HDS - Religious and Spiritual Life

Religious and Spiritual Life

Sponsored Events - Fall Term 2008

The following events and opportunities are sponsored or co-sponsored by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life. During the academic year, related events are offered almost daily by various other groups and offices. To learn of these additional opportunities, please visit:

As event dates approach, please check back for additions, updates, or changes.

Go to: September | October | November | December | January (2009)

September 2008

		Hospitality for Ramadan Andover 119 Daily, Sept. 2-Oct. 2 Prayer space and refreshments for those in the HDS community observing Ramadan. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
10		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by the HDS Noon Service Steering Committee, the September 10 service will be a multifaith service for orientation with faculty speaker Susan Abraham. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
		Fall Art Exhibit Andover Chapel Title TBA. Works by Scott Patrick Wiener. Works exhibited in Andover Chapel may be viewed when Andover Hall is open and when groups are not meeting in the chapel. For more information, please contact Jeff VonWald. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
11		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Matthew Myer Boulton preaching and presiding. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
16		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
17		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by Harvard Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Students (HUUMS). Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
18		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Stephanie Paulsell preaching and presiding. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
18		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
23		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
24		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by ONEprayer. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
25		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Francis Clooney preaching and presiding. This week's Eucharist service is a Roman Catholic Mass. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
25		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
25		Praying Our Lives Installment I, with Ben Tousley, MDiv '82: "Songs for the Soul: Music as Prayer for the World" noon-1 pm, Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions A 1982 MDiv graduate, Ben Tousley has worked as a folksinger/storyteller, chaplain, and adjunct professor. He has recorded six albums of original songs that have received national airplay. In 1989, Ben was awarded the Boston Beyond War Award "for communicating a clear vision of our richly diverse human family through music." Ben works part-time as chaplain at Hospice of the North Shore in Danvers, Massachusetts, and teaches the course "Music and Empowerment" at Springfield College. Praying Our Lives is a continuing series, offered each fall, featuring people from a variety of perspectives and professions and a diversity or religious traditions, leading workshops on practices that connect us to the Ultimate and the Intimate in our personal and public lives, with special attention to the role of prayer in the pursuit and nourishment of the common good. This series is open to all. Soup will be served. Please bring your own beverage. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page
30		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to September 2008 Return to top of page

October 2008

1		Wednesday Noon Service Braun Room, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by Shura': Islamic Forum at HDS. Please note special location. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
2		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Kerry Maloney preaching and presiding. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
2		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
7		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
8		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by Faith for All, the campus BGLTQSI student group. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
8		Artist Talk with Scott Patrick Wiener Andover Chapel, 1:15-2 pm *The date and time of this event are tentative. Please check back for updates.* Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
9		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Matthew Myer Boulton presiding. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
9		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
9		Praying Our Lives Installment II, with Steve Kanji Ruhl, MDiv '08: "Who Is Asking? Living Words, Attentive Silence, and the Koan of Zen 'Prayer'" noon-1 pm, Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions In this presentation, Kanji will discuss "living words" as practices of writing and speaking, "attentive silence" as a practice of meditation, and "prayer" (or "asking") as a process of inquiring directly into the riddle of self and no-self. Steve Kanji Ruhl is resident Zen Buddhist minister at O-An Zendo and No Harm Farm in Julian, Pennsylvania, and is currently training for ordination in the Zen Peacemaker Order. He has received writing awards from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, and has published two chapbooks of poetry and poems in numerous small magazines nationwide. His journalism has appeared in the Boston Globe and elsewhere, and he is currently preparing two book manuscripts for submission to publishers. He is deeply engaged in efforts to create vital new forms of American Zen. Praying Our Lives is a continuing series, offered each fall, featuring people from a variety of perspectives and professions and a diversity or religious traditions, leading workshops on practices that connect us to the Ultimate and the Intimate in our personal and public lives, with special attention to the role of prayer in the pursuit and nourishment of the common good. This series is open to all. Soup will be served. Please bring your own beverage. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
14		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
15		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by the HDS Jewish Student Association. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
16		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Stephanie Paulsell preaching and presiding. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
16		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
16		Reconnecting: An Autumn Twilight Retreat for Students Braun Room, 4:30-7:30 pm Step away from your busy schedule a few hours midweek to gather by the fireside for a simple supper, some reflective time with other HDS students, and some quiet time alone. In these three hours, we hope to reconnect with some of the purposes and dreams that drew us to choose the paths we are on and to rediscover the ways in which those paths may have chosen us. The evening will include a simple vegetarian meal (with vegan option), a brief reflection on vocation by a student, to be followed by some contemplative time alone and time together. In order for us to prepare the meal, preregistration is required by Tuesday, October 14. Please contact Jeff VonWald. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
21		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
22		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by the Harvard Buddhist Community. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
23		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Francis Clooney preaching and presiding. This week's Eucharist service is a Roman Catholic Mass. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
23		Praying Our Lives Installment III, with Jordie Gerson, MTS '04: "Writing Presence into Absence: Study, Writing and Storytelling as Jewish Devotional" noon-1 pm, Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions "A writerly Jew is someone whose entire sense of herself as Jewish consists in stories. When a writerly Jew thinks of her Jewishness she thinks of these stories, and when she thinks of these stories she feels very Jewish. You might say that she is only Jewish when she's inside these stories, but chances are, if they mean enough to her to form her religious identity, she is, in a sense, in them always." -–Yael Goldstein Love In this presentation, writerly Jew and rabbinical student Jordie Gerson, MTS '04, will explore the intersection of writing and prayer in Judaism, and how Jewish writing serves as a form of God-wrestling. Praying Our Lives is a continuing series, offered each fall, featuring people from a variety of perspectives and professions and a diversity or religious traditions, leading workshops on practices that connect us to the Ultimate and the Intimate in our personal and public lives, with special attention to the role of prayer in the pursuit and nourishment of the common good. This series is open to all. Soup will be served. Please bring your own beverage. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
23		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
28		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
29		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by the Office of Ministry Studies, the Noon Service will be a commissioning and celebration of our many paths to service. Field education students and supervisors, as well as anyone in the HDS community who will serve in the year ahead or has served in the summer past, is especially encouraged to attend. All are welcome as always. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
30		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Laura Tuach preaching. Kerry Maloney presiding. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page
30		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to October 2008 Return to top of page

