The Augustana University Chapel of Reconciliation is at the center of campus and home to the Office of Faith & Spiritual Live. Attached to the chapel are the offices of the South Dakota Synod ELCA and Lutherans Outdoors in South Dakota.
With its refurbished Nordlie organ and Steinway piano, the chapel is also an often-used space for rehearsals, performances and special events.
The Augustana student congregation was officially launched on Reformation Sunday in November 1963. Sunday services, as well as midweek Lenten services were added to the daily chapel services held in the gymnasium. The groundbreaking for the Augustana Chapel of Reconciliation took place on March 20, 1981, and was dedicated on Oct. 1, 1981, which was the realization of a 120-year dream. Designed by Ward Whitwam Architects, the chapel seats 567 people.
Augustana's tracker pipe organ was meticulously hand-crafted by alumnus John Nordlie '74, owner of J.F. Nordlie Company Organ Builders of Sioux Falls. The organ was made possible by a gift from the late John W. and Agnes C. Siverson of Hendricks, Minnesota, and dedicated on Dec. 4, 1983. Thanks to many generous donors, the organ was restored by Nordlie for the first time in 1987, when the third manual, Positiv, was added, and again in 2020. The organ was rededicated to the glory of God in 2022.
Faculty members of the Augustana Art Department, notably Palmer Eide and Ogden Dalrymple, and other regional artists created the Chapel of Reconciliation’s liturgical art, including the reredos by Robert Aldern ‘51, the “Sower,” and several artful figures of Christ. The Hovland Center for Liturgical Arts highlights these works as well as other examples of the liturgical arts in the area.
