{"id":1083,"date":"2025-10-24T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T09:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/10\/24\/2025-10-24-making-a-joyful-noise\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:09:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:09:36","slug":"2025-10-24-making-a-joyful-noise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/10\/24\/2025-10-24-making-a-joyful-noise\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a joyful\u00a0noise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Alec Durfee<\/a> · Contributing Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hymn
Hymn Sing members gather in Harbison Chapel to sing their favorite hymns. \u2014 SYDNEY BREDENBERG<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday evenings, the sound of piano playing and singing can be heard from inside Grove City College\u2019s iconic Harbison Chapel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A look inside would reveal roughly two dozen students standing in a circle below the chancel steps, singing from red Trinity hymnals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each week, the college\u2019s Hymn Sing club assembles for a time of worship through singing hymns and fellowship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople call out their favorite hymns by number from the hymnal, which we do for about a half-hour,\u201d senior leader of Hymn Sing Eli Weikal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen, we have a brief period where we will go around and each student says their name and answers a \u2018question of the day,\u2019 chosen by club leadership. After introductions, we will take (hymn) requests for about 20 minutes or so, before we close with prayer for the night,\u201d Weikal added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hymn Sing group began in 2009 with a group of freshmen who all attended the nearby Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The group would host a time of bible study, singing and prayer in the chapel every Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This eventually morphed into mainly hymn singing on Saturday nights. As time passed, the growing gathering of Grove City College students even gained the attention of the college\u2019s former President Paul McNulty \u201980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 2016, President McNulty invited the Hymn Sing group to his house during the December study day. It became an annual tradition for the McNultys\u2019 to invite the Hymn Sing group over,\u201d sophomore Joshua Youngquist, a member of Hymn Sing leadership, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders of the Hymn Sing group discussed forming an official campus club to reserve rooms and raise funds for the group more easily. In 2023, the group voted to become a club and completed the process shortly after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Youngquist believes the current Hymn Sing club rallies around the common fellowship of Grove City College students with less emphasis on official membership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are less a club that sings hymns, but more a worship-focused fellowship that has added a club component to be able to raise money and support the different events we do,\u201d Youngquist said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnlike other campus activities, Hymn Sing allows you to show up as little or as much as you want … it\u2019s a cool way to meet people who aren\u2019t in (your normal) circles, including many freshmen,\u201d Weikal added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Hymn Sing primarily offers an outlet for students to sing hymns together, the club also provides additional opportunities for student fellowship. \u201cFamily dinner,\u201d organized by Youngquist, is a weekly gathering in MAP Dining Hall, where many students who attend Hymn Sing eat together at one large table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club also plans extra events, including an English country line dance each semester and an annual Labor Day hike to McConnell\u2019s Mill State Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCommunity is definitely a big aspect of the group,\u201d Weikal commented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get some freshmen who enjoy it and stick with it all four years. We also get other people who only start attending spring of their senior year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No formal sign-up is needed to participate in the Hymn Sing activities, though members keep in touch via group emails throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you like singing hymns and you like fellowship, or if you like English country dancing and dinner in MAP on Wednesdays, we\u2019re a great place to be,\u201d Youngquist said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about the college\u2019s Hymn Sing Club, email Eli Weikal at WeikalEJ21@gcc.edu or visit Harbison Chapel on Saturday evenings from 9 to 10 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u2014 SYDNEY BREDENBERG<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday evenings, the sound of piano playing and singing can be heard from inside Grove City College\u2019s iconic Harbison Chapel. A look inside would reveal roughly two dozen students standing in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[113,37],"class_list":["post-1083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-organizations","tag-alec-durfee","tag-issue-2025-10-24"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-24-13-making-a-joyful-noise-1-v2.jpg",1280,761,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-24-13-making-a-joyful-noise-1-v2.jpg",150,89,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-24-13-making-a-joyful-noise-1-v2.jpg",300,178,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-24-13-making-a-joyful-noise-1-v2.jpg",768,457,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-24-13-making-a-joyful-noise-1-v2.jpg",1024,609,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-24-13-making-a-joyful-noise-1-v2.jpg",1280,761,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-24-13-making-a-joyful-noise-1-v2.jpg",1280,761,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"On Saturday evenings, the sound of piano playing and singing can be heard from inside Grove City College\u2019s iconic Harbison Chapel. A look inside would reveal roughly two dozen students standing in","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2207,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions\/2207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}