Student Organizations and Leadership

Student organizations provide opportunities for involvement, leadership, programming, social connections, and experiential learning that are crucial to the educational mission of the Divinity School.

The Office of Student Life supports student organizations at HDS. HDS student organizations reflect the diversity of student needs and interests. Resources are given to those students with new ideas who would like to establish new groups, as well as to the further growth and development of existing groups. All student organizations register with the Office of Student Life on an annual basis. Current HDS students can find the paperwork to register a new organization on the Student Life page of my.hds.

Student Representation

Students at HDS have ample opportunity to influence this great community through a variety of leadership opportunities. Students are represented on every faculty search committee and most administrative committees. The HDS Student Association allocates funding for student groups and programming initiatives that it receives from collection of the student fee.

The HDS Student Association provides students a voice in the administrative and policymaking procedures of the School, and opportunities for social connection. It also facilitates discussion among students, staff, and faculty. The elected student officers meet monthly with the Dean to discuss student concerns and issues that affect the entire community and provide opportunities for conversation among students, faculty, and staff through roundtable discussions and Town Hall meetings.

2022–23 HDS Student Association Council

  • President: Kenashia Thompson
  • Academics Chair: Byron Jones
  • Communications Chair: Kristina Reinis 
  • Events Chair: Breana Norris
  • Social Justice Chair: Michael Meeks 
  • Spirituality Chair: Xavier Sayeed
  • Student Affairs Chair: Auds Jenkins
  • Treasurer: Jenna Rifai

HDS Student Organizations

Following is a list of student organizations currently registered for the 2022–23 academic year. While many organizations carry on from year to year, many new organizations form and others subside. As a courtesy to our student organization leaders, we maintain a policy of not publicizing or distributing their contact information, but all are happy to receive inquiries about their involvement here at HDS.

Registered student organizations wishing to create programming at HDS can use the Online Student Event Planning and Request Form found on the Student Life page of my.hds, to request program needs: funding, meeting space, A/V support, and so on.

To be put in contact with the officers of a particular student organization, please email the Office of Student Life.

HDS Anglican/Episcopal Fellowship

The Anglican/Episcopal Fellowship serves Episcopal and Anglican students at HDS as a source of community and spiritual formation.

BBSnax @ HDS

We are an informal social group for HDS students who identify as Black, Indigenous/Native, mixed race and/or people of color. We host convivial gathering spaces for friend-making, processing feelings, and sharing tips on navigating white-dominated institutions while indulging in tasty snackage!

B.E.E. Club, HDS

The HDS B.E.E. Club is a social club for students to explore their spirituality through the lens of bees and beekeeping. We offer knowledge in the form of practical beekeeping skills, bee anatomy and hive dynamics, the healing properties of bee products, the spirituality of bees and beekeeping traditions, and beekeeping as an embodied sensory experience. We ground our time together in the sensory as much as possible. In exploring how bees can expand our understanding of ourselves and our ecologies, we also focus on other insects and pollinators as well as horticulture and the climate. For more information, feel free to reach out to Tess Dufrechou at tessdufrechou@hds.harvard.edu.

HDS Birders

We are an organization for Harvard Divinity School community members and students. We commit to creating an environment inclusive of and respectful of all identities and backgrounds interested in anything bird-related. We aim to host events and get-togethers throughout the year and improve access to birding for all. We engage in birding as a spiritual and contemplative practice and hope to create and witness joyful space together as we connect with the rhythm of the birds.

HDS Buddhist Community

The HDS Buddhist Community (HBC) is a nondenominational Buddhist group serving the Harvard and Cambridge communities, supporting engagement with Buddhist traditions through spiritual practice as well as academic study. We host weekly meditation gatherings, social functions, and other Buddhism-related Dharma-related events throughout the school year.

HDS Catholics & Friends

HDS Catholics & Friends seeks to provide spiritual support and fellowship for the Catholic community at HDS. We also seek to share in the full depth and breadth of interreligious dialogue and interfaith work with all of our fellow students and religious student organizations. Our activities vary based on the interests of our membership but typically include weekly mass and social gatherings. Please come join us!

