College Resumes Sunday Services

REGULAR Sunday morning chapel services, not held at the College for a good many years, were resumed with the opening of the new college year. The first of these services, under the aegis of the William Jewett Tucker Foundation, was held in Rollins Chapel on September 26; and to greet the congregation of students and faculty the renovated chapel presented a bright new interior that was a far cry from the somewhat gloomy atmosphere of old.

The Rev. Richard P. Unsworth, Dean of the Tucker Foundation, conducted the opening service and the anthem was sung by the Dartmouth Glee Club. Dean Unsworth will share the preaching responsibilities with The Rev. George H. Kalbfleisch, Director of Undergraduate Religious Life, and students and faculty will participate frequently in the services. Music will be performed by College Organist Milton Gill, the varsity and freshman glee clubs directed by Prof. Paul R. Zeller, and the new Collegium Musicum directed by Prof. Franklin B. Zimmerman.

The new Dartmouth College services will be held every Sunday of the college year, and the occasional "union services" with guest preachers will be discontinued. Daily chapel services will still be held at noon, Monday through Friday, conducted by the Dartmouth Christian Union.

The daily services will be held in one of the two side chapels, newly done over this summer. In the general renovation of Rollins, the interior now faces the other way, toward the east, with the chancel in the curved apse. Walls have been built under the side arches, vestibules created for the two side entrances, and the whole interior painted white, giving the chapel an entirely new look. Later renovation will provide a new slab floor, an altered entrance vestibule, pew seating, and refurnishing of the side chapels.

"The renovation of Rollins Chapel and the inauguration of regular College Services on all the Sundays of the college year," Dean Unsworth says, "is one effort to fulfill the mandate of the Tucker Foundation to develop the moral and spiritual aspects of Dartmouth College life.

"Public worship has regularly been a part of the College's concern, whether as a required exercise of the whole College, as in Dr. Tucker's day, or as an occasional event undertaken in league with Hanover churches, as in recent years.

"We are embarking on a weekly college service in the conviction that there are many religious needs now unmet, at least some of which can be met through such a service. The service will also serve as a symbol of Dartmouth's heritage as an institution founded out of Christian conviction, and of her continuing desire to prompt a sense of dedication and purpose in her students."