Tufts Interfaith Awareness Series – Spring 2019

Starting with United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week from February 1 – 7, Tufts Interfaith Student Council invites all to engage in our fourth-annual Interfaith Awareness Series.

We welcome you to a multi-week initiative for learning about and engaging with the diverse religious and philosophical traditions that compose the Tufts community. Regardless of your own religious or philosophical identity, please join us at any or all of the following open programs. All are welcome.

Events taking place during the month include:

Interfaith Havdalah
Saturday, February 9, 5:30 p.m., 11 University Avenue, Medford, MA 02155

For more information, please contact Tufts Hillel Interfaith Student Council Representative, Vera Zanker.

“Service Corps Sunday” Dinner Conversation: Learn About Post-College Service Opportunities
Sunday, February 10, 6:00-7:00 p.m., Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene
Are you interested in learning about service- and justice-oriented programs after college? Come for a free dinner conversation co-sponsored by the Catholic and Protestant Chaplaincies.  Representatives will be visiting to talk with you and share about their programs. They include the Young Adult Volunteer Program, Life Together, and the Loretto Volunteers Program. These are progressive faith-based organizations dedicated to serving others in solidarity, promoting justice in community, deepening spiritual awareness and vocational discernment, and living simply in intentional community. If any of these things speak to you, or you’re just curious, please join us. All are welcome, regardless of religious or philosophical background. Please email Catholic Chaplain Lynn Cooper (lynn.cooper@tufts.edu) or Protestant Chaplain Dan Bell (daniel.bell@tufts.edu) if you have any questions. Facebook event here.

Interfaith Protestant Evening Worship Service
Sunday, February 10, 7:00 p.m., Goddard Chapel
Mira Guha, A19 preaching. Sponsored by the Protestant Students Association.

COFFEE Interfaith Group Meeting: Faith and Politics
Monday, February 11, 7:00-8:00 p.m., Goddard Chapel
COFFEE is going to meet to discuss the intersection of faith and politics. We will look into the American legal system’s relationship with religion, the First Amendment, and the concept of laïcité before having a discussion on this important intersection. Meeting every other Monday. Any questions, please contact Andrew Schloss at Andrew.Schloss@tufts.edu

Christian-Muslim Interfaith Field Trip to St. Paul’s Cathedral, Boston 
Friday, February 15, 12:00-3:00 p.m., St. Paul’s Cathedral
Facebook event here. 
Sponsored by the Muslim Students Association and the Protestant Students Association.

Tufts Table: The People’s Supper and Reweaving Our Social Fabric
Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 6 p.m., Tufts Interfaith Center
Join the Office of the Provost, the Chief Diversity Officers, and the University Chaplaincy for a Tufts Table in the format of The People’s Supper. The People’s Supper was developed by the Tufts alumna, minister, and interfaith leader The Reverend Jennifer Bailey, A09 after the 2016 Presidential Election to help to “reweave our social fabric.” It is a model for building bridges across the divides of politics, religion, values, and other differences. Tables will be co-hosted by Tufts’ chaplains and members of the Interfaith Student Council. To RSVP, please visit: https://tuftstablepeoplessupper.eventbrite.com. For more information, please contact chaplaincy@tufts.edu.

Interfaith Jumu’ah
Friday, February 22, 1:15-2:00 p.m., Tufts Interfaith Center
Where do Muslims run off to on Friday afternoons? What do congregational prayer and discussions look like? What is the faith significance of Friday in Islam? Well… Come to learn. Come to eat. Come to engage with the Islamic Friday tradition of Jummah. All are welcome. Sponsored by the Tufts Muslim Students Association

Save the Date: Death Café – Sponsored by HCAT
Friday, February 22, 5:00 p.m., Tufts Interfaith Center
Death Cafés are an opportunity for people–friends and strangers–to gather together, drink tea, eat cake, and discuss thoughts and feelings around death, dying, and mortality. These discussions are facilitated but with no agenda beyond creating an accessible and respectful space to connect with others. The Tufts Humanist Chaplaincy will host an open death café on the late afternoon of Friday, February 22, including dinner. All are welcome, including and especially people of various religious and philosophical identities. For more information, please contact Humanist Chaplain Walker Bristol at Walker.Bristol@tufts.edu.

