Memorial Church Opened For All 'Private Services'

Students of all faiths may now be married in Memorial Church by "an official of an individual's own religion," the Corporation announced yesterday.

The President and Fellows thus answered the desire of many students, faculty members, and alumni for a more open house of Christian worship in the Yard, a desire expressed over the past three weeks by essays, letters, petitions, and charges stemming from a discussion of "Religion at Harvard" by William W. Bartley III '56 in the CRIMSON of March 28.

This decision, perhaps the most significant since compulsory chapel was abolished in 1886, was framed as a realization that "the Harvard community is today a mixed society."

On this basis, the Corporation agreed "that such private services may be conducted in Memorial Church by an official of an indiviudual's own religion when this is desired, provided he is willing to do so notwithstanding the church's essentially Christian character. As in the past, the responsibility for granting permission for the use of the church is lodged with the Chairman of the Board of Preachers."

"Throughout its history," the Corporation explained, "Harvard has felt obligated to provide a place of Christian worship for members of the University community. In continuing to do so, the University does not intend to assert the validity of the tenets of any denomination or creed.

"Its services are conducted both in response to a want felt by many of its members and in recognition of the fact that worship has an appropriate place in a community of learning. The form of worship in the Memorial Church stems from Harvard's Christian tradition....

"It is clearly gain that the Harvard community is today a mixed society. It contains numerous groups with religious loyalties other than those which gave shape to Harvard's ceremonies of public worship.... Today as earlier, the Christian church within the complex society of contemporary Harvard has a duty while keeping its identity to try to honor the convictions of each member of the Harvard community.

"Accordingly--in part because the church building is a memorial to all the Harvard men who fell in World Wars I and II--we recognize, as our predecessors did, that Harvard's Christian church ought, whenever it appropriately can, to offer hospitality to members of its community for private marriage and funeral ceremonies."

Affirms Christian Nature of Church

"The Christian nature of Memorial Church has now been recognized, as a result of the past week's discussion," President Pusey asserted yesterday. "A house of worship must be a structure with a specific character," he affirmed. "This is a house of God, not a secular building."

"If I were asked," he continued, "whether Harvard were a secular university, I would answer, 'Yes.' But it has within it a tradition of worship; one could wish that this were broad enough to include everyone in the community."

Students at the University, the Presi- dent continued, now have "a deeper understanding of what a church is." He attributed this to the widespread discussion of the past several weeks, a discussion for which he is now "profoundly thankful."

Pusey praised the Fellowship forum on April 28 as "a wonderful step forward," and hoped that members of the University would continue "to be excited about religion" and discuss questions like "What is a church?," and "What is its place at Harvard;" for years to come.

For the President, the "act of worship" is "a part of education," and can be "an