The new St. Alban’s chapel and Canterbury House underconstruction next to the law garage. (John Schreiber)
Canterbury Episcopal has always gone out of its way to welcome new members. Even when the ministry’s chapel burned down in 2003, Canterbury Episcopal was more than happy to give students a ride to St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church on Lovers Lane, where worship was held every Sunday.
Now Canterbury holds a candlelit worship service on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. in Perkins Chapel. The service is like most Episcopal services, consisting of a sermon and the administration of the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. Though the service is in the Anglican-Episcopal style, it is open to anyone.
“It’s a really beautiful and meditative service,” junior Abby Seibel said. “It’s very intimate and quiet, so it’s a great time to relax at the end of the week and breathe.”
However, Canterbury Episcopal won’t need to hold its services in Perkins Chapel much longer. The new Canterbury House and its St. Alban’s Collegiate Chapel are currently under construction and will be completed by December. The old chapel, which stood since 1949, burned down in 2003 due to old electrical wiring. The new chapel will stand in the same location as the original, across the street from Storey Hall and next to the law parking garage.
Once its new facilities are completed, Canterbury Episcopal will join SMU Catholic and the Methodist SMU Wesley Foundation as the only ministries with on-campus or near campus facilities.
Canterbury Episcopal is the college arm of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas and is one of the oldest ministries on campus not associated with the Methodist church.
According to the SMU Office of the Chaplain and University Ministries, almost 400 students on campus identify themselves as Anglican or Episcopal. Between 20 and 30 students attend Canterbury’s worship service each week.
“I think that the new chapel will attract more students because it won’t feel like we’re borrowing time at Perkins,” says Seibel. “We’ll have our own space.”
Canterbury House, once completed, will be an accommodating and spacious place for students to gather and worship. The first floor will feature a reception area, a courtyard, wall space to use as a gallery, a floor labyrinth for meditation, a narthex to be used as a 24-hour prayer space and Saint Alban’s Chapel. The house will also include a choir loft, a kitchen and dining room, a laundry room, an entertainment room with a pool table and big screen television, and a two-bedroom apartment.
SMU Chaplain William Finnin says Canterbury is one of the “anchor communities” in religious life at SMU.
“I am thrilled at the prospect of the center opening soon,” Finnin said
Nate Bostian, the College Chaplain for the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, has been the chaplain for Canterbury for almost a year. Bostian looks forward to the attention the new Canterbury House will get and how that attention will benefit ministries on campus.
Bostian says he anticipates working with other campus ministries, holding shared prayer services and using the new space as a resource to the SMU community.
“All of the Campus Christian ministries are working together for a common purpose, which is to help people love Jesus and love each other,” Bostian said. “We want to use Canterbury to help further that purpose in any way we can.”
In addition to Sunday night worship services at Perkins Chapel, Canterbury hosts a free Fellowship Dinner on Sundays at 6:30 p.m. Canterbury also offers undergraduate Bible studies and discussions at 12:30 p.m. in the lower level of the Hughes-Trigg Student Center, and at 8 p.m. at the Hughes-Trigg Java City. For graduate students, Canterbury offers a 6 p.m. meeting at the SMU Bookstore coffee shop. Bostian says if you go to the Canterbury Bible studies, you will find something very discussion-oriented, as well as something that is willing to deal honestly with questions and doubts.
“I think you will find a spirituality very similar to what author C.S. Lewis called mere Christianity, he said. “We try to find and include what is good, true and beautiful in all the great Christian traditions, while avoiding what is unhealthy.”
Bostian stresses that Canterbury seeks a spirituality that is a balance between what is best about Catholicism and Protestantism.
“More than anything else,” he said, “we just love Jesus and love people – all people, no matter where you come from, what you’ve done or where you are going. We welcome everyone in Christ.”
