What defines a chapel service? At most faith institutions, this question would have a rigid answer. But not at UTS. According to Dr. Sandra Teresa Soledad Montes Vela, Dean of Chapel at UTS, a chapel service “can be absolutely anything.” It just needs three elements: First, people feel like they belong. They can see their own characteristics – their race, sexual orientation, gender identification, and more – reflected in the chapel community. Second, people feel welcomed. They are invited into the community with enthusiasm. And third, people leave with a sense of hope.
As a result, chapel services at UTS are like no other. Dr. Montes and a chapel team of students facilitate a wide array of unique programs at James Chapel. For example, they hosted an AAPI-focused service that included Tai Chi, poetry, and metta meditation. They also hosted a dance and karaoke service featuring music from different languages and faith perspectives. Other programs have focused on topics such as eco-justice, Ramadan, Buddhism, coffee, arts and crafts, and games.
Marisa Hulstine, who started on the chapel team in the Fall of 2022, spoke fondly of a chapel service she led with a fellow student about purity culture in the evangelical church. Hulstine wrote her Master’s Thesis on this topic and wanted to share her work beyond academia.
For the chapel service, she and her colleague created a peaceful space with cushions, candles, and flowers for people to feel at ease. They invited a UTS chaplain to lead a meditation and ground the participants. Then, Hulstine and her colleague shared their own experiences in the evangelical church. After discussion, they asked participants to consider what they wished the church could be and share their visions for the future.
Importantly, UTS students are at the heart of chapel services. Unlike virtually every other faith institution, students create and lead the services. The chapel team takes care to reach out to student groups proactively and encourages them to lead a program. Dr. Montes noted, “I want James Chapel to be a lab for them to just experiment and to try out things before they go out into the world. That way, they can get better at preaching, singing, speaking in front of people, or creating rituals. That’s the beautiful thing about UTS: Students really support each other.”
Hulstine reflected on how her chapel experience has enabled her to cultivate her own leadership style within the social justice movement. She’s never identified as a particularly outspoken voice but instead prefers expressing her opinions through writing and creativity. She explained that the chapel team has “allowed me to really see the place for creativity in social justice work. It’s something that I really needed to see so I could feel like I could contribute – and that there would be a place for the work that I do.”
The chapel service team also aims to make all services as welcoming and inclusive as possible. For example, the chapel team aspires to incorporate interfaith components into all chapel services. When planning programs, they constantly challenge each other to consider “What is the interreligious element?” If there isn’t one, they discuss potential changes. Additionally, the team strives to consider and accommodate different disabilities to ensure that all people can participate in services.
Ultimately, chapel services enable us “to celebrate our own faith traditions and to celebrate new things that come from the whole community,” as Dr. Montes put it. That’s the spirit of UTS – to embrace both our own identities and the identities of other people.