If we’re heavy on the last (the alumni fund solicits donations before the seniors graduate) and not totally divorced from the middle, we still pay our respects to the first. During the course of the weekend, we sang at least six hymns, some allegedly written just for Yale, we prayed several times, and Psalm 8, which apparently appears in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, was read by a sort of Abrahamic student committee.

The Baccalaureate service is one of two times that an entire class convenes in the largest room on campus for quasi-Protestant (ex-Protestant?) worship. Graduates process in wearing academic gowns, as do the President, Professors, Masters, and Deans, who wear brightly colored and very hot robes, a springtime “privilege” of their advanced degrees. Three students jointly read the aforementioned scripture. The Chaplain leads a prayer, desperately universal in naming God, the congregation sings a hymn, the Dean presents a reading (including the end of Paradise Lost, because leaving Yale is like being thrown out of Paradise; we do take it all terribly seriously), we sing another hymn, the President addresses the congregation (an apparently un-ironic address about the benefits of Yale’s collaboration with the Chinese regime), the Glee Club sings ‘Alleluia,’ we hear a benediction, and then everyone tries to find brunch.

A service without much Scripture and without a sermon: strange? It is stranger that I found it less uncomfortable than I find most Jewish services. While in a Jewish service I am constantly aware of the choices being made, what traditions were kept or jettisoned, rethought or reformed, and what effect that might have on the Jewish community, this service had very low communal stakes. There was tradition being ignored, to be sure, and sensibilities doubtless offended, but I identified just enough (perhaps the Dean’s talk was once a Bible verse or two, and the President’s a sermon) and was ignorant just enough (I have little idea like what a Protestant service is “meant” to look) that it didn’t matter. I found the whole thing pleasant, and as spiritual as anything in college. I almost rather wish we spent time in chapel together more often as a class.