Supporting Religious and Spiritual Life in all its Expressions
USM Religious & Spiritual Life (formerly Interfaith Chaplaincy) provides support for all members of the university community in religious and spiritual development as well as interfaith respect, appreciation, and cooperation.
Our work is guided by these goals for student learning as a result of participating in our programs:
Students will learn
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to clarify their own beliefs and values;
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to connect their beliefs and values to their choices and actions; and
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to understand and relate respectfully to those whose beliefs and values are different from their own.
University Interfaith Chaplain/Director of Religious & Spiritual Life coordinates religious and spiritual programs and services and offers personal support and counsel from a broadly spiritual perspective.
Chaplains and Advisors from diverse religious and spiritual traditions offer services and support for learning and for deepening students' own spiritual journeys.
Interfaith programs provide opportunities for the USM community to come together from different religious and spiritual perspectives, find common ground, and address community issues from religious/spiritual perspectives.
Student Organizations around common religious identity offer connections and activities with others who share the same tradition, background, or religious/spiritual interests.
Solidarity, Sympathy, and Silence for Boston
The tree on the Portland campus dedicated on September 11, 2011 reminds us that when those attacks took place, we didn’t know how we’d go on, but we have. Another hateful act has rocked our world; more people have died and suffered grave injury. But the tree has continued to grow, to blossom and leaf, to rest in winter, and to begin again each spring. Life is resilient.
The explosions in Boston on Monday were powerful. The pain on the part of those whose loved ones were killed, and on the part of those injured is powerful. The hatred that motivated the act, and the fear and anger it provoked are powerful.
But our gathering in solidarity and sympathy is more powerful still. Solidarity, because it means we are one people, is more powerful. Sympathy, because it means we are being with, feeling with, those who grieve and ache and must heal, is more powerful. Solidarity and sympathy have more power to carry the day. They have the power to redeem this divided, killing, maiming, aching, and yet somehow resilient world.
In solidarity and in sympathy, we hold in our minds and hearts all those impacted by the horrible events of Monday in Boston.
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