The service was co-sponsored by Eastern Mennonite Seminary and led by graduate students Makinto and Mukarabe Makinto-Inandava. It included musical selections from Makinto, as well as the EMU Gospel Choir led by Kay Pettus ’25, and biblical readings from Mukarabe.

Reflections on Easter were shared by English Professor Dr. Kevin Seidel, who teaches and writes about the changing relationship between religion, secularism, and literature. His message, titled “Women Explain Things to Me: A Sermon on Luke 24,” focused not so much on Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the dead but on the “slow, difficult coming to terms with the significance of the resurrection by Jesus’ followers as portrayed in Luke 24.”

“In Luke, the resurrection of Jesus isn’t a simple, triumphant end of the story, but a kind of difficult beginning that unfolds in the Book of Acts,” Seidel said. “The resurrection doesn’t settle debate among Jesus’ followers about who he is. The resurrection proves, I think, profoundly unsettling for them.”

After the service, Seidel said he was glad for the chance to reflect on parts of the resurrection story in Luke 24. “The service was a good way to mark and celebrate the beginning of the seven-week Easter season in the church calendar,” he said.

University Chaplain Brian Martin Burkholder said Wednesday’s Easter celebration follows EMU’s practice of honoring and observing significant Christian traditions and holidays, including Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

“This morning, as we gathered, there was an opportunity for education about Easter,” he said, “as well as an invitation to worship in the spirit of Easter through Scripture, singing, and reflection.”

Makinto, a frequent worship leader at chapel events, performed Jesus Is Risen, an original song he wrote in 2013, as the opening song for this year’s Easter worship service. The song tells the Easter story and connects it to our own lives, he said. 

“So, as he is risen, we as well can rise above all the challenges we have, above the pains we have, above the solitude we have, and also conquer death and situate ourselves squarely in life with our community around us,” Makinto said.

Makinto and his wife, Mukarabe, moved from California to pursue degrees at Eastern Mennonite Seminary and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, respectively. They are the directors of , an organization that connects people at the local and global levels for the purpose of development, unification, and spiritual and physical well-being.

University Chaplain Brian Martin Burkholder speaks during a campus worship service on Wednesday in Martin Chapel.

Mukarabe Makinto-Inandava reads a selection from Luke 24 (left). Members of the EMU Gospel Choir (right) sing during Wednesday’s campus worship service.

About Campus Worship

Campus Worship is an invitational space for gathered worship in Christian traditions and a variety of styles. Services are held in Martin Chapel of the Seminary Building on Wednesday mornings every other week. 

Campus worship continues with a final service of the academic year on April 22 recognizing EMU’s senior student chaplains: Emily Suarez Nunez, Dia Mekonnen, Sara Kennel, and Miranda Beidler. The event will be livestreamed on .

Watch a video recording of the service below!

Reed, who is running for reelection this year, has served as mayor of Harrisonburg, Virginia, since 2017, when she was first elected to City Council. She is the first African American woman elected to the council and also the first to be appointed mayor. At EMU she is director of alumni engagement & community connections.

During the second annual Stroll to the Polls event on Friday, Sept. 20, at the Rockingham County Circuit Courthouse in downtown Harrisonburg, Reed rallied students from EMU and James Madison University, as well as others in the community, to cast their ballots on the first day of early voting in Virginia. The event aims to increase voter turnout, especially among college students, with marches proceeding from the steps of the courthouse to the city and county polling places.

One of those students attending the rally, EMU sophomore Elie Hoover, a social work and music major, said that having a local leader actively involved on campus helps keep her politically engaged. She feels proud to be an EMU student, she added, knowing that the school has representation in city government.

“I want to do my part because she’s doing her part for us,” Hoover said.

At the Stroll to the Polls event, as she walked along Main Street toward City Hall with a group of other students, EMU junior Royale Parker waved a “Virginia Votes Early” sign and enthusiastically encouraged passing drivers to vote.

Parker, a business administration and psychology major, said she once believed there was no use in voting. “I was one of those students who thought my voice didn’t matter and that my vote didn’t count,” she said. 

But interacting with Reed through committees and clubs on campus has shown her that everyone has a voice and a vote, including her. Reed, she said, has introduced students at EMU to political issues they might have otherwise not known about and has also helped them understand the voting process.

“She’s inspired me to become more involved and excited to vote,” Parker said. 

EMU senior Kay Pettus, a music major and president of the Black Student Alliance (BSA), proudly displayed her “I Voted” sticker as she exited City Hall during the first day of early voting. Pettus, who organized the shuttles for BSA members from EMU to downtown Harrisonburg, said that Reed regularly works with BSA and encourages them to participate in civic events. She said that seeing Reed and others speak at the rally was a powerful experience. 

“I like that they were encouraging students and young people to vote,” Pettus said, “because it is important and our voices do count.”

Students who identify with a political party different than Reed’s say they’ve felt her support. Jason Dwyer, a senior political science and history double major who leads the EMU College Republicans club, said the Democratic mayor takes care to engage with everyone on campus. “I don’t know how many other colleges can say they have a mayor on staff and as part of their community,” he said.

Reed said she felt honored and privileged to know her presence and involvement on campus as a mayor has helped students engage in politics.

“It’s gratifying to see the impact of student participation in shaping our community and beyond,” she said. “Students’ voices are not just significant, they’re essential. Their voices matter and have the power to shape the future, and that is incredibly motivating.”