HDS Catholic Renewal

HDS Catholic Renewal seeks to provide a space of community for folks working for justice in the Catholic Church. Specifically, HDS Catholic Renewal will feature programming aimed at elevating the leadership and ministries of women and non-binary Catholics in the Church; challenging clericalism and building a just Church; affirming queer, trans, and BIPOC Catholics; engaging social justice issues in the context of Catholicism; embracing internal diversity and fostering theological discussion; and creating visibility for progressive Catholics. The group also aims to be an intentional space for supporting and welcoming those who have been harmed by or alienated from the Church, and together exploring how we can use the resources of Catholicism to create a life-affirming faith community.

If you have ever felt like you were not welcome in a Catholic space, or that your ideas/views/identities are not usually represented in Catholic settings, or are simply curious about possibilities for a more just Church, this group is for you! Join us as we grow together in promoting a vibrant, participatory, and justice-oriented Catholic church where all identities, ministries, and experiences are lovingly invited.

HDS Chess Club

A student group dedicated to studying and playing chess.

Comunidad HDS

The goal of Comunidad HDS is to create a community and support network for Latinx students at HDS and to provide cultural enrichment for the larger HDS and Harvard community. We hope to be a source that reflects the celebration of Latinx traditions across Latin America and the diaspora and to bring these to the Harvard community.

HDS&D

HDS&D is a group of HDS students playing tabletop games such as Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). We meet regularly to play and discuss.

HDS Divine Comedy Club

Divine Comedy is an HDS club for those interested in learning the craft of stand up comedy! We know nothing about actually doing stand up, but we figured it we get a group of hilarious people together the jokes will write themselves. We may also dabble in some improv, if anyone who joins the group can teach us improv, that is. This group is for anyone who has ever felt a secret calling to be sweating on the stage with a microphone, and also for those who think that sounds like their worst nightmare, but still want to take a crack at comedy!

DUCCS: Disciples and United Church of Christ Student Group

This student denominational group meets to create community, develop and sustain relationships, build awareness and understanding, provide opportunities for worship and gathering, offer educational and vocational advocacy, and nurture a circle of connection and creativity for those who identify with the Disciples or United Church of Christ traditions or simply seek an open and welcoming group of students and peers.

HDS EcoDiv

We're a group of students who are passionate about addressing the climate and ecological crisis through a broad spectrum of activism, including sustainability projects, direct actions, and spiritual care.

HDS Eco-Theology Fellowship

The HDS Eco-Theology Fellowship brings together students who share a commitment to cultivating their spirituality through engagement with the natural world and its residents, human and non-human. The Fellowship provides opportunities to share, learn, explore, mourn, celebrate, and worship with other members of the HDS community.

HDS Feminists Making Midrash

Join us in writing, reading, and discussing midrash - imaginative interpretation and story-telling based in biblical text. Midrash is grounded in the Jewish thinking that "each letter and the spaces between letters are available for interpretive work." (Wilda Gafney, Womanist Midrash)

Let's imagine and re-interpret together! We will meet once a week to discuss biblical characters and themes, read traditional and contemporary midrashim, and create space for our own creative writing. As feminists, we seek stories that center women, non-Israelites, queer people, gender minorities, and all those marginalized in the text. Everyone is welcome!

Finding Your Voice: HDS Writer's Workshop

Come as you are to write, share, and foster a community around the written word. We will explore the process of writing as a journey in finding your authentic voice. Whether you aim to tune into the divine voice(s) around or within you, we hope to build a space for everyone from published authors to folks expressing themselves through creative writing for the first time. This is a workshop, so come prepared to share, read, listen, and write alongside other HDS community members. All genres and voices are welcome and cherished.

Flor y Canto: Mesoamerican Cultural Table

A space for students across Harvard to learn about Indigenous knowledge and traditions from Mesoamerica. In 2022-2023 this group will host Indigenous speakers from Mexico and participate in the Peabody Museum's Dia de Muertos event.

HDS Garden Group

The HDS Garden was born in spring 2009 of the collaborative efforts of EcoDiv, the Divinity School’s environmental student group, and the HDS Green Team, a committee of staff from multiple departments committed to decreasing the school’s ecological footprint. Located on the grounds of the Harvard Divinity School between the Women’s Studies in Religion Program and the Center for the Study of World Religion, the fourteen beds that make up the HDS Garden are intended to foster sustainability as a way of life for the Divinity School community. Our gardeners grow organic vegetables and flowers for use at HDS events and a twice-monthly harvest for Faith Kitchen, a ministry of Faith Lutheran Church in Harvard Square. The garden team is committed to improving the quality of life within the HDS community, providing healthy food, work opportunities in the outdoors, inspiration towards increased self- and community-sustainability, and a space where people can breathe, rejuvenate, revive. The garden is open to all members of the HDS community, and is a sacred space where anyone can come, pick up a tool, and work with nature to grow together.

