Stay connected

WWU Chaplain’s Office provides online spiritual care and support for students

Throughout spring quarter online classes, the Walla Walla University Chaplain’s Office will provide a variety of online opportunities for students to participate in worship and receive spiritual nurture and support.

Options include:
Wednesdays
• Mid-week worship, 6 p.m., Join the program live on Zoom.

Thursdays
• Connected Stories, 8 a.m.—Stories of returned student missionaries. Watch live on Instagram at @wwuchaplainsoffice.
• Crash Course Cooking Show, 3 p.m.—A cooking show with student chefs and recipes. Watch live on instagram at @wwuchaplainsoffice.

Fridays
• Vespers, 7 p.m.—A time of connection and worship with music and discussion featuring WWU students and your questions. Click here to register your name and email, and the Zoom link will be sent to your inbox.

Saturdays
• ReNew Sabbath School, 10 a.m.—Group Bible Study. Learn more on instagram at @renew_sab.
• Circle Church, 10:32 a.m.—Worship, wisdom, and familiar friends. Broadcasting on Instagram from Southern California. Watch live on the Circle Church page: @circle.church.
• University Church, 11:45 a.m.—Worship with the University Church. Watch the live broadcast.

“During online instruction, we’ve been working to provide spiritual care options that support a sense of community at a time when we can’t commune,” said Albert Handal, WWU chaplain. “Our focus is on creating connection and support while our students are spread out across the country. We’re seeking to create as many opportunities as possible for students to still live and study in community even if we can’t be together.”

Throughout the quarter Handal and his team will communicate with students about each of the options available for spiritual support through the Chaplain’s Office Instagram and through a campus-wide email that Handal will send each week. Updates will also be available at wallawalla.edu/chaplain.

Handal said that the challenges students are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic differ widely. Some students are feeling lonely and missing their friends; others are experiencing a range of difficulties at home. He wants students to know that WWU chaplains are available to talk with them when they are feeling lonely, anxious, or worried. Students can email a chaplain anytime at chaplain@wallawalla.edu or contact one of the chaplains directly. Contact information is available at wallawalla.edu/chaplain.

“Jesus has been praying for us long before the coronavirus,” said Handal. “He prays in John 17: ‘I pray that they might be one, even as You and I are one.’ In this moment of anxious isolation, I feel hope that God will bring us together in new ways to still be the body of Christ in these dark moments of social distance and fear. God desires to draw close to us in ways that are just as intimate as anything we’ve ever experienced in a vespers program. Christ is Victor, even over virus.”

Handal is looking forward to having students back on campus. “I’m really looking forward to the sound of longboards on the sidewalk, seeing the vespers sunset video again, having students over to my house again, hammocks in the trees, and the crowds walking through campus between classes.”

Visit wallawalla.edu/virtual-connections to find worship and spirtual care options available through the WWU Chaplain’s Office.

Posted April 1, 2020; updated April 7, 2020

three students stand on stage leading out praise music
The Chaplain’s Office is organizing a variety of options for spiritual care to help students stay connected during online classes.