Despite Capital’s Lutheran ties, students hail from a diverse group of faiths and races. Each student is required to take a University Core course in
religion as a part of the liberal arts curriculum, but part of learning about different faiths, cultures and religions occurs outside the classroom.
This upcoming week, the Student Peace Alliance will host its annual awareness week, with the theme this year being “A Celebration of Interfaith Dialogue.” The week is co-sponsored by the Interfaith Center for Peace, which according to their website, sees “a profound need in our society for people of different faiths and spiritual backgrounds to come together to work for peace. There are many fragmented social movements in our country, and we aim to serve as the common space where people involved in the interfaith movement and the peace movement can meet” (interfaithcenterforpeace.org).
The goal of this week is to understand what interfaith dialogue is, Katie Wilson, senior and Vice President of the Student Peace Alliance, said.
This is an up-and-coming issue and needs to be addressed, Emily Michaelis, sophomore and member of the Student Peace Alliance, said.
The week will begin Monday at 7 p.m. in Weiler conference suites when a discussion panel comprised of community members, professors and students will answer the questions of what interfaith dialogue is and how it is practiced.
Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Mezz will bring a game night which incorporates peace-building games that aim to create dialogue across differences such as race and faith.
“The games will help open dialogue and use curriculum from peace schools,” Wilson said.
Both Wednesday and Thursday afternoons from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. in the Cru Club and P.O. Lobby will afford students the opportunity to participate in a service project preparing care packages for women who are staying at the YMCA women’s shelter.
Wednesday evening, the group will host an interfaith dinner in the MDR. The dinner will offer food selections from different cultures such as Kosher, Halal, vegan and vegetarian options and will be available with meal swipes.
This is “a time for people to come and experience different eating habits and why they are important to different faiths,” Wilson said.
The final event of the week will be Thursday night at 7 p.m., also in the Weiler conference suites. It will be an interfaith prayer service, which will incorporate a speaker and prayers from different faiths.
This is a time to experience different people’s prayers and a time to openly pray, Wilson said.
“Seeing all that in action and hearing different prayers, I think that will be cool,” Michaelis said.
The promotion of interfaith dialogue on Capital’s campus, however, is just beginning. The Capital Interfaith Association, a new organization on campus, will be hosting its kick-off event Friday, Mar. 16. At this event, interested students will receive ice cream and a book titled Voices of Our Faiths, whichis comprised of the faith stories from many Capital students.
The mission of the Capital Interfaith Association is to promote service through shared faith-based values and inter/non-faith dialogue to help better understand religious and non-religious groups, Stephen Aldrich, sophomore and secretary and networking chair of Capital Interfaith Association, said.
The association is a branch of the Interfaith Youth Core, the organization founded by Eboo Patel. Patel was the author of the unified theme reading for orientation this year, Acts of Faith.
This event is just the first of more events to come from the group.
“We have a service theme of invisible children in our community,” Aldrich said. These are children in impoverished areas, in hospitals, and with special needs. The group wants to raise awareness as to why the children are important, and why their lives and roles are important to different faiths.
We need to recognize others as human beings and figure out how to live together, Wilson said. We are all humans and have one planet.
