Walking around a college chapel, especially for the first time, can be a surreal and disorienting experience. The weight of history, always an intimidating force in Cambridge, can feel particularly heavy in these hallowed spaces – it’s difficult not to imagine the vast hordes of students who have hoped and mourned and marvelled here over the centuries, feeling small and lost amongst these spectres.

I for one remember being completely overwhelmed during my matriculation ceremony, staring up at the immense fanned ceiling in bewilderment and wondering how on earth I had got here. I only awoke from my stupor to wince when my mum, a lifelong atheist, pointedly refused to join in with the Lord’s Prayer.

Cambridge may once have been an explicitly religious institution, but nowadays many students arrive at the University having spent barely any time inside a church.

For those of us who weren’t raised in Christian households and didn’t go to schools in which weekly services were a normal component of academic life, having a college chapel can initially seem like just another archaic Cambridge tradition, to be grouped in with gowns, gongs, and extravagant cutlery. For those who feel strongly atheistic, condemn a number of Church practices, or have had negative experiences with Christian institutions in the past, the religious presence in Cambridge can seem intrusive or even insidious.

When your time is divided between lecture rooms, libraries, bedrooms and pubs, it can be hard to find places of respite

Andrew, the King’s College chaplain, announced last week that he is planning to establish a new, ‘alternative’ church, HeartsEase, for students who may feel uncomfortable with some of the more traditional aspects of chapel life in college or Church custom in general. The initiative corroborates the notion that some of the more dogmatic and conservative features of the Church render its message inaccessible or unappealing to a significant number of students, but it also highlights the fact that it is not necessary to wholly or even partially subscribe to a particular belief system to find many aspects of chapel life valuable, affecting, and genuinely therapeutic.

HeartsEase will be modelled on the Thursday Late sessions that Andrew runs during term time, sessions in which the ceremonial atmosphere of the daily mass is replaced with a peaceful informality; incense is burnt, ambient music plays, and students sit or lie on the ground. I have never been religious, but these sessions, which provide brief spells of tranquillity amidst the tumult of Cambridge life, have come to mean a lot to me.

To explore why exactly it is that some forms of worship appeal to Christians and non-Christians alike, and why it is so important to keep these spaces accessible for everyone, I asked a number of King’s students who attend the Thursday Lates or are otherwise involved in the chapel for their thoughts.

Perhaps the most common reason why students appreciate having a college chapel, regardless of religion, is the community and pastoral support it provides

Many cited the space itself as intrinsically calming. When your time is divided between lecture rooms, libraries, bedrooms and pubs, it can be hard to find places of respite that are serene without being isolated. Simultaneously public and private, grandiose and intimate, with a quietude that isn’t simply an impetus for producing work, the college chapel can function as such a space. As one student said, ‘just the scale of it breaks the sometimes stifling routine of Cambridge and work.’

However, the opportunity to spend time in a beautiful building is only part of the appeal. Even though non-Christians may not agree with the way in which Biblical teachings are applied to the world, hearing these texts read aloud and interpreted is always intriguing and often highly affecting. Forgiveness, acceptance, sacrifice, truth – we may deconstruct these concepts in a distant, academic manner when working or reading, but it can be difficult to engage with them in a way that feels personal and genuine.

During the Thursday Late sessions, these ideas will often be discussed at length without explicit reference to the Christian faith, with Jesus’ teachings only being brought in at the end of the sermon. A member of King’s choir, who describes himself as a ‘total atheist’ despite singing in the chapel six days a week, explained that the matters discussed in these sessions are ‘as relevant to any non-Christian as they are to a Christian’.

But perhaps the most commonly cited reason as to why students appreciate having a college chapel, regardless of religion, is the community and pastoral support it provides. For anyone who arrives at King’s associating Christianity with intolerance, it is extremely reassuring to know that there are people within the Church who are not only deeply invested in students’ wellbeing, but who promote a message that is progressive and inclusive.

King’s’ LGBT+ officer, who grew up in Spain and has always felt alienated by the homophobic rhetoric of the Catholic Church, said that she applied to King’s after seeing a photograph of the chaplain accompanied by two drag queens. She described Andrew as a ‘symbol of inclusivity’ and said that it was ‘magical to see how the freshers connect with his much needed message of tolerance every year’.

King’s has fostered an atmosphere of accessibility and acceptance, and other college chaplaincies should follow its example. For as long as religious institutions and their representatives occupy a central place in college operations, their role should not be to merely engage in Christian practices or instruct from a Christian perspective.

Instead, college chapels should function as spaces in which students of all belief systems and backgrounds can go in order to reflect, question, meditate, or simply opt out of the chaos of Cambridge life.