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 2009-10 academic year are:
Coordinator for Academics
Marcus McCullough
Coordinator for Communications
Whittney Barth
Coordinator for Events
Lauren Gallant
Coordinator for Finance
Derek van Bever
Coordinator for Life Together
Julia Wilkinson
Coordinator for Spirituality
Joshua Eaton
Coordinator for Student Affairs
Kendra Goodson
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2009-10 Student Organizations
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 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 Asian students to express their values and concerns.
We cordially welcome all new and returning students to join us in the coming year's activities
Catholics and Colleagues Called to Care
Open to all, this group discusses contemporary issues in the Catholic Church.
Current action topics include views of sexuality and women, the priest shortage,
and the need for a more inclusive priesthood.
Cult/ure: The Graduate Journal of Harvard Divinity School
Cult/ure is a student-run academic journal. We publish exemplary student
scholarship in the areas of religious studies, ministry studies, and theology
twice annually.
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Divinity United Church of Christ Students (DUCCS)
DUCCS is a community of worship and support for UCC students and all who may
be interested in the radical and extravagant welcome espoused by this denomination.
ECOdiv
Faith for All
Faith for All is the campus BGLTQSI student group. We endeavor to bring together students, staff, and
faculty with regard to issues of sex, orientation, and gender. We do this by
holding events in the HDS and
wider Harvard communities, thus raising the comfort and awareness of all, regardless of faith-based background.
Friends and Followers of Eastern Christianity
Friends at HDS
Full Immersion: HDS Baptists
Full Immersion: HDS Baptists is the Baptist student group of Harvard Divinity School.
We offer students from a variety of Baptist traditions a spiritual home by
providing opportunities to discuss and engage in Baptist traditions and ways of thought.
Harambee
Harambee 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.
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HDS Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists (HASH)
HDS Buddhist Community
HBC is a nondenominational Buddhist organization dedicated to peace, compassion,
and tolerance. Our mission is to support those on a journey of awakening through
practice, study, and sangha (community). Our purpose is to provide space and
time for students to gather, engage, and practice in community.
Please visit our website.
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HDS Catholic Students
HDS Chant & Song
A group for developing skills for singing chant in a variety of traditions,
we will explore meditative, devotional, liturgical, and communal practices
through meetings, workshops, and events.
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 as it touches every area of life. Our activities include fellowship,
meals, weekly prayer meetings, and organizing occasional public events such as
faculty panels or dialogues. We also join other Harvard graduate school
fellowships for worship and other activities. All are welcome.
HDS Episcopal/Anglican Student Fellowship
We gather regularly to worship, study, and support one another. Recent
activities have included a weekly Eucharist followed by a reading
group. All students, faculty, and staff welcome!
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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 whether we
are current students, incoming students, faculty, staff, spouses, or larger
community. Through this lens, we hope to advocate for services
that may enhance a sense of family-community at the School.
HDS Garden Group
HDS Innocence Project Engagement Group
HDS Jewish Student Association
The Jewish Student Association (JSA) seeks to provide communal space for
students and to reach out to other religious groups on campus. Our past
programs have included interfaith events and dialogues, lectures, movie nights,
Torah study, and holiday festivities such as Shabbat dinners, Sukkah building,
and Purim parties. We also strive to include new ideas and programs and are
excited to hear about your interests. So, whether you crave text study, theological debate, new perspectives
on old ideas, or celebration of ancient holidays, please
come join us!
HDS Korean Student Association
The HDS Korean Student Association seeks to provide educational support,
networking, spiritual well-being, and a sense of community for Korean and Korean
American students of Harvard Divinity School. It also serves as a context for
the study of issues facing Korean and Korean American ministry. In
addition, it strives to enrich all HDS students' multicultural, social, and
academic experiences.
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HDS Latter-day Saint Society
The HDS Latter-day Saint Society exists to provide social and intellectual opportunities
for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and friends.
HDS Lutherans
HDS Lutherans seek to grow in understanding both the depth and breadth of Lutheran
identity, and to creatively share such understanding with others while treasuring the
plural nature of this place. We orient our time together around worship, community and
learning. All are welcome, and we delight in the presence of ecumenical and interfaith
friends. We gather weekly for evening prayer, reflection and conversation. About once each
month we host a "Table Talk" at the Rock or at a local pub or restaurant, frequently
featuring guests from the wider Lutheran community. We travel several times each year,
notably to the "Lutherans in Diaspora" conference every February (with Yale, Union, and
Princeton) and to Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Washington, D.C., each March. We are grateful
for the campus ministry support of
University Lutheran Church,
with whom we share excellent retreats, trips, and other fun/educational programming.
HDS Methodists
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HDS Outing Club
HDS Presbyterians
The purpose of this group is to provide the HDS community with an opportunity
to experience Presbyterian and Reformed worship, theology, history, and
practice; and to offer Presbyterian students support and fellowship.
HDS Prison Education Project
We provide support to prisoners working towards bachelors degrees from Boston
University. We provide educational, spiritual, and emotional support and
mentorship, and visit prisons on a regular basis.
HDS Society for Comparative Theology
HDS Zen Peacemaker Circle
Using sitting meditation and circle practice, we come together to tell our
stories from the heart and listen from the heart to the truths revealed by
ourselves to ourselves.
HEART of HDS (Honoring Experiential & Alternative Religious Traditions)
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 (HDS Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Students)
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Intersections
Intersections is a student group whose vision is to nurture budding religious
leaders and scholars committed to fostering a diversity analytic—of class,
race, gender, sexuality, disability, etc.—in their work. Intersections aims
to facilitate a space of conversation, collaboration, and intersectionality by
discussing our personal research/ministerial project goals, giving feedback on
each other's work, and connecting with key faculty and community members.
Kingdom Campus Connection
The purpose of Kingdom Campus Connection is to create a network for
Christians campus-wide to connect on spiritual and academic levels through
worship services, seminars and social activities.
Ministry in Motion
Ministry in Motion recognizes, explores, and celebrates the embodied arts of
ministry. We gather to share practices of eclectic movement and dance, both
facilitated and open-formed. While most sessions time is devoted to active
experience, we also support ongoing dialogue on how the group practices inform
our own understanding of and engagement in ministries of motion. We invite
everyone in all our glorious ages, shapes, and abilities.
Nuestra Voz
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Shura': Islamic Forum
The Situationists at Harvard Divinity School
Collectively organized under the name The Situationists at Harvard Divinity
School, we are as much unified as we are diverse, as much constructive as we are
deconstructive, and as adamant about upholding the meaning of such
characterizations as we are not. In theory and practice we aim to create
situations that gesture toward the impossibility of not creating situations and
the responsibility that resides therein.
Unitarian Universalist Working Group on Ritual
This group balances intellectual reflection with creative praxis and
experimentation in an attempt to expand the role of ritual practices in the Unitarian
Universalist tradition.
The Wick
The Wick publishes a literary journal that supports the flourishing literary
and artistic lives of students at Harvard Divinity School and the larger Harvard
community of creative individuals.
Yum Yoga
Yum Yoga's purpose is the teaching, learning, and support of yoga and
embodied spiritual praxis.
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Community Opportunities
Community Tea
Hosted by the Office of Student Life on most Tuesdays during the fall and
spring terms from 4:30 to 6 pm in the
Braun Room, Community Tea offers a chance for
students, faculty, and staff to engage in informal conversation over beverages
and food. It is a time to relax, refuel, and reconnect with the
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 (to be held this year on Tuesday, December 1, 2009, at 6 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 the School, 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.
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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