DOC Student Activities

DOC is among the most active groups on campus. Some of our regular activities are:

Retreats

At the beginning of every semester, all DOC students and invitees attend a weekend retreat. In the fall, the retreat takes place in the mountains. Each spring retreat occurs at a Partner Church. Retreats give students special bonding time, when new and returning students can get to know each other through music, meals, and fellowship. Retreats are also a time when the Church Relations staff and DOC Board share leadership and create community within DOC. We also discuss plans for the events of the coming semester, including service, fundraisers, and mission trips.

Founders Day

The biggest event that DOC students participate in each year is Chapman University's Annual Founders Day Celebration. Founders Day remains the largest regional Disciple gathering each year. It is also Chapman's largest annual fund raising event for the DOC scholarship fund. DOC students provide leadership in all aspects of the day. For DOC students, Founders Day is a chance to get to know many people from this area as well as hear amazing speakers each year. It is a marvelous opportunity for everyone to come together for a great cause.

Worship Services

Worship Services are offered every Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. in the Wallace All Faiths Chapel of the Fish Interfaith Center. Each week, a speaker from a diverse group of faculty, students, alumni, and locally and broadly based ministers gives a scripture-based message. Services also include singing, prayer, communion, liturgy, and sacred space. Everyone is invited!

These services are not mandatory for DOC students; however, they have proven to be a time for students to gather in God's grace in the middle of each week to release the worries of school for about an hour.

Mission Trips

Each year, Church Relations invites Disciples on Campus students to participate in a mission trip.

South Africa 2007

In January of 2007, a group of 25 students, faculty and Church Relations staff made the long Journey to the southern tip of Africa.  While in South Africa students had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the study of the rise and fall of the Apartheid Regime in addition to the critical economic disparity and HIV/AIDS epidemic that the country is facing currently.

The group also participated in service learning projects at two elementary schools, which included interacting with children, designing a community garden and cleaning school grounds.  More remarkable than the view from the top of Table Mountain, the delicious food, and the occasional run-ins with baboons, was the testament that South Africa signifies.

Although it has been over a decade since the end of the Apartheid Government's suppressive rule and oppression of black South Africans, South Africa is still speaking to the considerable and difficult task of healing and rebuilding a broken community.

The Chapman students who participated in this trip brought back with them so much more than souveniers. After listening to speakers such as Pumla Gobodo-Madikizekla, a psychologist and former member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, students engaged in discussion of achieving justice through truth and forgiveness as they pertain to the ongoing challenges of reaching for reconciliation.

Gulf Coast 2006

During Interterm 2006, Cisa Pauyo accompanied nine DOC students to the Gulf Coast of the US to help in rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Rita. They stayed at Northwood Christian Church in Beaumont, Texas, under the kind hospitality of Rev. Don Joseph, together with another mission group from Missouri. The first two days of the trip were spent cutting and hauling fallen trees and clearing brush for families in the Golden Triangle area. The remainder of the week, the missionaries worked to remove debris from a devastated trailer park so that soon it will be available for more temporary housing for families displaced by the storm.     

India 2005

In January of 2005, eleven Chapman students plus Dan and Cisa traveled to India for 17 days. In Bombay, they visited the YMCA and were exposed to all of the programs that the YMCA offers in urban India, such as vocational training, preschool education for sex workers' children, and special education not offered in Indian public schools.

The group got to experience a session of their adolescent women's program, as well as visit the organization's organic farm, where social outcasts, such as AIDS vicitims, are employed and taught about sustainable development and produce marketing. The group also traveled to Bangalore, where they were introduced to a theological school, and learned about an Indian movement known as Dalit theology, which is similar to liberation theology, and deals with sociohistoric plight of the Untouchable caste.

In rural Karnataka, the group also met with a rural women's cooperative movement through an economic commune. The group then traveled to Delhi and Agra to experience Nothern India, taking in the historic beauty of the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort.

Other Opportunities for Disciple Community

Progressive Christian Dialogue
Each week, this student-led group discusses issues of faith in today's world. Sometimes a student will facilitate discussion on an issue concerning students; other weeks, guest facilitators are incited to share their wisdom about the Christian community and living as people of integrity and of faith. Topics of discussion have included Who is God?, women in ministry, and where the Bible fits into the Christian life. For meeting times and speakers, please see the Calendar.

General Assembly and General Synod
Every two years, the Disciples of Christ and the United Church of Christ each hold a meeting for representatives of general, regional, and congregational units, called General Assembly and General Synod, respectively.  Church Relations sends a number of students as Chapman DOC representatives as part of Chapman's presence in the wider church.  To learn more about our upcoming assembly, please visit our General Assembly page.

For more information on any DOC activities, or to contact a DOC student about his or her experiences, please contact Cisa Payuyo.