This spring, some of Northwestern’s faculty will take the stage of Christ Chapel. Two years ago, a group of professors who double as musicians around campus came together, united by love of music, to perform in chapel. This April, the ensemble will perform again.
The ensemble will consist of religion professors John Hubers and Andrew Klumpp, psychology professor Laird Edman, music professor Heather Josselyn-Cranson and English professors Samuel Martin and Kim Van Es.
The last time professors led chapel music was last semester when a large group of faculty and staff gathered and served as a gospel choir. The students seemed to appreciate it last time, so the faculty decided they would try it again.
On the performance day, Chaplain Harlan Van Oort will speak about the semester’s chapel theme, the Lord’s Prayer. His talk that day will focus on forgiveness.
Josselyn-Cranson, the coordinator of chapel music, recognized the desire of faculty and staff to help lead worship in chapel. Because worship music led by professors has been a hit in the past, she decided to bring back her colleagues to lead worship by singing “Forgiveness” by Matthew West.
“We wanted to use a song that upholds the message of the speaker,” Josselyn-Cranson said. “So when we found out this is what Harlan is speaking on, we looked for music that was relevant, and came to ‘Forgiveness.’”
The song discusses the ways in which forgiveness can be so difficult to give away, but is still the right decision to make at the end of the day. In the chorus, West moves on to ask for help from God to learn to love the way he is called to.
This plea can apply to the chapel message and hopefully will foster thought and reflection amongst the student body.
The goal of this chapel is to help involve all of campus by allowing students to also see faculty and staff involved as music and spiritual leaders. Dr. Josselyn-Cranson also hopes to provide a space for the Holy Spirit.
“I hope that while I am having fun working with my colleagues, we will also help the Spirit to descend in chapel,” said Josselyn-Cranson.
If students are interested in contributing to chapel music, they should talk to Dr. Josselyn-Cranson.
“We want all to be involved in worship,” said Josselyn-Cranson. “If anyone wants to be involved in leading music, we will work them into our schedule.”
The professors will perform during chapel at 10:05 on Monday, April 13th, which is also a RED 101 day.
