Articles

As dean of Rockefeller Chapel, the Reverend Maurice Charles sees himself as a spiritual leader first and foremost. When people are hurting, celebrating, or asking questions about life, Charles is the first person they call. But he’s also used the position to raise questions about race and the role of policing at UChicago—questions which, as a Black man, he’s grappled with for his entire life. Charles grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, in a family that was heavily involved in the church. His mother’s family had migrated to Cleveland during the first Great Migration and, according to Charles, left their past behind. “I come from a family that came from the Jim Crow South. And they never talked...

Excerpts from the Chicago Tribune piece (11/24 digital, 11/29 print) by Howard Reich ...Most of these performances have been canceled, with a few migrating online for truncated, prerecorded, scaled-down versions of Handel’s most famous oratorio. Which raises two uncomfortable and inseparable questions: What are we missing? And how do we get by without “Messiah”? “We’re missing the sense of community for the performers as much as the audience,” says tenor Matthew Dean, director of University of Chicago chapels and a soloist in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel’s annual “Messiah” (and others). The University of Chicago’s “Messiah” has been presented annually since 1930 – until now. “We’re missing...

Beginning October 4, 2020, Dean Maurice Charles and the musicians of Rockefeller Chapel offer music and meditations through the Virtual Chapel. Please visit our SoundCloud page for access to these offerings, recorded onsite in this distanced autumn, that we all might celebrate together again in a healthy future. Scroll within this news archive for previous greetings and updates from the Dean.

To the University of Chicago Community, The Rockefeller Memorial Chapel and Spiritual Life team mourn the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and the many others who were killed as a result of racist violence. We mourn in solidarity with their families and loved ones. We condemn racism and the resulting violence in all of its forms. As members of the University of Chicago community, we commit to standing against injustice and working to dismantle systems and structures that lead to inequity. Committing privately or publicly to passive anti-racist behavior is necessary, but not sufficient. We call on all members of the UChicago community to act mindfully in ways that are...

The world looks so different now. It hardly seems possible that in one month, almost to the day, the 2019-2020 academic year will come to a close. My warmest congratulations to all who will be graduating. While you have been cheated out of your customary celebrations, I pray that each new sunrise will give you a reason to be grateful and that, in time, you will look back on this time and celebrate your enduring courage during challenging days. It has been two months, nearly to the day, when our community of scholars learned that we would remove ourselves from the university campus in ten short days, suspend most of our research activities and all our religious gatherings, and shift to...

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” My Jewish friends taught me that this is the first of four questions intoned at the Passover Seder, generally by the youngest member of the gathering. They are an invocation of a people’s collective memory, animating the rituals of the present with stories from the past and, in turn, creating new memories borne to each successive generation. Through the years, my conversations with people of different faiths have only deepened and enriched my own. During this April like no other, a great convergence where Jews celebrate Passover, Muslims observe Ramadan, Baha’is, the festival of Ridvan, and Christians like me, Easter—just to name a few—I...

April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot April is upon us and this year Jews, Christians, and Muslims enter important seasons of communal prayer and shared memory in the midst of another global pandemic. Jews celebrate the festival of the Passover. Christians observe Holy Week and Easter. Muslims fast during the Holy Month of Ramadan at the end of April and will conclude the month in late May with the Eid al-Fitr feast. A cruel irony for so many of us is that caring for ourselves and our most vulnerable neighbors requires us to do the very opposite of what our holy...

Dean Maurice Charles offers the following update on the temporary suspension of gatherings at Rockefeller and Bond Chapels and the Spiritual Life spaces at Ida Noyes Hall: As a research university of international renown, the University of Chicago gathers a worldwide community, welcoming students, faculty, staff, visitors, and friends from around the globe. Rockefeller and Bond Chapels and the Spiritual Life Office in Ida Noyes Hall host religious and spiritual gatherings from a variety of traditions in addition to providing space for individual reflection and prayer. In keeping with the guidance offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the senior university...

Ripple Effects: New Music for Carillon at the University of Chicago features a new composition by Read Thomas and several live recordings of pieces premiered at the Rockefeller Carillon New Music Festival (2018). The album is available immediately for sale at the Rockefeller Chapel gift kiosks at the front desk and carillon playing cabin, Tuesdays through Fridays 11-6 pm. Sample on Spotify Purchase from CDBaby

Prior University Organist Wolfgang Rübsam's monumental endeavor to record the Widor Organ Symphonies completed its first milestone with recording sessions at Rockefeller Chapel in 2019. The Volume I disc has garnered a warm initial reception.