Interfaith Shabbat 101 Sponsored by Chabad at Tufts
Friday, February 22, 6:00 p.m. Kiddush and 6:45 p.m. Dinner, Chabad House, 21 Chetwynd Road, Somerville, MA 02144

The Intersection of Anti-Blackness and Islamophobia 
Saturday, February 23, 6:00-8:00 p.m.,Curtis Hall
Sponsored by the MSA and the University Chaplaincy

Boston Interfaith College Student Retreat: Religion at the Dinner Table: Conversations that Matter
Saturday, February 23, 6-11:30 p.m.; Sunday February 24, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Walker Center for Ecumenical Exchange, Auburndale, MA
Join us for the 2019 Boston Interfaith Leadership Initiative (BILI) Student Retreat entitled, “Religion at the Dinner Table: Conversations that Matter” on February 23-24 at the Walker Center for Ecumenical Exchange. This gathering is sponsored by the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning and Leadership of Hebrew College and supported by a grant from the Of Many Institute for Multifaith Leadership at NYU. The retreat is organized by a team of local undergraduate students from Bentley University, Boston University, Brown University, MIT, Northeastern University, Tufts University, and Wellesley College. The retreat is open to undergraduate students from across New England with an interest in interreligious dialogue, study, and action. This includes people who identify as religious, secular, spiritual, atheist, agnostic, or otherwise. It will include skill-building workshops, story sharing, panel discussions, informal conversation with religious and civic leaders, educators and activists, and your peers. More information is available here: https://goo.gl/forms/KS9wFDPxnFcSwGqn2 and here is the link for the registration page:https://goo.gl/forms/KS9wFDPxnFcSwGqn2.

Interfaith Roman Catholic Mass
Sunday, February 24, 5:00 p.m., Goddard Chapel

Interfaith Puja
Tuesday, February 26 , 9:00 p.m., Goddard Chapel

Faith and Music: Open Mic Night
Thursday, February 28, 7:00p.m., Interfaith Center
Come and tell stories of faith, play music, tell stories of music and have fun with the Tufts Unitarian Universalists and the Humanist Community at Tufts! We will be serving tea and scones.

Moral Voices Lecture Sponsored by Tufts Hillel 
Tuesday, March 26, 8:00 p.m., Cohen Auditorium

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times Columnist, two time Pulitzer Prize winner, and CNN contributor joins the Tufts Hillel Merrin Moral Voices to speak on the topic of immigration. Often hailed as one of the most important journalists of our time, he will be discussing the media coverage of immigration through the past few presidencies. This important event will take place at 8pm in Cohen Auditorium. Tickets will be available for the greater Tufts Community on Tufts Tickets and at the Campus Center Ticket Booth starting March 11th.

Russell Lecture on Spiritual Life
Monday, April 1, 6:30 p.m., Breed Memorial Hall

Join Tisch College and the University Chaplaincy for a conversation with author, educator, and interfaith leader, Eboo Patel. Patel is the Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core, the renowned national nonprofit that brings young people from different faiths together to work on social action projects, fostering cooperation instead of conflict among youth of diverse beliefs. Named by U.S. News and World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders, Patel also served on President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council and partnered with the White House to launch the Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge in 2011.

He is the author of four books including, his autobiography Acts of Faith and his recent book, Out of Many Faiths: Religious Diversity and the American Promise. A recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, Patel is a member of the Young Global Leaders network of the World Economic Forum and was recently selected as one of five future policy leaders to watch by Harvard University’s Kennedy School Review. Follow the conversation live at #EbooPatelAtTufts.
This event is presented by the University Chaplaincy Russell Lecture on Spiritual Life and the Tisch College Distinguished Speaker Series. You can learn more about the Russell Lecture, Tufts University’s oldest lectureship, here. RSVP requested at tischcollege.tufts.edu/content/eboo-patel.

Full Moon Practices: A Multifaith Exploration
Friday, April 19, 7:00 p.m., Goddard Chapel

Join Buddhist Chaplain Venerable Priya Sraman and Muslim Chaplain Celene Ibrahim for a conversation and exploration of full moon practices in Islamic and Buddhist traditions. Do you have a spiritual or cultural
practice that is connected with the full moon or with the moon more generally? Are you curious to hear how people of different backgrounds find meaning in the symbolism of the moon? Join us! All are welcome. A light dinner will be provided.