FAITH & SPIRITUALITY CENTRE
EXCELLENCE Religious pluralism involves moving beyond the acknowledgement of differences to understanding, action & respect. The Faith & Spirituality Centre is committed to developing global and cross cultural competencies and increasing the diversity of our campus community. As part of an institution of higher learning, the Faith & Spirituality Centre actively works with academic units to encourage greater understanding and awareness of cultural and religious difference in the context of an inclusive and pluralistic campus open to all viewpoints.
THE KALEIDOSCOPE PROJECT The Faith & Spirituality Centre is very excited to have received Quality Money from the Students’ Union to start an Interreligious & Intercultural Diversity Program on campus from 2014-2017 called the Kaleidoscope Project. The program, the first to be offered in the FSC, uses a multi-faceted and collaborative approach and will focus on researching, developing and implementing an interreligious and intercultural diversity program, called the Kaleidoscope Project, that brings together diverse groups of students from different religious, spiritual and secular viewpoints to work together to build a more inclusive and pluralistic community on campus and in Calgary. In 2015-16, the program is hoping to be a part of the ucalgarycares program on campus – a service-learning initiative bridging service projects and academic learning. Our project will have pre-service learning workshops that will introduce students to what the public sphere and secularism are, exploring models of pluralism, learning how to communicate personal values and engage in productive dialogue to affect change. Students will then participate in an intensive week long immersion program visiting a variety of sacred spaces in Calgary, learning about the religious observances from those traditions, examining a variety of case studies on how religious observances interacts with the public sphere and learning how to critically engage on those issues. Throughout this past year, the initiative also worked on building a community of students dedicated to fostering a more inclusive and pluralistic campus community at the University of Calgary by hosting three meet and greet events, a guided tour of the Jewish Community