"Amen." Morning prayers had ended and about thirty bedraggled students trudged out of Appleton Chapel into the grey mist of Cambridge. They had arisen twenty minutes earlier than most undergraduates to attend the brief, daily service in the rear of Memorial Church. Part of a minority in the college, they share a distinction with approximately 15 percent of their fellows; they actively participate in religion at Harvard.

Participation as defined by four university clergymen means a regular activity, either service or worship, in a religious organization on or near the campus. And for many students at Harvard, participation in organized religion begins with the United Ministry. This voluntary organization, formed by recognized ministers of all faiths and denominations, has the official responsibility for every student in the university. Some members of the United Ministry, like the Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, have very little formal structure to facilitate participation. Others, like the Jews and Catholics, have a great deal. But, for each of these groups, organization (or lack of it) bears directly on the question of religion's role, its problems and the type of commitment it can expect from undergraduates.

Organization Falters

Undergraduate independence and activity in contexts other than the church is the prevalent philosophy of the Congregational Presbyterian representative at Harvard. Since these two dominations began cooperative activity in 1949, the emphasis has shifted from participation in the congregation to welfare work. Two years ago the Congregational Presbyterian Student Fellowship dissolved though lack of interest, and at present no formal institutional structure exists. While students occasionally hold seminars on religious topics, most Congregationalists or Presbyterians who work through the United Ministry do so in PBH projects like mental hospitals and civil rights.

Presbyterian minister Richard Mumma believes that today civil rights "is the best way in which a religious organization can function in this community." Congregationalists and Presbyterians should view themselves not so much as members of a Christian organization, but rather as Christian people within the University who have a deep concern with the world."

"In fact," Rev. Mumma adds, "a concern for organization would be detrimental to our aims."

Value Judgment

For Congregationalists and Presbyterians the "ultimate goal is that people in the college should be able to discover the richness of their faith without being overly organized in religious institutions." Students, says Rev. Mumma, should avail themselves of the community and abolish the dichotomy between the religious and academic life. In the university, a student is often confronted with abstractions and with a number of alternatives; Rev. Mumma feels that the importance of religion is to help people make value judgments.

In the last few years, the interest of Congregational Presbyterian students has been numerically smaller, but qualitatively larger, Rev. Mumma contends. During World War II many Americans found God in a fox-hole, and in the late forties church building and attendance increased abnormally. In the fifties, religion became for many a "social rather than a moral obligation." But today, it is no longer the "good" thing to do, and, as a result, Rev. Mumma believes the "inner rewards are now greater." This accounts for the rising social consciousness which is "in a sense a religious phenomena."

According to Rev. Mumma, roughly 15 percent of those students who indicated either a Congregationalist or Presbyterian affiliation on religious preference cards distributed at registration give an active commitment to their faith. Although he would of course like more students to work in PBH and would like a greater attendance at services if "interest is genuine," Rev. Mumma sees no specific problems. "I feel badly that we cannot say, 'Look, here is where we meet, and here is what we do.' I feel pressure both from the past and present to organize students into a congregation. But I think it is wrong to be institutional when it is not the time to do so. This is not the best way to be a religion."

Episcopalians

The recent history of the Episcopalians at Harvard parallels that of the Congregationalists and Presbyterians. Like the Congregational Presbyterian Student Fellowship, the Episcopal student organization, the Canterbury Club, has simply withered away from disuse. Now Sunday discussion groups at the home of the Episcopal chaplain, Rev. William J. Schneider, serve as the only for focal point for organization. "A club tends to be restrictive," says Schnider. "It isn't that people couldn't come, but it does appear like a closed thing."

Like Rev. Mumma, Rev. Schneider does not favor organization, for in his view the church has too often been an irrelevant institution which has not addressed itself to the world. "The church is in frightful condition everyplace," he maintains. "What time has been spent, has been wasted to conform to contemporary culture."

In his view, undergraduates who happen to be Episcopalians (there are nearly 1,000 at Harvard Radcliffe) should strive for academic excellence, not overly concern themselves with church activities. Schneider feels that the Episcopal church has viewed the university as a breeding ground for secularism for too many years; this merely leads to frustration and causes a cleavage between the church and the community to which it is supposed to minister.

The result, says Rev. Schneider, is that the church "forgets what is the most important point of all: that an institution which is honestly involved in the educational enterprise is by virtue of its involvement a holy institution." Rev. Schneider stresses the need for "those of us who are so called church people to shift gears--to consider the holiness and godliness of the university and to speak of this. Perhaps then a dialogue between the church and the academic community can take place."