Chapel in the Time of COVID

ANTHONY BIGORNIA

In my second year of being the point person for coordinating chapels at the institution I work for, I finally felt like I was starting to get a handle on it. It’s a lot of work, but I have thoroughly enjoyed this role and consider it a blessing and a privilege to play a part in creating a space for others to encounter Christ. Demographically, our school is a very interesting mix of students. In some of the older grades, our international student population is as high as 45 percent, and it is not a guarantee that our students are necessarily from Christian families, let alone consistent church-attending families. This has implications for teaching and learning from a biblical Christian worldview because we cannot assume that all the students are biblically literate or have been in a church/chapel setting. Despite this, school chapels are a valuable opportunity to share what we believe with anyone who enters our doors, and our diversity makes our student life rich with opportunities for intercultural understanding.

Now before I continue, I want to acknowledge my use of the first-person pronoun “I” in discussing chapels in Christian grade school settings. Ultimately, I am not the one changing hearts and minds toward the heavens, but it is God who changes the hearts of the students. I work to create space for the individuals within our community to encounter Jesus, and it is he who changes them. In this article, I will recount my past few years coordinating chapels at a K–12 Christian school, particularly the changes and rethinking about the nature of chapel that have come about because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to the pandemic, I was encouraged to see a growing consistency in the rhythm and flow of chapel and assemblies. When Friday mornings came, students generally knew what to expect and how to help setup chairs, the transitions from class to chapel were getting smoother, and assembly etiquette had much improved. The number of students who served in the worship teams increased, in large part due to the efforts of our music teachers who led by example and put in many hours of work in inspiring the students to use their music and leadership capabilities to serve. And finally, a culture was emerging in which students were looking forward to the variety of speakers who would visit our school and share what they were passionate about and how God was working in their lives and in their ministry. It wasn’t perfect; not every student was necessarily engaged or even listening. Perhaps they were exhausted from studying or from other facets of school life, or perhaps they weren’t able to relate to this week’s speaker. But it felt like growth, and it felt like God was slowly working through the students.

I remember a particular conversation I had with a student that challenged and frustrated me. In what I thought was going to be a ten-minute

School chapels are a valuable opportunity to share what we believe with anyone who enters our doors, and our diversity makes our student life rich with opportunities for intercultural understanding.

In year-end student life surveys, many students would comment that the most memorable chapel speakers were the teachers themselves.

At the Senior School (grades 6–12), we initially ran chapel in a podcast format.

quick chat, this student spent forty-five minutes sharing all the ways chapel at the school could be better. Some of the various critiques were that we should stop doing a particular song, we need more contemporary upbeat music, we should get this speaker, we need more time for that, it’s not exciting enough, and the older students don’t care or aren’t engaged. Looking back, I felt frustrated by it because it made me feel like I wasn’t doing a good enough job, and the standards being asked for felt unrealistic in a timebound context of an educational institution. It was also frustrating to hear those critiques come from that student because I knew that the individual was active in their own church but wasn’t necessarily active in our school chapel. I asked the student how they were going to help improve chapel, and I never got a concrete answer. Needless to say, that conversation upset me, and I didn’t fully understand why. I left that conversation with the burden of a list of critiques rather than a hopeful takeaway.

Nevertheless, the school chapels continued, and we were blessed with all sorts of speakers, ranging from people who worked in various ministries to local youth pastors to our own staff sharing their life experiences. In year-end student life surveys, many students would comment that the most memorable chapel speakers were the teachers themselves, as they shared who they were as individuals beyond the confines of the classroom walls. I even remember a wonderful moment when we had a family worship band play for our entire K–12 school community, and at some point the grade 12 boys joined the band to do some of the actions. This gave permission for the rest of the students to let their guard down and take part with the actions, and so we saw this mixture of different kids of all different ages enjoying the music, dancing along in a celebratory atmosphere.

And then on March 11, 2020, the announcement of the pandemic hit, and our school decided to close early for spring break. At the time, we held a hopeful optimism that the pandemic wouldn’t last too long; we didn’t realize we would have to completely shift the way we conducted school and, consequently, how we ran school chapels. Very quickly, and with little preparation, we had to adapt and use whatever technologies and skills we had available.

