Hello Interfaithers,

It’s been a while, but now that I’m able to attend Interfaith Explorations meetings more regularly and a host of other interfaith events on campus, I can now give you all a better report on current interfaith campus shenanigans.

The first major interfaith event of the semester was hosted by Lighthouse, a large non-denominational Christian group on campus with connection to the Tacoma College Ministry (you can check out their awesome website, complete with blog posts by their student leaders, here: http://lighthousetcm.org).  Anyway, the topic was on Rebels and Revolutionaries, where we discussed the value of social deviance and how that applies to our spiritual lives.  I volunteered to sit on the floor as a social experiment of “deviance” from the “sitting in chairs” norm to see how many people would join my decidedly radical movement.  I gained two followers, but later lost one to a table.  Lighthouse also deviated from their usual formula (small group discussions first, then large group) by starting with a video clip and large group discussion.  Many people voiced admiration for certain movements perceived to be deviant, like becoming a nun or becoming an advocate for nonviolent resistance, as well as voicing our fears, concerns, and sacrifices we were afraid to make by pursuing these rebellious but much-appreciated lifestyles.  All in all it was a great event!

Interfaith Explorations, formerly Interfaith Council, kicked off their weekly meetings last week with a fun game whose name none of us remember.  It consists of attempting to decipher other people’s pictures into English sentences or vice versa, like a blend of pictionary and telephone.  My first sentence was “and if you seek the Mystery, if you find it not within yourself, you will never find it outside of yourself,” which admittedly was a hard and very cruel thing for me to ask my peers to translate into a picture.  Needless to say I shouldn’t have been surprised that the final result was “Why is my heart on fire?!”  This meeting was such a fun, great, and relaxing way to start off the new semester.

IE’s second meeting was led by a student, Ashley, who wanted to discuss what it was like to be religious (or non-religious) in the United States, and what our experiences were like growing up.  We found that it depended a lot on where you lived.  For example, Ashley went to a Catholic high school where being religious was a gateway into the bottom recesses of the social food chain, whereas in my school, also a Catholic high school, the more religious you were, the more popular you became.  Some of us voiced concern about feeling like we’re always on the defense of our non-traditional spiritual views, while others worried about not offending others (especially atheists) with open discussions about God and faith.  This meeting drew a whopping 15 people, more than the usual IE meeting, and the discussion was deep and enlightening.

Interfaith Explorations meets every week, Wednesdays at 5:30 in the Multifaith Room (Kilworth Chapel basement).  Lighthouse Unplugged (the dinner discussions) happen once a month on a Tuesday at 7:30pm, and their regular meetings/services happen at all of the other Tuesdays at 8:30pm, all in the Kilworth Chapel basement.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!

Rebecca