A Capella at Fairkid Chapel

At noon today I left my seminar and remembered, just in time, about Noontime Sing in Fairchild Chapel. After ducking over to Student Health on my "borrowed" bicycle, I found an unobtrusive entrance to Bosworth Hall and crept - yes, really, crept - down the hall to the chapel. The orientation booklet has been known to get things wrong, and I didn't want to stroll into ... well, I'm not sure what I was afraid of, but I guess I didn't want to stroll into an extremely awkward situation.

Not to fear, however. There was already a cluster of people with Presbyterian hymnals in the first few pews. I recognized Steve and Heather from ECO, the Ecumenical Christians of Oberlin, and was, in fact, wearing a shirt I'd made at their tie-dye social - more on that later, because ECO is a really phenomenal group.

We opened with a hymn and Peter Slowik, the artistic director of Credo, introduced himself and read a brief passage from scripture. The hymns, it's worth mentioning, are not sung "a capella," which only means "in the chapel." Heather did a fabulous job as accompanist on the organ and piano.

The hymns were some of my childhood favorites - popular, joyful tunes, mostly in major - but even for non-church-goers, the melodies are intuitive and of course the notes are right there on the page. The people there are friendly, and it only lasts twenty minutes, from 12:10 to 12:30. Although it is a religious service, everyone is welcome, and it's a break from the inevitable class-study-class-lunch-study pattern our weekdays tend to take.

For a much more thorough treatment of the service and history, read Marsha Lynn Bragg's account of the inaugural A Capella service. But meanwhile, know that there is a great community here in godless Oberlin and I am getting along just fine!