Annual community memorial service planned for Wednesday

Stanford’s annual memorial service this Wednesday will provide an opportunity for community members to honor students, friends and other loved ones who have died, whether recently or long ago.

“Honoring Lives and Remembering Losses,” hosted by the Office for Religious & Spiritual Life, will be from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday in the side chapel of Memorial Church.

The service will draw from diverse faith and non-faith traditions to honor students and others in community members’ lives who have passed away and to acknowledge their own grief. Music and readings will address loss and hope, and participants will have an opportunity to light memorial candles.

Campus Rabbi Laurie Hahn Tapper, who will lead the service in collaboration with other clergy and university staff and faculty, said the annual gathering, last held in person prior to the pandemic, has special resonance this year.

“This is the first time in two years that our community can gather in person in grief and support,” said Tapper, who is associate dean for religious and spiritual life. “While our Stanford community has experienced specific loss, we have been living in a fog of world-wide death, loss and isolation for two years, and many people have also been experiencing their own personal losses, both generally and specifically. We hope by being together in community, this ceremony will enable Stanford community members a place for expressing their feelings and hopefully some healing.”