Mark Fahey
Assistant Editor
clarion@sinclair.edu
Sinclair students represent a wide spectrum of religious traditions, and students can explore the traditions and practices of different religions during the World Religions and Spiritualties Week that will take place from April 23 to 26.
The week is being organized for the second year by the Office of Campus Ministry with help from faculty from the Religious Studies, Geography, Humanities and Philosophy Departments. Events are scheduled throughout each day in the library loggia, Room 7L21 and Room 8036 in the basement of Building 8. An information table will be staffed from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day between the Library and the Tartan Marketplace.
“The focus is on education,” said Barbara Battin, interfaith campus minister. “Offering people information about other religious traditions and opportunities to explore questions they may have about other traditions.”
Each day of the week will have a different focus. Monday will include a reading of a children’s book, “Old Turtle” by Douglas Wood, that “models a kind of interfaith dialogue that is respectful and transformative,” according to Battin, and a discussion about agnosticism and atheism.
Some events will present broad information about the spectrum of religious traditions in different geographical areas, while others will discuss more specific religions. Tuesday and Wednesday will focus on Eastern and Western religions, respectively.
“For the most part, it’s intended to be a smorgasbord, a buffet, a wonderful way of getting appetizers for learning more about any religious tradition,” said Battin. “Most of us don’t know a lot about traditions other than our own…and especially aren’t aware of the many religious traditions that exist on the Sinclair campus.”
As part of the World Religions and Spiritualties Week, a Sinclair Talks event will be held on Wednesday. Two guest speakers will discuss how to engage in interfaith conversation with people we know.
“It’s a friendship relationship, not necessarily a big theological conversation,” said Battin. “[It’s about] how we share our traditions, how we communicate with one another on a daily basis about our lives of faith.”
Thursday will be “people and religion day,” and will include opportunities to try a variety of spiritual practices, including journaling, art prayer and chanting for peace.
“Faith is such a powerful, personal and individual thing and communicating peacefully with each other about it is so crucial,” said Humanities professor Amanda Hayden, one of the event’s organizers, in an email. “Learning about other faiths and religions shouldn’t be something we fear, but should be something that helps us grow and learn and discover our own beliefs and practices more authentically.”
Sinclair’s many religion-based clubs are invited to have tables at the event.
“I would be glad if [students] learned even one thing about another religious tradition that they didn’t know before they attended an event,” said Battin. “We live in a world that is becoming more noticeably diverse. There’s a broader base of religious practice in this country that we’re becoming more and more aware of.”
Students are encouraged to come and talk about their own religious or spiritual traditions. Students with questions about the week can contact Battin at barbara.battin@sinclair.edu or 512-2768.
“We need to learn how to talk with people of other religious traditions and affirm the wisdom that is in all religious traditions,” said Battin. “[We need to] find ways to work together peacefully, nonviolently, for a human community that…has as its goal a deep peace.”