Playing Podcasts for the Pious

Two Memorial Church initiatives this school year strive to broaden the church’s accessibility to students at Harvard as well as to the community at large.

A student discussion group called the Undergraduate Fellowship Program aims to provide a casual forum for theological discussion and debate, while the podcasting of sermons has broadened the availability of services to people across the globe.

Since November, between six and 12 students have gathered in the basement of Memorial Church each Wednesday at 10 p.m. to discuss theology and ethics. According to Kent M. French, a seminarian and Epps Fellow at Memorial Church who moderates the group, the discussions center on the “intersection of the life of the mind and the life of faith.”

A similar student discussion program was phased out about 10 years ago, French said.

Topics for discussion have ranged from the definition of faith to the role of prayer in daily life to the role of Christianity at Harvard. According to French, who is also a third-year student at the Harvard Divinity School, the group provides a different take on religion from other faith-based groups on campus.

“Most of these are of a more conservative theological bent,” he said. “We were interested in forming a group regardless of theological persuasion.”

Despite a variety of perspectives on religion, the group has created a “mode of mutual respect,” said French, in which students “disagree and push back with one another” on issues of debate.

“I find myself constantly challenged and forced to learn how to articulate precisely what I believe,” Katherine L. Peisker ‘09 wrote in an e-mail. “The topics Kent chooses for us to discuss are always relevant and at least slightly contentious; they are important issues that I haven’t always found being confronted in other settings, even in the other fellowships on campus.”

The aim of reaching out to students is complemented in part by the church’s new technological initiative of podcasting sermons.

“Podcasts serve a slightly different demographic—a bit younger and possibly more tech-savvy,” Justin P. Schoolmaster, director of development and administration at Memorial Church, wrote in an e-mail. “Churches are always looking for ways to attract and retain younger members.”

A sprinkling of professors has begun to podcast classes within the Extension School and the College. Computer Science E-1, “Understanding Computers and the Internet,” was number one on Wired Magazine’s list of university class podcasts last fall.

While recordings of sermons have been accessible from the church’s Web site for two years, podcasts allow for access from remote locations, Debra A. Dawson, assistant to the Harvard Chaplains and the Harvard University Board of Ministry, wrote in an e-mail.

According to Schoolmaster, one alum even downloaded sermons onto his iPod prior to deployment in the armed forces.

“You never know what people want—church is a very personalized institution,” he wrote. “My goal is to provide the technological tools to enable anyone to listen in.”

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.