About
About the University Chaplaincy
The University Chaplaincy is a dynamic hub supporting religious, spiritual, ethical, and cultural life for all members of the Tufts community. We provide pastoral care, support religious and philosophical communities, educate about spiritual and ethical issues in society and the world, and promote multifaith engagement.
Reporting to the President, the University Chaplain is responsible for leading university spiritual life overall and for providing direct support for those communities not served by the associate chaplains and residents. Tufts’ associate chaplains and residents include Africana, Buddhist, Catholic, Humanist, Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant chaplains and residents who serve the whole Tufts family as well as their particular communities. Spiritual life at Tufts also includes many campus communities across the religious and philosophical spectrum with many weekly gatherings and special programs offered each semester.
The University Chaplaincy also reaches beyond religion narrowly-defined to collaborate and integrate spirituality and ethics into all aspects of university endeavor and to relate with spiritual, ethical, and interfaith communities locally, nationally, and globally. Our work includes worship, prayer, meditation and ritual leadership, pastoral care and counseling, teaching and educational programming, holiday and cultural programming, community service and social justice work, interfaith work and institutional relations, and making recommendations to the President and other university leaders.
The University Chaplaincy honors and promotes Tufts’ Universalist heritage and spirit. We are committed to offering opportunities for all at Tufts to experience a rich inner life, dynamic devotion, critical spiritual thought, deep ethical reflection, meaningful community, and active and constructive engagement with the pressing issues and needs of our time.
What does the University Chaplaincy do?
- We provide opportunities for people to practice and deepen in their own religious and philosophical traditions, while fostering understanding and respect for other traditions.
- We provide opportunities for people to discern their values and gather in community with those who share them.
- We provide opportunities to learn about and engage with the diverse religious and philosophical traditions and communities represented at Tufts and in the world.
- We provide opportunities for meaningful and collaborative service and social justice work by those who share spiritual and ethical values.
- We provide a safer space and approaches for asking life’s big questions and discussing complex and controversial issues.
- We provide opportunities for the integration of mind, body, and spirit.
- We encourage leadership development and community building.
- We seek to foster the creation of a climate of religious pluralism, characterized by religious and nonreligious diversity, respect for difference, and collaboration.
- We provide a place where people can come to talk and find support in times of crisis and transition.
- We lead and coordinate blessings and rituals for the Tufts community.
- We support the integration of spiritual and ethical questions in the pursuit of academic and professional excellence.
- We support the Tufts community in collaborative dialogue and action toward the goals of human rights for all people and eco-social justice for marginalized communities and for our world.