The following is an excerpt from the article “Marsh Chapel, the Soul of Boston University, kicks off its 75th Anniversary Celebration this Weekend” by Rich Barlow, published on September 24, 2025, by BU Today.
Kimberly Macdonald joined the Marsh Chapel Choir at Boston University during her freshman year, in 2001. Macdonald (CFA’04, COM’23) is still singing in the choir 24 years later, as the chapel, opened in 1950, celebrates its 75th anniversary.
“The chapel choir is a spiritual home for me and many of my fellow singers and alumni,” says Macdonald, the BU School of Theology marketing and communications director. “I’ve grown up with this choir. It is the intergenerational community that has been the most steadfast and solid throughout my entire adult life. We’ve seen each other through job changes, moves across the globe, getting married and having children, loves and losses, successes and failures.” Macdonald’s choir mates sang at her wedding in 2013.
…
“Personal holiness and social holiness both converge here,” says the Rev. Robert Allan Hill, the chapel’s dean since 2006 and the sixth person to hold that position; he is also a School of Theology professor. “We express a deep personal faith and an active social involvement [that are] mutually enriching.”
…