When the University’s first chaplain, the Rev. Charles Gardner, dedicated Memorial Church on a Sunday morning 100 years ago, Stanford began what he called “a unique experiment.”
“No less an experiment than this: to test whether a nonsectarian church can minister to the spiritual needs of a great university,” Gardner said.
Since then, MemChu has been a source of solace and inspiration for hundreds of thousands of worshipers, a center for student religious life, a sanctuary in times of trouble, an admired architectural wonder, a popular backdrop for photographs and a very busy wedding venue. Church docent Susan Christiansen, ’60, MA ’61, and University archivist Maggie Kimball, ’80, helped us excavate some peculiar details from its history.
A Vatican blessing. Pope Leo XIII gave special permission to Venetian tilemakers Salviati & Co. to reproduce The Last Supper fresco from the Sistine Chapel for a Memorial Church mosaic.
Is nothing sacred? Cal students commemorated the opening of the church in their 1903 Blue & Gold yearbook with their own version of a stained-glass window—featuring a scarecrow wearing a Stanford sweatshirt and flanked by vultures.
They don’t make them like this anymore. A team of 10 men spent two years on scaffolds carving the ornate stone arches and borders inside the church.
Mary and Joseph . . . and Sally and Billy. The faces of the cherubs at the top of the sanctuary’s sandstone columns were modeled on children of faculty and staff who lived on campus during the church’s construction.
I do, I do, I do, I do, I do . . . On February 22, 1903, Ethel Rhodes and William Holt, members of the Class of 1902, became the first couple to wed in the church. There have been more than 6,000 since.
Heavenly host. An early fresco (later replaced by today’s dome skylight) included a large eye—“the eye of God”—looking down on the chancel.
No stone left unturned. The church was completely disassembled after heavy damage from the 1906 earthquake. Pieces were individually numbered and labeled, and reconstruction began two years later, but the work wasn’t finished until 1916. The 80-foot steeple that collapsed in the earthquake was never replaced.
To each her own. In 1966, after a two-year advocacy campaign by the Stanford Daily, trustees approved sectarian worship services in the church on a trial basis. In order to make the measure permanent, the University had to go to court to overturn a 1902 amendment to the Founding Grant in which Jane Stanford strictly forbade “all denominational alliances.” The Sunday 10 a.m. service remains ecumenical.
A peaceful place. In a 1994 address, the Dalai Lama stressed the need for “global community and universal responsibility.” He is one of several Nobel Peace Prize winners who have spoken at the church.
It sounds divine. The Baroque-style Fisk-Nanney organ, located in the choir loft, is considered one of the best in the world. Number of pipes: 4,422.
Try explaining that one to the dean. The church’s stained-glass windows have survived two major earthquakes, a century’s worth of storms and periods of campus unrest that included rock-throwing protesters. Only one window has ever been damaged—during a game of Frisbee golf.
