Campus Wide Events

Annual Memorial Service and Tree Planting

Pouring water on a tree planted in memory of faculty and staff who died in the previous year.

After Convocation, on the Historic Quad, we remember faculty, staff, and students who have died during the previous year.

Candles & Carols

This beloved annual service includes readings offered by students, faculty and staff, and performances from the Small Ensembles Club and the Bates a cappella groups.

Bates student looking up framed by candles

MLK Interfaith Service

Sunday, January 18th, 7:00pm, Peter J. Gomes Chapel

Poster with light shining in the middle and a picture of civil rights protesters at the bottom right

A Higher Plane of Dignity: Interfaith Reflections on Human Dignity

Join leaders and scholars from Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity as they reflect on two vital questions: 1) What are the sources of human dignity within your tradition, and 2) how are the sources of human dignity reflected in the practices of your tradition? Music and a reflective (and easy) arts practice will round out the evening.

Alumni Memorial Service

Sunday, June 14, 2026, 10:00am, Peter J. Gomes Chapel

Single Candle with Peter J. Gomes Chapel in the background.

Every year, the Multifaith Chaplaincy collaborates with the Office of Advancement to offer an Alumni Memorial Service during Reunion. We gather in the Peter J. Gomes Chapel to celebrate, remember, and give thanks for the lives of alumni who have died during the year and the friendships formed at Bates that continue to be present in our lives.

Veterans Day Observance

“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” -Arthur Ashe

The Multifaith Chaplaincy offers an annual service of gratitude and reflection on Veteran’s Day. People of any spiritual or secular tradition, veterans, and friends and family of veterans, are welcome to attend the service.

Everybody in the pool: The making of Metamorphoses

Shortly after Courtney Smith joined Bates in the fall of 2024 as an associate professor of theater, he floated an idea for a production that was both over-the-top ambitious and absolute catnip to his colleague Sally Wood, a visiting lecturer in theater who was trying to decide what play to direct in the fall of 2025.