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Please join us for a special University Chapel service led by guest pastor Ruth Naomi Floyd from 11:30 a.m. to noon. After the service, Floyd will lecture on "The Theology of the Blues and Belonging" from 12:30-1:30 p.m. with a brief, informal reception to follow.

Accompanied by music and photography, this lecture frames the blues not merely as a genre, but as a living theological witness to suffering, despair, faith, hope, resilience, and defiant joy. It explores how we carry the weight of lament and name our sorrows without hiding them, mirroring a timeless human hunger for belonging and a sacred yearning for a world where we are not only heard, but fully received.

Ruth Naomi Floyd is an award-winning vocalist and composer who has been at the forefront of creating vocal jazz music that expresses theology, history, and justice for over thirty years. An educator, photographer, and justice advocate, Ruth has performed and lectured worldwide. She has taught at several institutions and was the first African American woman to serve as founding director of a university jazz studies program in the United States. Her creative work and teaching are inseparable from her lifelong advocacy, which has long served marginalized and under-resourced communities.