In an attempt to promote interfaith dialogue on campus, Religious Life Student Leaders Asir Saeed ’16 and Shayna Solomon ’16 organized an Interfaith Service Exchange series between various religious groups on campus.

The series consisted of four events throughout the fall semester, each focused on a different religion. Each event involved a religious service and a discussion session, and gave students the opportunities to learn about Judaism, Christianity, Catholicism and Islam.

The goal of the exchange mirrors the goal of the Office of Religious Life – to educate the student body on different faith traditions. To do so, the exchange exposed students to as many faiths as possible throughout November. Saeed and Solomon wanted to give students the opportunity to see how their fellow Dickinsonians practice their religions in order to decrease prejudices, dispel misunderstandings and increase religious literacy, which can give context for a wide range of topics in the classroom for both sciences and the humanities.

“This is a more public way to spread the word and invite students to already open services of various faiths so they can learn in a spiritual or purely academic capacity,” explained Saeed.

The first service was Friday, Nov. 8 at the Asbell Center. It was a student-led Shabbat service, followed by dinner and a discussion of the Jewish faith. Jessica Klimoff ’16 guided the service with the aid of other Jewish identified students sharing their faith experiences.

Pastor Ryan Brown of the New Life Community Church in Carlisle led an event on Sunday, Nov. 10 in partnership with the Dickinson Christian Fellowship. This service was not as well attended as the Shabbat service or the Catholic Mass, which Donna Hughes, Director of Community Service and Religious Life, attributes to the fact that “most people are already familiar with Protestantism.” Hughes said that the Office of Religious Life may look into finding another service in the future that is on a Saturday or Sunday evening to take students to because these different times may better fit into busy student schedules.

The Catholic Mass was held on Sunday, Nov. 17 in Memorial Hall in Old West with Father Dwight D. Schlaline of St. Patrick Church. The Newman Club hosts this service every Sunday evening at 7:30 pm. The Catholic Church Choir adds music to all of these services, and they will be having a concert on Dec. 10 at 7 p.m.

“Real learning has happened at these services because they have been excellent examples of the faiths with space provided for discussion and deeper reflection,” said Solomon.

The next service will be Saturday, Nov. 23 at 6 p.m. at the Peace Center Islamic Institute with the Muslim Student Association. Saeed would have liked to take students to the Salat ul-Jumuah, but this prayer service is held at noon on Fridays, so to avoid conflict with class schedules, he and Solomon chose to attend a discussion session at the Mosque after the Isha prayer, which is similar to a Friday service.

“The Religious Life Student Leaders are happy to be branching out to the religious organizations on campus from a place of equal standing to collaborate on events, and this will definitely not be the last Interfaith Exchange,” said Solomon.

Kevin Doyle ’16, member of the Newman Club, appreciated the opportunity to share his religion and learn about others.

“I thought it was really nice that the Dickinson community could come out and experience the Catholic mass.”