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| Rev. Brad Close is a chaplain at the Multifaith Centre. (Nick Pearce Photo) |
鈥淭here鈥檚 a bit of a stigma, a force field around the Multifaith Centre,鈥� begins Brad Close.
Over the past four years in which he鈥檚 served as the Christian Reformed chaplain there, he鈥檚 heard different reasons for this. 鈥淪ome people have the idea that there are a bunch of religious quacks in there or that the chaplains are out to convert people. (But) I鈥檓 here to encourage people to have a holistic understanding of their humanity and their experience of the world.鈥�
There can be a tendency to compartmentalize spirituality as something outside of the everyday course of life, speculates Rev. Close. He suggests a chaplaincy service on campus can present an alternative to such compartmentalization.
鈥淲e understand that there is more to the person than the mind. Spirituality, physicality, the intellectual self... communal existence and emotional wellbeing are all important parts鈥� of an individual, he says. 鈥淲e all struggle. We all have a yearning in our hearts. We can help articulate that. We want people to know they have a safe place here鈥攖hat you don鈥檛 have to conceal bits and pieces of your identity.鈥澛犅犅�
Many faith practices are represented at the Multifaith Centre, including a range of Christian denominations, as well as Buddhist, Jewish, Islamic and Hindu traditions.聽Visitors can meet with on-duty chaplains or be referred to other chaplains or services depending on the individual鈥檚 needs and faith tradition. Rev. Close says people come by to talk, sometimes seeking community, connectedness and friendship. Others come to pray, either in community or privately with a chaplain. Christian and Muslim prayer as well as Zen meditation groups are held at the centre.
Rev. Close sees prayer and community as primary to a spiritual life. 鈥淚 see community as broadly as you can imagine鈥攂lood relations, the church family, people I know on campus and the broader community, the marginalized.聽 I want to live in communion with them.鈥澛�
The centre faces some challenges, particularly being situated in an academic setting.聽 鈥淚n our culture, there is an anti-religious sentiment. There are some professors on campus who give religion a hard time in class. But there are also professors on campus who are not antagonistic to faith鈥擟hristian, Jewish, Muslim faculty鈥攖hey鈥檙e making room, they鈥檙e not preaching.鈥澛�
The centre鈥檚 website includes cautionary information about what it describes as 鈥渁ggressive religious groups on campus,鈥� red-flagging as pressure groups those claiming to have all the answers. Of fundamental importance, the centre asserts, is informed and free choice in following a faith path and a respect for 鈥渓earning and truth in a free and open environment.鈥�
Rev. Close doesn鈥檛 see an individual鈥檚 spirituality as something separate or removed from the everyday aspects of living, but rather as part of an integrated whole. 鈥淭here鈥檚 the simple notion that people come here to study, but there鈥檚 also a perception that there may be another set of questions鈥攓uestions about meaning, morality, destiny, the bigger stuff.
鈥淭he academic enterprise only goes so far,鈥� he says, in addressing those questions.聽