I
Tf,
S AL6MIT6
VolumaLXI ill II
Critm. SGPvinq the salpm cdleqe communilij since 1920
Dr. Richard L. Morrill
Dr. Richard Morrill
named the sixteenth president of Salem Academy and
College by the school’s board of trustees at its annual
Spring meeting. He will assume his new position this
summer.
Morrill, now executive assistant to the provost of the
Pennsylvania State University (University Park, Pa.),
will succeed Dr. Merrimon Cuninggim, who is retiring
in June.
Morrill, who also serves as affiliate associate
professor of religious studies at the university, is chief
staff officer to the provost, who serves as chief
academic officer and deputy president for the univer
sity’s 21 campuses and all programs in instruction,
research and public service.
The announcement was made by Thomas S. Douglas
III, chairman of the trustee presidential search com
mittee, following a unanimous vote of the 39-member
board of trustees. The trustee committee was assisted
by an advisory committee composed of representatives
of the faculty, administration, alumnae and students of
the college and academy.
Before his Pennsylvania State University ap
pointment, Morrill was, from 1973 to 1977, associate
provost and assistant to the president at Chatham
College (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and also taught in the
department of philosophy and religion.
Previous to 1974, he was assistant professor at
Chatham and initiated and served as director of the
college’s interim program in January. From 1967 to 1968
he taught in the history and philosophy of religion
department at Wells College, Aurora, N.Y.
Morrill, who will be 40 years old in June, is a magna
cum laude graduate of Brown University (B.A. degree
in history), a Phi Beta Kappa and a Woodrow Wilson
FeUow (1961-62). He holds the B.D. degree in religious
thought from Yale University (1964), where he received
the Tew Prize for excellence in studies in 1962, and the
Ph. D. degree from Duke University (1967). He was the
James B. Duke Fellow from 1964-1967, the highest award
of the Duke University Graduate School.
He has a particular interest in ethics and values in
higher education and has written and spoken widely on
these subjects.
He and his wife, the former Martha Leahy, have two
daughters, 12 and 9 years old. Salem New. Buteau
Salem’s Traditional Sunrise Service
The Easter Sunrise Serivce of the Moravian’s in Winston-
Salem , which is now one of the largest and best known in the
United States, is an old service, rich in spiritual significance.
The service it originated in Hermhut, a village in Southern
Saxony, by a band of religious refugees from Moravia. These
people became known as “Moravians.” In 1732, a group of
young men met before dawn on “God’s Acre,” the Moravian’s
grave yard, to sing and meditate upon the fact of Christ’s
death and resurrection- A greater appreciation of the
resurrection truth came/o the men as they stood among the
simply marked graves watching the sun rise and drive away
the darkness. Since this simple beginning, the sunrise service
on Easter morning has been an annual feature in the worship
services of the Moravian Church wherever it has been
established.
Ths first sunrise service held in Salem was in 1771, at this
time, though the village had been started, no graves had yet
been made in God’s Acre but the villagers gathered at dawn,
Easter morning, for their service then familiar to their church
for almost 40 years.
In Winston-Salem today this service is held with as little
variation from the traditional ones as present day conditions
and large groups of worshipers will permit. It is in no way a
service of spectacular show or pageantry but is still held as a
simple service of true worship centering on the renewal of
faith in the Risen Christ.
During the week before Easter, nightly services are held at
the church. Passages are read from the passion week manual
which contains Gospel accounts of the suggerings, death and
resurrection of Christ. On Thursday night, the Maundy
Thursday communion service is held with further readings.
Friday afternoon at 2; 15 is the Crucifixion service at which the
story of the crucifixion is read with the climax coming at 3
o’clock, the supposed hour of Christ’s death. At 7:45 Friday
night the Good Friday Love Feast takes place. This is a song
service primarily, with remarks by the minister. A simple
meal of coffee and bims is served. This service is preceded by
a prelude of chorales by the church band.
The climax of the week, of course, is the sunrise service on
Easter morning which begins one-half hour before sunrise.
The service begins in front of church, with the congregation
gathered in the street and around Salem square. About mid
way through the liturgy, the congregation begins it’s
procession to the graveyard where the service concludes.
Cont’d. on S
J^ev. Steler opens the sunrise service
Sunrise over God’s Acre on Easter morning