At the Junior School (K–5), our principal started “Rudy and Friends.” Rudy and his friends Barclay, Penelope, and others are puppets. Our Junior School principal has ventriloquist and video editing skills, and so “Rudy and Friends” became a weekly video that featured chapel messages, worship music, skits with the puppets, and slideshows of what the different students were up to during quarantine. This was a hit with our Junior School students, and we kept it going into the following academic school year when we were able to have classes in person, albeit no cross-cohort gatherings.

At the Senior School (grades 6–12), we initially ran chapel in a podcast format, and I edited different audio clips, piecing together worship music with interviews and messages from different staff and students about time during quarantine. I opted for an audio format because at the time it was easier to edit, especially in a time when everything was in limbo. But then in the new school year in September 2020, we switched to video for the Senior School. Every Friday, students in their cohort classes would watch chapel videos with built-in time for a discussion period to unpack the message. Because we were allowed to be in the building again with students, it was much easier to film students in person and feature them in videos than

to get them to film themselves and coordinate a way to send files over the internet, and this opened opportunities for more creative chapel segments.

This is what we did in the past year and a half to keep chapel going at our schools, and it involved a lot of learning and trying new things. Content creation and editing unexpectedly became an unofficial part of my job description, and as many churches and schools can attest, it was a quick turnaround in adapting. While it was overwhelming taking on the technological side of things, it was an opportunity to be creative and to think outside the box, which I relished. I’d like to boil down this past year and a half of coordinating chapels in the COVID era into three takeaway lessons and share some examples of what went well.

Takeaway 1: The way in which we conduct chapel does not need to be limited to meeting together in a particular space. Because of the restrictions that were placed on mass gatherings, we had to rethink the nature of chapel. Prior to the pandemic, we had this formulaic way of conducting chapel for grades 6–12: settle in, sing corporate worship, listen to the speaker, pray, hear the announcements. However, switching to online chapels opened up opportunities to try different segments and different ways of delivering messages. A global event like the pandemic reminds us that chapel is not just a formulaic service, it’s ultimately a space for others to be encouraged and to discover who Jesus is.

One way this played out was a shift from listening not just to one voice but to multiple voices. In one of our chapel segments, during our message section, we tried a segment called “Coffee for Three,” in which another teacher and I had a conversation with one of our soon-to-be-retired teachers and asked him about his teaching career, how God has worked in his life, and words of encouragement that he had for our students. Unlike a traditional message, this was filmed as a casual conversation, and many students loved hearing the stories that the now-retired teacher shared about his life and the words of affirmation that he had for the students in our school.

Another thing we tried was a “3×5,” where we filmed three studentleaders sharing for five minutes on a specific topic. In particular, we had them talk about kindness in February, which coincided with Pink Shirt Day (an anti-bullying campaign in Canada). This was a big-risk opportunity, and the students needed a lot of coaching through the process. Furthermore, it was nerve-wracking for these students, and they opened up on vulnerable memories related to alienation and bullying. Nevertheless they did it, and it was meaningful for other students to see their peers take that courageous step.

These are some examples of the well-received and encouraging formats that have emerged out of the need to be creative in how we conduct chapel. Even when we do return to a sense of normalcy, these are segments that we would like to continue.

Takeaway 2: Chapel is an opportunity to celebrate the people of the community. If there’s anything the pandemic has taught us, it’s that we need people more than we’d like to admit. Early during the pandemic, one thing that was consistently included in the “Rudy and Friends” videos was a slideshow of

While it was overwhelming taking on the technological side of things, it was an opportunity to be creative and to think outside the box.

Chapel is ultimately a space for others to be encouraged and to discover who Jesus is.

Another thing we tried was a “3×5,” where we filmed three studentleaders sharing for five minutes on a specific topic.

In that I found grace.

