P. B. H. Presents Annual Summary

The Chapel Committee aims to fulfill three main functions. These are: to cooperate with Professor E. C. Moore and the Board of Preachers and recommend for future years those speakers who have been most popular with the students; to usher at the Sunday morning services and make arrangements for faculty reservations; and to stimulate by individual effort the student interest in chapel. Accordingly the committee has kept a record of the most interesting preachers; it has provided the ushers for the Sunday services, and for the special Christmas carol services; and kept certain pews reserved for faculty members until five minutes before the services begin; and has, in a general way, tried to interest students in chapel.

At the beginning of the year, during Freshman week, the daily services were conducted by members of the Faculty Professor R. B. Merriman '96, Professor J. L. Lowes '05, Professor K. F. Mather, President Lowell, Professor G. H. Moore '89, Professor W. E. Hocking '01, Professor W. B. Munro '01, and Professor E. C. Moore. These services attracted an average attendance of 123. Members of the faculty were again asked to speak in the first week of the second semester. Professors Whatmough, Edgell, Mather, Rand, Campbell, and Perry conducted these services.

Professor E. C. Moore and the Board of Preachers have made special efforts to secure eminent preachers from various parts of this country, Canada, and England to conduct the services in Appleton Chapel. Usually each speaker has remained for a week and has kept office hours in the Preacher's room in Wadsworth House from 9 to 11 each morning, where students were invited to drop in to visit or consult him.

Among those who have preached in chapel have been: Reverend H. S. Coffin, Reverend C. L. Slatter, Reverend W. H. Sedgewick, Reverend. J. F. Newton, Reverend F. M. Eliot, Reverend T. G. Soares, Reverend C. R. Brown, Dean W. L. Sperry, Reverend H. K. Sherrill, Reverend A. W. Vernon, Reverend C. H. Park, Reverend H. E. Foadick Raymond Calkins, Heverend J. H. Lathrop, Professor E. C. Moore, Reverend J. C. Perkions, Reverend N. B. Nash, Reverend H. B. Washburn, Reverend H. H. Tweedy, Reverend A. MacColl, Reverend Karl Reiland, Reverend T. H. Davies, Reverend J. T. Dallas. Those scheduled to speak during the next two months include Canon B. H. Streeter, Professor W. R. Matthews, Reverend M. O. Simmons, Reverend S. A. Eliot, and Reverend C. H. Brent, and others who are speaking for a second time this year.

A record of chapel attendance has been kept, and shows a Sunday attendance averaging 219 students compared with 217 for last year. The public attendance has averaged 318, making a total Sunday average of 537. The average attendance at the daily services has dropped to 64, from an average of 75 last year, but it is interesting to note that most of the decrease has come in the four weeks of the Reading Period and Examination Period when academic pressure has driven the students across the quadrangle to the Library instead. In estimating religious tendencies at Harvard it must, however, be borne in mind that a large number of the students prefer to establish themselves in one or another of the many churches in the vicinity, or are engaged in some other religious activities Sunday morning. Of course these students do not swell the ranks of the chapel-goers.

The chapel choir is under the able leadership of Professor A. T. Davison '06. Besides leading the singing in the regular services it presents a series of three Christmas carol services during the week before Christmas. At each of these this year, the chapel was filled to capacity.

The work of ushering demands a number of reliable, thoughtful, and obliging men who will be present promptly on Sunday mornings. This year the committee has been composed, of C. H. Jones '28. Tiimothy Cleary '29, C. B. Garey '29, Gordon Huggins '29, C. D. Madsen '29, R. E. Merry '29, W. W. Talley '29, and J. K. Hurd '30. Four or five others have also volunteered for the special carol services, and occasional Sundays when the chapel has been unusually crowded. Special thanks are due to C. B. Garey '29 who took complete charge during the six weeks of illness of the chairman.  J. S. Frame '29, Chairman.