Monday, July 21, 2008
Welcome to the Spirituality KC blog
The spirituality kc blog is now live. Comments on the topics of spirituality, religion, student concerns about these topics, staff ability to manage conversations abut these topics and anything else that's related are welcome. Jane Fried is the manager and welcomes contributions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
I'd like to use this blog to get some conversation going about how we engage in conversation about spiritual and religious issues with our students and our colleagues. Anyone who wants to discuss this topic is welcome to write . Anyone who has questions about how to engage in these kinds of conversations is also welcome to raise the questions for the group to think about.If our students are as concerned about spirituality as they say they are, what are we doing to help address the issues?
Jane thanks for starting this blog I think it’s a great way to share ideas. I’m very interested in what folks at Community Colleges are doing around this topic on their campuses. I'm chairing a committee that is exploring what other community colleges are doing and what we want to provide for our students. At the moment we have no spiritually related programs or services. I am wondering what other CC's are doing beyond having religious/spirituality related student organizations. Any help or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
I am working at a very intellectual university, and yet I am pleased to see that the Student Government's Social Issues Commission has just started a Religious Issues Committee of their own volition. They will make great partners in engaging these issues.
In Student Affairs, I have been working with the university chaplain to implement a more "religious diversity and spiritual development" paradigm. We are reorganizing that department to include a new program coordinator to organize dialogues and programs, and we are hiring a part-time Muslim Chaplain who is an educator with an interest in both Muslim student support and broader engagement in religio-spiritual issues. We lucked out in that he has a full-time job and wishes to do this other work with us 1 day/week.
This summer, I have been thinking a lot about our hesitation to discuss issues of religious diversity and how we might overcome barriers to have honest conversations. I recognize that a core value of many religious traditions is politeness and I wonder how much this might act as a prohibitor to dialogue. How might religious traditions instill values of not only politeness but civil honesty in order to encourage dialogue? I'm curious what others might consider in promoting dialogue through value clarification.
After the month of September, I like many of colleagues are exhausted from the chaos of opening, meeting new students, engaging parents and starting new courses. I'm always looking for ways to assist colleagues and students for that matter get grounded during this mid semester stretch.
What spiritual practices do folks use to "get centered?"
What happened to this blog? It's almost been a year since the first and only post. I'd love to see this forum utilized more often.
Mel- I don't know what has happened or what to do about it. Everybody seems to want to talk abut spirituality but nobody is taking the time to say much. I've just finished an article on spirituality and learning which I may post- after its published. But I don't know how to get people to take a look at this site and share thoughts. Any ideas?
PS- I was anonymous because my hard drive crashed and I have no idea what my password is. Jane Fried, Former chair of this KC
We have just started campus dialogues here in Toronto and I thought this would be a great place to start. The topic is religion and spirituality on campus. I will be posting more after this dialogue.
I am writing to inquire about interfaith councils on non-denominational public and/or private university campuses.
If you work (or have worked) with an interfaith council, would you share how and to whom that group reported on your campus? Are the members of the council employees of the university? If not, how do you effectively partner with this group?
Post a Comment