Although Grinnell College is still claimed by the United Church of Christ as a "historically affiliated" college, and is therefore still included in the UCC's official count, this would come as a complete shock to nearly all of my fellow students. Grinnell is consistently listed in the top 20 schools with the "least religious students" and "most liberal students" according the Princeton Review.

Unlike all of my fellow students who were attracted to Grinnell for its elite ranking and self-governance housing policy, I came to Grinnell explicitly because of its strong Congregational history. Founded by Andover Seminarians who moved to the Iowa frontier to "each found a church" and "together a college," Grinnell College is completely rooted in the United Church of Christ. I see the UCC in the iconography in our chapel, in the polity of our housing policy, and in the deep commitment to social justice and community service.

My first year of college, it was lonely to be the only out progressive Christian who went to church every Sunday. While there were DOC and UCC students at Grinnell, once they got to college, they let the Sunday ritual slide completely away. On Sunday mornings as I head south across the quad to go to the local Open and Affirming UCC church (most of the members are over 70 years old), I pass the throng of Grinnell College Christian Fellowship students (a conservative intervarsity group) headed to the evangelical church in the opposite direction. Although many members of the Grinnell College Christian Fellowship are wonderful people, I would never be permitted to take on a leadership role in their organization because of my orientation. While most of the secular students on campus are okay with my spiritual nature, I have encountered some people who are violently opposed to religion and professors who openly attack religion as the source of all political and social "evil." I had found myself caught in the middle of two groups, one that rejects Grinnell's UCC history because it is too liberal, and the other that rejects our UCC history because it is in itself religion in some form.

I was wrong to feel alone, for there is a light for me at Grinnell in the form of our amazing UCC chaplain, Deanna Shorb. She and her office is the reason why I have learned to love Grinnell and can feel the spirit of Congregational/ UCC spirituality alive at Grinnell. Rev. Shorb serves as our Dean of Religious Life and advisor to the Religious Life Council and Pre-Seminarians. As an ecumenical and interfaith group of spiritual people from all traditions, we form our own small progressive community. When we meet twice a month, have interfaith prayer, or go on retreat, we rejuvenate and encourage each other. Together, Chaplain Shorb and Rabbi Litwin help lead and inspire our small community of open-minded religious and spiritual seekers in a sometimes overly secular and ambition driven small college campus. The UCC is alive at Grinnell College, for I can feel it in every meeting of religious life council and through the very essence of the mission of Grinnell College to train women and men to make a difference in the world.

Jake Joseph is a first-year member of the STEP Leadership Team and a member of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Fort Collins, Colorado.