Crosses, crescents and menorahs were all rallying symbols throughout graduate student Margaret Wadsworth’s early life — she studied at a Catholic school in Cleveland and a Jewish school in Israel, lived near Quakers in New Mexico and built interfaith programs by working with youth in Ontario.
In a personal pilgrimage that seeks to bring more than religious symbols together, Wadsworth last semester took up the university’s first official religious diversity coordinator position — a collaboration between the Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy office and the Memorial Chapel. Her position marks the university’s first major emphasis on religious diversity and creating a new position to help address a changing interfaith environment.
“We have to get to know everybody, what groups are out there, and how you can work with them,” Wadsworth said, “That has been the premise of this first year.”
Wadsworth, a first-year graduate student studying environmental anthropology, has been facilitating religious diversity and spiritual diversity programming through the campus community’s web of interfaith connections — including the Memorial Chapel, chaplaincies and other religious and spiritual groups. Many of them have organized events ranging from food-for-thought discussions at interfaith dinners to raking sodden leaves on McKeldin Mall.
With the gears of interfaith collaboration already turning, much of her work this semester has involved hopping between meetings and events organized by students from diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds, allowing Wadsworth to become the “common thread” in developing a network of connections and bringing people together.
“The full impact of this position has yet to be experienced, since the position is so new,” said Denise McHugh, a Memorial Chapel coordinator. “This position offers the opportunity for students representing different religious and spiritual backgrounds to come together to learn from each other.”
As part of this vision, Wadsworth said campus interfaith coordinators must consider new ways to draw more people into discussions vital to cooperation, communication and understanding, especially for students who label themselves as spiritual rather than religious.
For Wadsworth, this may mean expanding programs’ traditional focus on interfaith dialogues and service projects to events that address controversial issues such as sexuality, gender orientation and conflict in the Middle East — especially as some students grow “weary of what might feel like more contrived discussions.”
“If there’s a superficiality to these discussions, then what are you accomplishing?” Wadsworth said.
Rev. Holly Ulmer agreed. The chaplain of United Campus Ministry — which represents the Presbyterian Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ — said she would like to see more topics addressing religious stereotypes and the “perceived clash” between religion and science on the campus.
“We live in a culture of facts and visible proofs,” Ulmer said. “Coming to terms with religion and spirituality in an intellectual environment can be challenging.”
Wadsworth must also grapple with the giant that is interfaith programming, with religion and spirituality permeating decisions from global ideas such as social justice to simple day-to-day choices such as what meat to eat, how to greet others and what to wear.
This academic year, Ulmer said, interfaith programs have included a panel in October, a positive discussion on sexual orientation in December and a multifaith family roundtable earlier this week.
Organizers hope to bring together more communities through a diversity town hall on April 8 and a project to plant flowers in the chapel’s garden on May 4.
“We have to continue to create a space to be heard and be proactive even in the face of similarities and differences,” Wadsworth said.