November 2008

4		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
5		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by Nuestra Voz. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
6		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Matthew Myer Boulton presiding. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
6		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
7		Praying Our Lives Installment IV, with Sarah Sentilles, MDiv, ThD noon-1 pm, Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions Sarah Sentilles was almost a priest. She grew up in Texas and received her BA in Literature from Yale. She taught elementary school in Compton, California, an experience that is the subject of her first book, Taught by America: A Story of Struggle and Hope in Compton. She then earned her MDiv and ThD from Harvard Divinity School. She was awarded the Billings Preaching Prize, was the managing editor of the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, and founded a WomenChurch community. She teaches at California State University, Channel Islands, and she lives in Camarillo, California. Praying Our Lives is a continuing series, offered each fall, featuring people from a variety of perspectives and professions and a diversity or religious traditions, leading workshops on practices that connect us to the Ultimate and the Intimate in our personal and public lives, with special attention to the role of prayer in the pursuit and nourishment of the common good. This series is open to all. Soup will be served. Please bring your own beverage. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
11		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
12		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by Quakers at HDS. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
13		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Francis Clooney preaching and presiding. This week's Eucharist service is a Roman Catholic Mass. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
13		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
18		Praying Our Lives Installment V, with Marilyn Mandala Schlitz: "Consciousness Transformations and the Development of Worldview Literacy" noon-1 pm, Common Room, Center for the Study of World Religions Worldview Literacy is the capacity to comprehend and communicate not only your own worldview (not just what you know, but how you know it), but to recognize how your beliefs come from your particular frame of reference and to be willing and able to understand that others hold different and potentially equally valid cultural and religious/spiritual worldviews out of which their assumptions, and therefore their actions, arise. Based on a decade of research, this discussion will focus on how and why people undergo significant changes in the way they view the world and themselves. Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, PhD, is co-author, with Cassandra Vieten and Tina Amorok, of Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life (Noetic Books/New Harbinger). She is also vice president for research and education at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, senior scientist at the California Pacific Medical Center, and chief learning officer, Integral Learning Corporation. Praying Our Lives is a continuing series, offered each fall, featuring people from a variety of perspectives and professions and a diversity or religious traditions, leading workshops on practices that connect us to the Ultimate and the Intimate in our personal and public lives, with special attention to the role of prayer in the pursuit and nourishment of the common good. This series is open to all. Soup will be served. Please bring your own beverage. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
18		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
19		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by the HDS Group for Animals Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
20		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Emily Click preaching. Stephanie Paulsell presiding. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
25		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page
27		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to November 2008 Return to top of page

December 2008

2		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
3		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by HDS Catholics. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
4		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Monica Maher preaching. Kerry Maloney presiding. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
4		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
4		Roots and Wings: Jewish Christian Dialogue Braun Room, 5-8:30 pm With guest speaker Rabbi David Zaslow. Sponsored by the Jewish Student Association, HDS Lutherans, Life Together, and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
9		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
10		Wednesday Noon Service Andover Chapel, 12:10-12:45 pm Hosted this week by Nuestra Voz. Hosted by a different group each week, the HDS Noon Service is an opportunity for all in the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
10		Seasons of Light Andover Chapel, 5-6 pm HDS' annual multicultural and multi-religious service of songs and readings honoring the sacred interplay of light and darkness in many of the world's traditions. A festive community reception will follow in the Braun Room. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
11		Thursday Eucharist at HDS Andover Chapel, 8:30-9 am Silent prayer at 8:15 am Francis Clooney preaching and presiding. This week's Eucharist service is a Roman Catholic Mass. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
11		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
12-13		Meditation, Prayer, and Quiet Contemplation Montague Farm Zendo Montague, Massachusetts A two-day spiritual retreat for HDS students in the winter countryside. Students may use the opportunity to practice Zen or other forms of Buddhist meditation, or they may use prayerful and contemplative practices of their own faith traditions. Please check back for more information. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page
16		Sitting Meditation Andover Chapel, noon-12:30 pm All are welcome to join sitting meditation on Tuesdays and Thursdays while classes are in session. No experience required. Convened by a rotation of faculty and staff including Cheryl Giles, Monica Maher, Kerry Maloney, and Matthew Turner. Return to December 2008 Return to top of page

January 2009

12-16
20-23

January at HDS
Braun Room

Daily opportunities for rest and renewal during the reading and exam periods. Hospitality, gentle music, and refreshments will be offered daily from 1-5 pm. A full schedule of opportunities, including early evening poetry readings and live music, will be made available.

Return to top of page

26-27

Midwinter Retreat
Mount Saint Mary's Abbey
Wrentham, Massachusetts

A two-day retreat for HDS students.

Please check back for more information.

Return to top of page

Harvard Divinity School

Religious and Spiritual Life

Sponsored Events - Fall Term 2008