisbee games, whale watching, etc.

HDS Presbyterians

The HDS Presbyterians provide the HDS community with an opportunity to experience the best of Presbyterian and Reformed worship and thought. We offer support and fellowship to Presbyterians in their lives and studies. We enrich the HDS community through witnessing to our tradition and offering opportunities to engage in Reformed history, theology, worship, and practice.

HDS Prison Education Project

The HDS Prison Education Project (HPEP) includes members of the Harvard community—students, faculty, and staff—who sponsor prisoners working toward their college degrees behind bars. Through letter writing and visiting, we strive to establish a mutually constructive and consistent relationship with prisoners. In addition, we sponsor events to educate ourselves and our communities about restorative justice, prison reform, and rehabilitation.

HDS Zen Peacemaker Order

Peacemaking Circles are ancient spaces. Historically, they have arisen from diverse cultures and religions attuned to the natural world, seeking a space to call forth their own connectedness and inherent wisdom. Our particular Peacemaking Circle at HDS is modeled on the Zen Peacemaker Order (hence the name); however, it is an interfaith space, and all our decisions are decided in Circle through council process.
Our mission is to create a safe and sacred interfaith space in which all may come to touch and sound their own deepest wisdom on themes that arise organically from reflection on our lives during our time together. Always, the rich subject matter to be explored comes from the stories of our own lives, voiced from the heart's inherent wisdom.

Honoring Native Voices

Honoring Native Voices is the organizational continuation of the 2008 "Native American Religious Issues" research course and the three panels it sponsored at HDS. We sponsor speakers, research trips, and discussions. Our purpose is to consult with the administration, students, and indigenous communities, scholars, and organizations to develop a respectful place for Native American religious traditions at HDS. Our focus is on American indigenous traditions, but we seek solidarity with global indigenous voices as well. We will also serve to interface with the Divinity School and the Harvard University Native American Program. 

HUUMS (Harvard Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Students)

HUUMS is a community of students enrolled at HDS and the member schools of the Boston Theological Institute (BTI) whose purpose is to represent the interests of Unitarian Universalist students. Our mission is to support one another in our studies, vocations, and lives through worship, fellowship, and professional and spiritual development opportunities. We also seek to advocate for an academic environment at HDS and in the BTI that fosters excellence in Unitarian Universalist scholarship and ministry. We gather for worship and fellowship at 12:15 pm each Friday of the fall and spring semesters. All are welcome to join us!

Moustache Club

What do Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi, Teddy Roosevelt, Salvador Dali, Martin Luther King, Jr., Walt Disney and Ned Flanders have in common? They all brought glory to the moustache. In the contemporary United States, the public image of the moustache is in a state of decline. Popular perception of the moustache often conjures figures of ruthless authoritarianism or perversion. The mission of the Moustache Club is to reclaim and revive the former brilliance of the hirsute upper lip. This mission will be carried out by assembling a community of moustache cultivators and sympathizers who will celebrate moustache triumphs and perform acts of charity in the Harvard/Cambridge community. United in our cause, the Moustache Club transcends divisions of religion, politics, age, and even gender. With your help, we seek to return admiration to the moustache and promote harmony within the HDS community.

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Nuestra Voz

Nuestra Voz seeks to foster a sense of community among Latinas and Latinos at HDS and the other Boston Theological Institute schools; to advocate for a more ethnically diverse student body, faculty, and administration; and to discuss and act upon issues relevant to Latinos and Latinas at the local, national, and international levels.

Pluralistic Wellness

Pluralistic Wellness is a group of students who share academic, professional, and/or personal interests in topics such as: faith and health; the role of mind-body and spirit in medicine and psychology; and the religious/spiritual dimensions of complementary and alternative healing modalities. We work to complement our academic studies by hosting seminars, networking sessions, and experiential workshops designed to promote dialogue about our topics of interest within the wider HDS community. We also collaborate with other similarly oriented student organizations at HDS and throughout the Boston area to facilitate opportunities for collective projects and special events. 

