Connections Quarterly Winter 2018 - World Religions | Page 12

Chapel and the Non-Religious
By Keven Fletcher
St. Michael’s University School, Victoria, BC
While the following article points out the evolution of Chapel at an historically Christian
independent school, the evolution it points to could be insightful into how a school
community can help to satisfy the needs of all students at any school.
T
hink back two decades to how most schools who had Chapel programs conducted
Chapel. For the most part, gatherings were Christocentric, a condensed version of what
might be found in a local Church. This fit well with the worldview of the largely Christian
students and their parents. That being said, a few people in independent schools drew from
other faith traditions. The tendency was to welcome them as ‘honoured guests.’ Other than
this nod, most schools changed little of their actual practice. All of the language, liturgy, and
assumptions of the Church were embedded in Chapels.
Eventually practice began to shift. For some, Jesus was no longer emphasized as the only way.
It wasn’t that those presiding no longer believed this doctrinal point, but they weren’t going
to press it upon students from other faiths. Others began to mark the significant festivals
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