Something intentional that I did in the editing process was generate some questions based on the message, accompanied by reflective, lo-fi music.

the Junior School staff, students, and their families taking part in quarantine activities to the tune of an acapella rendition of “The Blessing,” which is what we sang before the pandemic at the end of chapels. Many people in the community commented about how seeing that slideshow was meaningful to them. Especially in the midst of quarantine, seeing pictures of friends and other families became a life-giving and important part in our chapels as a celebration of community.

We also filmed question and answer videos where we would ask multiple students across grades questions related to the topic at hand, like “Why does mental health matter?” or “What do your grandparents mean to you?” Even just filming students reading Bible verses was a nice touch, as students could see people that they recognize and are friends with, even if they can’t interact with each other due to being in different cohorts. Hearing these multiple voices was valuable and reminded us that there are so many different, unique, and interesting individuals within our community, that they all have a narrative to share of how they are growing and changing in their own journey, and that no one is an island to oneself.

Takeaway 3: Despite all the ups and downs, the constant changes and uncertainty about expectations and restrictions, God was still working. Above I shared my discouragement when one of the students critiqued the chapel services. It was a conversation that left me feeling inadequate, and that feeling of not being able to coordinate a good enough chapel persisted even through the pandemic. I would question whether I was doing enough or if I could have filmed or edited a segment better. I was uncertain if a segment would work, or I would run into technical issues in the editing process that took way more time than I anticipated. I had fears that students might not be engaged or might find it boring. While I will admit that I genuinely enjoyed the creative process of content creation, it was time consuming and time sensitive, due to the weekly deadlines. The editing process is an entire job in itself, and I have a new-found appreciation for people who are in that line of work. However, throughout these years, whether chapel was in person or online, I’ve grown to learn that ultimately chapel is not a performance but rather a space for students to discover Jesus. That was an important distinction for me to be reminded of, and in that I found grace. Everyone was doing their best during these times, and I am very grateful to my coworkers, who gave me constant feedback and encouragement about chapels. All this spurred me to continue to pour in the work to help create a space and trust that at the end of the day, I can rest in God’s grace and trust that he will work in the hearts and minds of the students that we work with.

One of the spaces that was a by-product of online chapels was the time for debrief and discussion on what the speakers talked about during the message. Something intentional that I did in the editing process was generate some questions based on the message, accompanied by reflective, lo-fi music. Whether it was a video message put out by a pastor from a different church or organization or a speaker from within our own community, watching together with a smaller group rather than in a large congregation allowed for teachers to unpack what was said. A recurring thing I heard from my colleagues was that the best part of chapel was the post-video discussion time with the students. Often when we go to church, we hear a powerful message that impacts us, and then we leave the church and go

throughout the day, without meaningfully reflecting on what we just heard with someone. But because we watched videos as a cohort together, there was a natural flow into discussion times. I asked some of my co-workers about their reflections on having video chapels with their classes, and one of them remarked, “We laughed, cried, and sang together. God has designed us for relationship with one another and with him. Especially this year, God opened the hearts and minds of our students to see their chapel room as a home where they can praise God in familial unity while trusting and rejoicing in the Spirit’s work during that time.”

In conclusion, this past season of coordinating chapels has been a whirlwind. It has shifted the way we approach chapels and reminded us of the need for community and that God is still working, no matter what happens. Conducting chapel in a time of COVID challenged us to step out of the box and try new things, many that we intend to continue in the coming school year. As of this writing (in early August), we don’t have certainty on what is going to happen in the new academic school year, but we have faith that God will work in any circumstance. Technology and liturgy may have changed, health expectations and restrictions are constantly in flux, but God has remained faithful and constant to us as we continue to labor and create a space for others to learn more and discover him.

Conducting chapel in a time of COVID challenged us to step out of the box and try new things, many that we intend to continue in the coming school year.

Anthony Bigornia is a teacher and the Student Life Coordinator at White Rock Christian Academy in Surrey, BC, Canada. He currently teaches IB DP Language & Literature 11 and 12. In his spare time he likes to play electric guitar or play pickup hoops at a local basketball court. IG: @aye.bigs