New beginnings
Morning Prayers have been a tradition at Harvard since the 17th century, when undergraduates were required to attend chapel services — and were admonished not to hiss, scrape their chairs, or bring umbrellas. There were some umbrellas in Appleton Chapel on a rainy Tuesday morning, though no hissing or chair scraping. (Pews are hard to budge.) But there was edification, including music by the Choral Fellows of the Harvard University Choir and brief remarks by Harvard President Drew Faust. It was her sixth year delivering a message at the first such service of the academic year. In other years, the mornings “were clear and crystalline,” she said, “filled with light just beginning to slant with the promise of fall.” “Here we are once more,” said Faust, who celebrated the promise of fall for what it has meant to her: “new teachers, new students, … the lure of new knowledge, new understanding —...