A crowd of just over 150 worshipers listened transfixed on a warm August morning as Morgan State University Memorial Chapel Director Bernard Keels drew parallels between the life of Christ, and the discipline needed for Morgan’s entering freshman class members to be successful.
“You’re not rooming with your parents anymore,” the preacher boomed as he walked through the aisles of the sunlit sanctuary. “There will be people who will tell you,
‘Don’t worry about it, it’s just a one night stand,’ or ‘it’s just one drink.’ Will they be liars? Will they present themselves as lunatics, legendary figures in your life? Or will you have a relationship with the Lord that will guide you through these challenging times?”
It was the inaugural worship service of the fall semester at the Chapel. The theme for the hour, ‘Liar, Lunatic, Legend or Lord.’
It’s a service that Dr. Keels and student parishioners hope to evolve and grow for campus community members seeking spiritual support.
A group of 15 Morgan students, alumni, faculty and community members — the Friends of the Chapel — has formed around this hope, working for the last three years to raise money for renovations and program expansion, along with awareness about the house formerly known as the Morgan Christian Center.
Despite its renowned history as a training ground for world-class engineers, educators and health care professionals, Morgan has not been exempt from the occasional campus fight, sex tape or random rant from a disgruntled student or alumnus eager to find viral celebrity on the Internet.
Paired with statistics and news coverage about HBCUs in economic crisis, low graduation and retention rates and dwindling relevance,
Morgan and other HBCUs regularly struggle to find balance in a pop culture driven by sex, violence, and controversy. Despite many HBCUs having historical ties with Methodist and Baptist communities through their founding, only a handful still hold a recognizable brand in faith-based communities.
Howard University’s Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel , Spelman College’s Sisters Chapel and Tougaloo College’s Woodworth Memorial Chapel are among the most popular chapels in HBCU culture, and each is in symbol more than day-to-day activity.
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