HDS Graduate Christian Fellowship

The HDS Graduate Christian Fellowship is a Christ-centered community seeking to reflect the universal body of Christ. We represent the broaderevangelical tradition with many different denominations and cultures but are united by faith in the triune God, trust in the Bible, and our love for ourSavior, Jesus Christ. We meet weekly to engage in fellowship, study Scripture, encourage one another, and pray together. We also participate inHarvard-wide Graduate Christian Fellowship events.

HDS Graduate Journal of Religion

The Graduate Journal of Harvard Divinity School highlights exemplary work by graduate students in the study of religion that interprets, responds to, andshapes the religious dynamics running through public life. Each year, we publish a student-led, peer-reviewed academic journal that features compellingresearch from a variety of disciplines surveying the study of religion and the modern academy. Learn more by emailing us at hdsjournaleditors@gmail.com or follow on Facebook and Twitter @HDSGradJournal.

Harambee: Students of African Descent at HDS

Harambee is the organization for students of African descent at Harvard Divinity School. The organization welcomes African Americans, Caribbean, Latin American, Afro-European, Afro-Asian, and African students. As an organization at a school committed to "scholarship and ministry in a religiously plural world," Harambee welcomes students regardless of religious faith or denomination. Follow Harambee on Instagram and Facebook @HarvardBRSCC.

The Hasidic Underground of HDS

Explore the underground of Judaism's most esoteric, most spiritual, and most controversial movement. Learn the secrets of Jewish mysticism, study texts directly from the works of Hasidic Rebbes, visit landmarks of spiritual significance in Hasidic lore, and create a community of Hasidim. *No religious affiliation or prior knowledge required*

HDS Hindu Group

The HDS Hindu Group is an intentionally inclusive community that welcomes practitioners, students, academics, and seekers. Events held throughout the year include holiday celebrations, community service opportunities, and general educational seminars. Learning and experiencing the traditions within Hinduism take many forms, and we welcome you to join us. For more information, don't hesitate to get in touch with Vandan Sadhak at vandan_ranpurwala@hds.harvard.edu.

Indigenous Solidarity Collective at HDS

Indigenous Solidarity Collective is primarily a space to foster Native and Indigenous community at HDS. Additionally, we continue the work that was begun in the HDS Common Read of Red Nation Rising (AY21-22). We collaborate with the broader student community, staff, faculty, and administration in order to hold HDS accountable to institutional commitments and to practice solidarity with and among Native and Indigenous people, land, belongings, and beyond.

HDS J.A.M. Collective

The HDS Justice and Music Collective is a community of students dedicated to engaging with music as a means of healing, empowerment, and resistance. This group holds weekly open jam sessions on campus and is focused on bringing music and arts programming to the greater community in meaningful ways.

HDS Jews for Liberation

HDS Jews for Liberation offers warm, creative, spiritual and political space for anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews, as well as Jews questioning their relationship with Zionism.

Joyous Noise at HDS

Joyous Noise is a multi-faith chanting community at HDS. We developed out of a wish to create musical spaces that would feel inviting to anyone who feels connected to the sacred through music, whether or not they think they are good at it. In our weekly gatherings, we make joyous noise together through chanting and other forms of musical worship that cultivate sacredness through community intention rather than tone and intonation. All are welcome! Email: hdsjoyousnoise@gmail.com

HDS Kehillah: A Jewish Student Community

HDS Kehillath is dedicated to providing Jewish students, non-Jewish students, Jewish faculty and staff, and all other HDS community members with a strong, accepting, safe, and welcoming Jewish community. Every Friday, we gather at 5 pm for Fridays @ Five on campus. We light Shabbat candles,recite blessings, and connect and reflect with each other to close out the week. We also come together for monthly Shabbat dinners, where we cater delicious food from local restaurants. Our students are connected to and join vibrant Jewish communities through Hillel, Chabad, and synagogues throughout Cambridge, Somerville, and beyond. We provide educational and community-building events around the holidays. Our group is growing and designing new traditions every year and we would love for you to join us and bring your own traditions!