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Shura': Islamic Forum

In the fall of 2001, several students at HDS formed a Muslim students and Islamic studies association named Shura': Islamic Forum. The purpose of the organization is to work with the Harvard Divinity School community, with Harvard University at large, and in the Cambridge-Boston area to foster a greater awareness of Islam—in both its academic study and religious vitality. Shura' works to meet the spiritual needs of the Muslim students at HDS and provides venues for discussion and learning.

Soccer Club

The Soccer Club welcomes all soccer lovers. It is established to create a space for HDS students to get to know each other and to show their competitive side. We meet at specific hours during the week to play. Ultimately, we hope to establish a competitive intramural soccer team to compete and connect with other Harvard schools.

Student Organization for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion

A new student organization is being formed for students in any field who are interested in the study of religion, either as their primary discipline or as incidental to their primary discipline. The organization will provide opportunities for students of diverse fields of study to come together, exchange, compare, and reciprocally supplement their knowledge. The organization will invite learned peers from Harvard and nearby institutions to speak on their experiences doing interdisciplinary research and to share insights gained about how to make such endeavors as fruitful as possible. If interest is substantial enough, the organization intends to present larger-venue speaking engagements for the general public.

The Wick

The Wick is the HDS literary magazine. Its mission is to serve as a forum for the Harvard Divinity School community's creative expression, publishing and distributing any and all kinds of artistic material.

Yum Yoga

Yum Yoga offers free, drop-in yoga classes four times each week. These classes are great opportunities to get more centered, more in tune with the body, and more aware of our inner peace and energy. Everybody, beginner or long-time yogi, is heartily welcome.

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Community Opportunities

Community Tea

Hosted by the Office of Student Life each Tuesday during the fall and spring terms from 4:30 to 6:00 pm in the Braun Room, Community Tea offers a chance for students, faculty, and staff to engage in informal conversation over beverages and good food. It is a time to relax, refuel, and reconnect with the HDS community. 

Harvard Divinity School Choir

The HDS Choir sings occasionally for the weekly Noon Service in Andover Chapel, as well as for the annual "Seasons of Light" celebration (held this year on Wednesday, December 10, 2008, at 5 pm). Rehearsals take place in Andover Chapel at 11:30 am on the Wednesdays that the choir will sing. Any students, staff, or faculty interested in joining the choir may contact Harry Huff, organist and choir director.

The Nave Online

The Nave Online is a student website that publicizes events and opportunities at HDS, around the University, and in the surrounding communities. Photo albums of HDS community events, student group activities and websites, student writings, classified ads, links to other resources, calls for papers, and more are updated throughout the week. The editor can be contacted at nave@hds.harvard.edu, and welcomes contributions. To read The Nave Online, those with an HDS login can click on the "Nave" tab on the home page of the HDS intranet.

Ralph's Pub

Ralph's Pub is Harvard Divinity School's happy hour. It is a tradition spanning many decades and is named after Divinity School alumnus Ralph Waldo Emerson. It takes place Wednesdays starting at 8 pm in the Queen's Head Pub in Memorial Hall.

Wednesday Noon Service

Hosted each week by a different religious community of the HDS campus and overseen by a steering committee of students and staff, this weekly service allows the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. The Wednesday Noon Service Committee is dedicated to creating a safe and respectful environment for diverse faith-based and student-run groups at HDS.

Acknowledging the unique religious diversity of our campus, we aim to support and advance the religious pluralism of the School by engaging and honoring the many religious perspectives, commitments, and experiences among us. By creating a recognized time and place for all of us to come together in prayer, in reflection, in ritual, and in conversation, we seek not only to aid the ongoing dialogue among our various faiths, but also, to come to know and to serve each other.

Each service begins and ends with ritual elements led by the Noon Service Steering Committee to gather and send us out with words and movements that can be shared by all. The host community of the week designs and leads the center of the service in order to share the unique particularities of its tradition as much as possible with those inside and outside their community.

WomenChurch

WomenChurch is an imaginative, ecumenical, feminist worship community for women. Like the larger women-church movement, WomenChurch encourages various expressions of women's religious agency in a patriarchal world, co-creating monthly services, retreats, and other gatherings. All women are welcome.

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