Category Archives: Interfaith Matters

Mourning, Intersectionality, and Hope
Part I: #OurThreeBrothers

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Matilda Cantwell
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At the end of February, three young immigrant men, two of whom were Muslim, were tragically killed in Fort Wayne, Indiana under unknown circumstances. They were murdered “execution style” in an abandoned building that was “under surveillance” by police for … Continue reading →

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MLK & Justice, Identity, and Social Change Initiative (Part 2)

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Matilda Cantwell
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After the opening remarks on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the American Friends Service Committee hosted two panel discussions on racial justice. I was proud to moderate the first panel of student fellows for the Justice, Identity, and Social Change Initiative … Continue reading →

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MLK & Justice, Identity, and Social Change Initiative (Part 1)

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Matilda Cantwell
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Over January Term (or J-term), two students participated in a fellowship for with our Center as part of our Justice, Identity, and Social Change (JISC) initiative. These students, Raven Fowlkes-Witten and Lucy Tucker, serve on our JISC advisory board. The … Continue reading →

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The Justice, Identity, and Social Change Initiative:
Spiritual Life Meets Social Justice

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Matilda Cantwell
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  It feels like the World is burning. This is what Sensei Ryumon Baldoquin, Community Religious Adviser, said at our first “Peace Meal,” a gathering for dialogue and discussion of difficult problems. Certainly in the last few weeks, with the … Continue reading →

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Our Inescapable Network of Mutuality

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Matilda Cantwell
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Amidst the cacophony of all that I am reading, hearing, and taking in response to the verdict in the Ferguson Grand Jury deliberation,—which I am, like many of us, just barely beginning to sort through—I have little, if anything, different or new … Continue reading →

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Interfaith Awareness Week: What Do We Serve?

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Matilda Cantwell
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We are what we pay attention to. Sadly, most of the time we are not attending to the world or ourselves. Psychologists estimate we have sixty thousand to seventy thousand thoughts a day, 99 percent of which are more or … Continue reading →

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SWANS: Beyond Atheism, Agnosticism, and Religion to Spiritual Intersectionality

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Matilda Cantwell
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The first week in February was the United Nation’s “Interfaith Harmony Week”. While Smith will be commemorating this week later on in the semester, this is a good time to begin to talk about the what and why of “Interfaith Harmony.” Three … Continue reading →

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My Black Friends Laugh When I Tell Them I’m Black
30 Poems In November

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Chapel Student
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I’m black! … your skin is light but I’m black! … well your hair is too curly but I grew up around all black people … yeah but you got mad Spanish cousins and y’alls accent gets too thick when y’all talk fast Anyways what chu know about being black? What chu know about slavery Your people didn’t go through Jim Crow or the middle passage Martin Luther King wasn’t your king. Rosa Parks did not sit for you. So what chu know about being black? You don’t even smoke weed! Or perm your hair When’s the last time you got a weave? If you can still get tan in the summer then you ain’t realllllyyyyy black You said you put sofrito in your ramen… Man you ain’t black! … Continue reading →

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Is God “One?”

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Matilda Cantwell
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Earlier this fall I read this story about a group of Muslims in Peshawar Pakistan who made a human chain outside a church where Mass was taking place, standing in solidarity with the worshipers when a nearby church was recently destroyed … Continue reading →

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Untitled
30 Poems In November

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Chapel Student
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Vulnerable is selfishness severed from greed, pure frailty, pure need for anyone’s touch or finger- brush, anyone’s milky- synthetic feeding—Vulnerable plants itself in the ground and squalls new breeds of desire: pouting iris’ hung with orange seed— Vulnerable is in … Continue reading →

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