About Religious Life at Annandale

The Chapel:

The Annandale Memorial Chapel, completed to a Gothic design of John Marshall Glenarm (though not built until long after the Benefactor's death) stands as one of the Academy's many memorials to its Gold Star Men: but above and beyond that, it stands as an offering (as the Latin motto of the Society of Jesus says) "Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam," to the Greater Glory of God. In this building, the school's, and the nation's, gratitude for those who "in the day of decision, risked all for the liberties we now enjoy" has a context larger than that of the battles in which they fought and died. Simply to remember them, simply to be grateful, would make their sacrifices dependent for their meaning on the meaning of the nation's wars. Lincoln at Gettysburg made the best case for that sort of meaning that can be made: "we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract." But one of Lincoln's greatest generals, William Tecumseh Sherman, looking back from a quarter-century's distance, said to the cadets of Michigan Military Academy, "War is hell." Thirty-five years later, the horrors of trench combat suggested to a world at war that it was Sherman, rather than his commander-in-chief, who had the better understanding. The Memorial Chapel is Annandale's declaration that the last word, the dedication, consecration and hallowing of its fallen sons, lies not in their own heroic deaths, but in the death, on their behalf, of the Son of God: it is the Academy's declaration that our hope for them lies not in our fallible ability to remember but in God's unfailing promise to raise them, and us, to eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Worship:

The Academy requires all cadets who can in good conscience do so to attend the weekly chapel prayer service, and invites them to take part as they are able. Historically, the liturgical form of these services has varied somewhat according to the denominational background of the incumbent chaplain, though the Anglican Daily Office has provided, as it were, a center of gravity--a center reaffirmed since the recent incorporation of the Fort Wayne Military Institute, an Anglican foundation, into AMA. It has been a consistent feature, however, of the Chapel worship that it has been led by cadet ministers and that it has been worship strictly so-called, rather than simply a setting for moral or ethical instruction.

Separate Roman Catholic and Jewish services are scheduled (in lieu of Chapel for cadets from these traditions) every week and on major holidays. Optional religious observances include the Holy Eucharist, celebrated each Sunday before or after Chapel (depending on the garrison parade schedule) and on most holidays, and a Wednesday evening praise and worship meeting.

Study and Fellowship:

Faculty and students alike take part in a wide range of religious activities, including several Bible Study groups, a variety of service projects, and regular weekly meetings for intercessory prayer.