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!

Brian Martin Burkholder, campus pastor, leads the ˛ÝÝ®ÉçÇř hymn, "Christ of the Mountain, be our Word." Photo by Jon Styer

So, why are you here?

A rather strange question, perhaps, for the president of ˛ÝÝ®ÉçÇř to ask those who filled Lehman Auditorium Wednesday, Aug. 27, for the opening convocation of fall semester, but he had good reason.

"Most of us think about education in terms of what it will do for us, Loren Swartzendruber said. "What we will learn that will be useful for our future. what we can achieve, a particular goal that becomes more concrete.

"At EMU, we frequently talk about the educational enterprise as grounded in the liberal arts – the idea that an educated person is liberated’ from the confines of ignorance, free to explore beauty and pursue intellectual challenges. It’s our conviction that an education in the liberal arts is the best foundation for a lifetime of learning. All of these are valid reasons for being at EMU," the president stated. Listen to the president’s address via podcast.

‘Educating for Shalom’

"This morning, I offer yet another ‘reason’ for being at EMU," Dr. Swartzendruber said. "[Noted theologian] Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff calls it ‘educating for shalom.’ It’s a biblical concept that is often translated ‘peace,’ but it’s more comprehensive than one English word can embody.

"Wolterstorff suggests at least four dimensions to ‘shalom’ – right relationship to God, to fellow human beings, to nature and to oneself," relationships to oneself," he noted. "To these, he adds yet another facet – shalom is best experienced in community and it is characterized by ‘delight.’

Quoting Wolterstorff, "To live in shalom is to find delight in living rightly before God … in one’s physical surroundings … with one’s fellow human beings, to find delight even in living rightly with oneself."

Matt Garber is pictured here while singing with EMU’s Chamber Singers during the 2008 baccalaureate ceremony.

The president recalled the untimely death just two months earlier of 2008 EMU graduate Matthew Garber, 22, of Elizabethtown, Pa., a nursing major, gifted musician and ‘Cords of Distinction’ recipient.

Before starting a job in the emergency room at Lancaster (PA) General Hospital, Garber traveled to Costa Rica for a summer of ministry. On July 1, while swimming with a group, he was caught in an undertow and drowned. More than 700 people, many of them from EMU, gathered in Garber’s home community to mourn his death and to celebrate his life.

"Matt embodied each of Wolterstorff’s definition of shalom – he was comfortable with himself as a person, with his gifts and his place in his family and congregation," Swartzendruber said. "He was a confident young man, knowing that he had a variety of gifts, but seemingly without arrogance. He was clear about the importance of faith in his life and about his relationship to God.

"Matt wanted to serve in a physical way – to serve as a nurse – to bring healing and hope to the world through his work. And, Matt had a unique capacity to make others feel they were his best friend; he was other-oriented. ‘Delight’ is a good word to describe Matt’s approach to all of life," the president said.

The convocation closed with a "Shenandoah Welcome," as first-year and transfer students walked through a gauntlet formed by returning students and EMU faculty and staff while bluegrass music played. Ice cream and lemonade was served in the Campus Center Greeting Hall. Photo by Jon Styer

Each person had been given a pebble upon entering Lehman Auditorium. The president noted the "ripple effect" created when that pebble is dropped into a pond of water: "The initial splash is small; we may feel insignificant. But, the impact of our lives grows in concentric circles, changing the world around us even beyond what we can eventually see."

Lee F. Snyder, interim provost, offered a prayer of blessing as the new school year unfolds.

EMU’s fall semester runs through Dec. 12.

EMU senior Lisa N. King of Harrisonburg led a “prayer of remembrance” and lit a candle at the close of the chapel service Wednesday, Apr. 16, the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings that left 33 people dead and more wounded.

Students, faculty and staff left the auditorium in silence as the chimes on the roof of Lehman Auditorium tolled for one minute.

Some students wore Hokie shirts or sweatshirts as a symbol of solidarity for the many people affected by the tragedy on the Blacksburg, Va., campus.

EMU Chamber Singers. Photo by Jim Bishop

The Chamber Singers, a select student choir at EMU, will present its annual spring program of worship in music 7 p.m. Sunday, Apr. 20, at Park View Mennonite Church, 1600 N. College Ave.

The 34-member choir, directed by Dr. Kenneth Nafziger, will present a repertoire centered around a cycle of pieces for a cappella chorus by South Carolina composer Dan Forrest, “Words from Paradise.” Each piece in the cycle is on one word used prominently in the Bible: Holy, Hallelujah, Selah, Hosanna and Amen.

The concert will include music from many sources that explores these five words, including traditional classical as well as modern choral music, music from Africa and New Zealand and colorful hymn singing with the congregation.

Dr. Nafziger is professor of music at EMU. His teaching responsibilities include directing the EMU Chamber Singers and courses in conducting, interdisciplinary humanities and world music. Nafziger is also artistic director and conductor of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival held in June each year on the EMU campus.

Nafziger was music editor of “Hymnal: a Worship Book,” released in 1992, and editor of its Accompaniment Handbook (1993). He was assistant to the editor for both “Sing the Journey” and “Sing the Story” and producer and director of four CDs of music from these hymnal supplements. He is also co-author of the book, “Singing: a Mennonite Voice.”

Admission is free. Contributions are welcomed for the EMU music department student scholarship fund.