HDS Kulehna Art Collective

Kulehna is an art collective at HDS that supports and nourishes women of color, gender non-binary, and trans folks of color on their creative journeys. Together, we will discover new ways to be in creative community and develop our unique voices as artists. Kulehna is a Tigrinya word that means "all of us/everyone." The name embodies the spirit that we are all artists, whether or not we know it yet, and we are at our most powerful when we are building together.

HDS Latter-day Saint Student Association

The HDS Latter-day Saint Student Association aims to offer a community space for divinity students who identify within, are adjacent to, or are interested in the Latter Day Saint Restoration tradition. The group hopes to cultivate the expansive joining of faith and intellect, connect fellow students, and provide opportunities for gathering, conversation, spiritual contemplation, and support.

HDS Leaves of Grass

HDS Leaves of Grass celebrates, investigates and discusses religion in counter-cultural movements and moments. We organize discussions andexperiences regarding transformation and transcendence. Our primary output will be zine literature, but other creative endeavors are also welcome andencouraged.

Love You, Miss You: A Peer-Led Grief Support Circle at HDS

This space is for all who have lost someone close to them. We will share our stories about the person or people we have lost, discuss our grieving processes, and how our grief journeys affect our lives at HDS and beyond. We want this to be a space where we support one another as we navigate thedifficult waters of experiencing loss. As a peer-led group, our priority is in building relationships and community, and we have the freedom to shift ourapproach in order to meet the needs of our group. This circle is not affiliated with any one faith, but we invite you to bring your full religious, non-religious,and/or spiritual self to this group. We also invite you to share with us religious or secular thought, meditation, prayer, or ritual that has helped you in yourgrief journey. A chaplain intern will be available for support. Email: hdsgriefcircle@gmail.com

HDS Lutherans

HDS Lutherans seek to grow in understanding both the depth and breadth of Lutheran identity and to creatively share such understanding with others while treasuring the plural nature of this place. We orient our time together around worship, community, and learning. All are welcome, and we delight in the presence of ecumenical and interfaith friends. We gather weekly, alternating between worship at HDS and theological conversation about issues that matter at a local pub. In the spring, we attend the "Lutherans of Other Folds, Together" (LOFT) conference with Lutheran divinity students from Yale, Union, and Princeton. We are grateful for the leaders and members of University Lutheran Church, Faith Lutheran Church, and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church who provide consistent support for our members.

Magick Paths

The HDS Magick Ways will meet and discuss the practices and mechanics of magick. This will include discussions on the various magick traditions and practices, public rituals, and workshops.

HDS Methodists

The purpose of United Methodist Covenant Group is to gather in the Wesleyan tradition of weekly covenant group meetings, as well as providing support and fellowship through other activities.

HDS Movement Chaplaincy Club

The HDS Movement Chaplaincy Club seeks to explore the histories, possibilities, and practices of movement chaplaincy in our own communities.

HDS Muslims

HDS Muslims is a student organization for any students who are interested in being part of the Muslim community at HDS. Open to all, this organization plans to host events such as Islamic talks and inspirational lectures by students and guest speakers. HDS Muslims will also host coffee chats for students who want to socialize and meet other members. We also serve as resource for all Muslim students who have inquiries about various aspects of being a student at HDS.

HDS Neurospirituality Group

This club invites the broader HDS community to interact with the emerging discipline of Neurospirituality. This discipline finds the intersection between contemporary neuroscience research and spirituality and mysticism in religious experience. Under the guidance of Dr. Michael Ferguson, we will organize events, lectures and meditative practice sessions where all are welcome to join in exploring the world of spirituality through a science-informed lens.

HDS Outdoors Club

The HDS Outdoors Club brings together individuals who enjoy activities in nature. We plan hiking excursions and various outdoor gatherings throughout the year. Come join us in our pursuit of building community through outdoor physical activity!

HDS Origins Club

HDS Origins is a non-sectarian spiritual group aiming to promote spiritual wellbeing through yoga, meditation, music, philosophy and delicious food. Club also aims to promote community building based on universal spiritual values which aim to unite and uplift HDS environment.

HDS Presbyterian & Friends

HDS Presbyterians and Friends is an informal gathering open to people of all backgrounds. We hang out weekly to eat, chat, sing, and pray together.

