Praise Fridays are returning for the remainder of the in-person instruction following a push from students to approve the gathering.
Praise Friday will remain in Moody Coliseum like years past but will occur at 1 p.m. instead of 11 a.m.
“Approval came from so many students expressing wanting to connect, so it wasn’t even a lot of pushing on our end,” said Cyrus Eaton, dean of Spiritual Formation and Campus Chaplain.”We’ve been working to be ready to gather students appropriately.”
The university will allow up to 560 participants to attend, socially distanced and requiring masks. Anyone hoping to join will have to enter through the south gate of the coliseum.
“There are a lot of ways to track people,” Eaton said. “Once people enter through the south gate, we’ll check them in, and once we reach the threshold of 500, we’ll pause for a moment and do a more detailed count during that last bit.”
All attendees will be allowed to enter as early as 12:40 p.m., and tape will mark off rows to enforce social distancing.
“While we know this opportunity is limited and will not allow for everyone to participate, we are committed to creating more spaces for us to gather as a family and do so safely,” Eaton said.
Eaton said he is pleased to finally bring back the ACU tradition and see how it further builds community.
“Speaking in front students has always scared me, but getting students together excites me more than anything because I do believe that the lack of community has certainly changed the morale of our campus,” Eaton said. “I’m excited for Praise Friday because there’s nothing but love for one another.”
