Dear Beloved Community alumni and friends,
I hope you are having a wonderfully relaxing summer thus far. My name is Maddie Henderson, and I am the new Christian Chaplain in Emory’s Office of Spiritual and Religious Life. I’m honored to be part of the Emory University community, and I hope to build on the incredible legacy that each of you built for Christian life at Emory.
I see the role of Christian Chaplain in a multidimensional way. In this role, I hope to be a community builder, a pastoral care provider, a host, a mentor and teacher, and a representative. Connecting with students, learning their stories, and equipping them as leaders is one of the things I’m most excited about this fall. This semester, Beloved Community Worship will return to Cannon Chapel on Sundays at 11:00 am. We have a wonderful worship planning team that has amazing ideas for how to expand the Beloved Community, including service projects, Bible and book studies, and retreats.
As we look to the start of the fall semester, I warmly welcome your connections, prayers, and support. Typically at this time of year, I would ask for special prayers for the first year students. However, this year, we ask for prayers for all Emory University students returning to campus – first years entering a new chapter; second years seeing the Emory community at full capacity for the first time; and third and fourth years returning to campus after a year and a half away. Fall 2021 presents a lot of exciting opportunities to connect with students, but those opportunities come with very real stressors for our students too. Please be in prayer for them during this time of transition.
If you would like to read more about my background and story, please checkout my profile on our website. Also, please explore the amazing things taking place in the Office of Spiritual and Religious Life for all of our spiritual communities here. This includes a recent Voices of Inner Strength Gospel Choir virtual reunion last month, which you can learn more about here. This is a thrilling time to be joining OSRL at Emory University.
With joy and peace,
Maddie
Christian Chaplain
Office of Spiritual and Religious Life
Emory University