HDS Prison Abolition Community

HDS Prison Abolition Community (HPAC) (formerly HPEP) centers relationship building as the basis for abolition work. We focus on contributing to aworld beyond incarceration through acts of solidarity with people on the inside as well as community organizing on the outside. We strive to facilitate andimprove educational opportunities for those incarcerated; educate our communities about the abhorrent social conditions created by incarceration;challenge authority structures to abolish the prison-industrial complex; and practice transformative justice in our own communities. Email: hpac.hds@gmail.com Facebook: @HDSPAC

Queer Rites at HDS

Queer Rites is a group of students who have come together to foster dialogue and to explore ritual around what it means to be queer, what it means to be spiritual, and where those two intersect and interact. We are a space for investigation of the meaning of being queer at HDS. Email: queerrites@gmail.com. Instagram: @queerrites

HDS Religion, Tech, Ethics, and Policy

HDS Religion, Tech, Ethics, and Policy creates a space for students and community members interested in the interplay among technology and spiritual care and counseling, moral leadership, and public policy. We also explore technology's role in creating a decolonized and anti-racist environment.

HDS Religiously Redefined

We are gathering as a supportive community to explore or challenge the beliefs, boundaries, and practices of one's current religious and spiritual affiliations, practices, and identities. This may include those who identify with or are choosing to practice crossovers between multiple religions, and/or combinations of religious faiths and rituals. If you identify as: a religious "none", religiously fluid, a deist, pagan, theist, or none of the above, but who nonetheless pull from or seek to explore, find, choose, or create a path towards a non-conforming, non-traditional, currently not formally well-defined, or potentially not currently formally existing religion or system of spiritual practices and shared beliefs.

HDS Soulful Supper

The Soulful Supper is a ritual gathering and non-denominational facilitated discussion where we practice speaking from the heart vs. the head about topics that connect to our humanity.

HDS Student Association

The HDS Student Association, formerly SAEC, contributes the voice of students to the administrative and policy-making recommendations of the School. Through the work of the elected student officers and with the approval of the Dean, student representatives are assigned to HDS committees. The HDS Student Association provides opportunities for conversation among students, faculty, and staff through roundtable discussions and town hall meetings.

HDS Students for Justice in Palestine

HDS Students for Justice in Palestine stands in solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation and in the diaspora. With a fundamental belief in the dignity and rights of all human beings, we protest the conditions of the Israeli apartheid state and advocate for a world without occupation, systemic racism, and colonialism of all kinds.

HDS Surf Club

Walk on Water, Dance with the Divine, Wipe Out with Reverence. Let’s paddle out together! The Harvard Divinity Surf Club is for those stoked to co-create a regular relationship with the Ocean. Let’s learn how to ride the ups and downs with BLISS! Our gatherings will include a little bit of ritual yoga and meditation and aim to get us in/near the water once a month. Open to all levels! The best surfer is the one who has the most fun! Interested?

HDS Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Students

HUUMS's mission is to support each other in studies, vocations, and lives through worship, professional and spiritual development opportunities, andfellowship; to advocate for excellence in UU scholarship and ministry at HDS; and to represent the interests of its members in the larger community of HDS, the BTI, and Unitarian Universalism. Email: hdsuums@gmail.com

HDS Womanist Group

HDS Womanist Group is a social group to provide support and community for Black women and women of color at HDS. We strive to connect women of color by creating a safe space for Black women and BIPOC women. 

Other groups open to students

Harvard Divinity School Choir

The HDS Choir sings occasionally for the weekly Noon Service as well as for the annual "Seasons of Light" celebration. The choir rehearses on Tuesdays from 4:45 to 5:30 pm in 60 Oxford Street, room 114, and has a quick warm-up before Noon Service on Wednesdays at 11:45 am in 60 Oxford Street, room 119. Any students, staff, or faculty interested in joining the choir may contact Christopher Hossfeld, Director of Music and Ritual.

Wednesday Noon Service Steering Committee

Hosted each week by a different religious community of the HDS campus and overseen by a steering committee of students and staff, this weekly service allows the HDS community to pray with our companions across the boundaries of our many respective traditions. The Wednesday Noon Service Steering Committee is dedicated to creating a safe and respectful environment for diverse faith-based and student-run groups at HDS. Acknowledging the unique religious diversity of our campus, we aim to support and advance the religious pluralism of the School by engaging and honoring the many religious perspectives, commitments, and experiences among us. By creating a recognized time and place for all of us to come together in prayer, in reflection, in ritual, and in conversation, we seek not only to aid the ongoing dialogue among our various faiths, but also to come to know and to serve each other.