Oberlin College
Office of Religious & Spiritual Life News


A newly revised collective of opportunities related to spirituality, ethics, culture & social justice
 April 13, 2020

2019-2020
Interfaith Student Council

Buddhist
Joshua Reinier
 
Christian (Protestant)
Nathan Leavitt

Christian (Roman Catholic)
Jane Vourlekis
 
Hindu
Serena Zets
 
Jewish (Chabad)
Abraham Kuhn
 
Jewish (Hillel)
Sarah Goodstein

Jewish (Neo-hasidic)
Jesse Noily
 
Muslim
Marwan Ghanem
 
Pagan
J Valero
 
Quaker
Molly Tucker

Questioning
Rabo Birch
 
Unitarian Universalist
Emily Cairncross




ORSL COLLECTIVE DURING THE COVID-19 VIRUS

During this season together while apart, the ORSL team is choosing to experiment with how this e-space might allow for increased opportunity to find one another across religious traditions and philosophical commitments. 

In that spirit, we offer the ORSL eNews as a slice of what is giving energy and hope in Oberlin and to Obies spanning the globe during the spread of COVID-19.
 


OBERLIN MUTUAL AID
DURING THE SPREAD OF THE CORONAVIRUS
shared by Martha Hoffman '19

 Oberlin Mutual Aid--making sure folks are able to access 
the support systems we have in place in this town. 

_____________________

The form linked below is to help build a network of people 
who can support  each other in the Oberlin, Ohio area.
I t will match up people's needs to  other  people's  resources or skills. 

You do not need to offer something to request a need. 




HELPING OUT IN OBERLIN
DURING THE SPREAD OF COVID-19


Please check for the latest information by visiting the 
OCS website: Click HERE
from Margie Flood, Executive Director of Oberlin Community Services (OCS)

OCS is working with the City of Oberlin to bolster the City's Caring Fund. 
You can learn more on the City's Coronavirus webpage: 



Trees and Climate Change Panel
Wednesday, April 15, 4:30PM-6PM, Zoom Webinar
Trees and Climate Change in Asia and North America. Panelists include Nassrine Azimi, Co-Founder of Green Legacy Hiroshima, Senior Advisor, United Nations; Connor Ryan, Holden Arboretum, Cleveland
Discussants: Michael Moore (Biology, Oberlin), John Peterson (Environmental Studies, Oberlin), David Benzing (Emeritus Professor, Biology), Anne Helm and John Elder (Kendal Oberlin)



EARTH DAY 50
Oberlin City & College


Check it out!


10-day Calendar I Beginning this Wednesday I April 15

Shared by Madeleine Gefke '20





'That Is What We Do': 

The Power of Passover and Tradition Across Generations

Jewish families on Wednesday will again recount the 10 plagues from the Book of Exodus. 
Only this year will be a little different.
By Elisabeth Dias
 

Religious ritual holds power not only because it connects people gathered in one space - it also connects people across time.

For generations Jewish families have gathered for the first night of Passover to recount the 10 plagues from the Book of Exodus - frogs, pestilence, death - and to remember how God delivered the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt thousands of years ago.

... Of course, with a literal plague in their midst, families cannot meet in person this year and may even tweak their Haggadahs - the text that is annually read aloud - to reflect the moment. But the power of Passover remains, perhaps even more so as a symbol of perseverance.

The New York Times asked families around the country to share reflections on the Passover story in this moment. Their words, edited for length, speak to the power of memory, the meaning of plague, and how crockpots and cookbooks can connect us with loved ones of generations past and future.




What If Buddha and Jesus Were Roommates?


Saint Young Men, a manga about the Buddha and Jesus living in modern Tokyo, is being serialized in English. 
And religious studies professors are excited.
By Jolyon Baraka Thomas

 

Easter Sunday Message

Bishop William J. Barber II, D. Min.

PANDEMICS REMIND US BIOLOGY CAN UPEND OUR LIVES
by Bill McKibben

...The courage of scientists, doctors, and nurses will have been wasted if 
nothing deeper changes in how we treat one another and the planet.

Soujourners, May 2020


THE PANDEMIC IS A PORTAL
A Conversation with Arundhati Roy, Hosted by Imani Perry
Thursday, April 23, 12Noon



Arundhati Roy studied architecture in New Delhi, where she now lives. She is the author of the novels The God of Small Things, for which she received the 1997 Booker Prize, and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. A collection of her essays from the past twenty years, My Seditious Heart, was recently published by Haymarket Books. Her next book from Haymarket books, 
Azadi: Freedom. Fascism. Fiction. will be published September 1.
Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where she also teaches in the Programs in Law and Public Affairs, and in Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is a native of Birmingham, Alabama, and spent much of her youth in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Chicago. She is the author of several books, including Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry and Breathe: A Letter to My Sons. She lives outside Philadelphia with her two sons, Freeman Diallo Perry Rabb and Issa Garner Rabb.



MORE SHARES FROM THE STUDENT/ORSL ORBIT
-Keep these coming-




E




















FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THEOLOGY AND RELIGION





 
















REFLECTION

Capuchin Franciscan Friar Richard Hendrick, Ireland

LOCKDOWN

Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.



Photo Credit: William Bradford
Photo Series: Office of Communications

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK: FINNEY CHAPEL

If the walls in Finney Chapel could talk, they would reverberate 
with the enchanting sounds of the Oberlin Orchestra; 
command attention with empowering words spoken by 
Martin Luther KingJr.; and pulse joyously along 
with South Africa's Soweto Gospel Choir.


Multifaith Calendar

 * Holy days usually begin at sundown the day before this date.

** Local or regional customs may use a variation of this.


DEFINITIONS HERE

APRIL 2020
  • 14
    • Baisakhi (Vaisakhi) - Sikh
  • 17
    • Holy Friday - Orthodox Christian
  • 11
    • Lazarus Saturday - Orthodox Christian
  • 19
    • Pascha - Easter - Orthodox Christian
    • 21
    • Yom HaShoah - Jewish
    • First Day of Ridvan * - Baha'i
    • Lailat al Bara'ah * - Islam
    • Palm Sunday - Orthodox Christian
  • 23
    • St. George's Day - Christian
  • 24
    • Ramadan begins * - Islam
  • 27
    • Mahavir Jayanti ** - Jain
  • 29
    • Ninth Day of Ridvan - Baha'i
    • Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul - Christian
    • Yom Ha'Atzmaut * - Jewish
  • 30
    • St. James the Great Day - Orthodox Christian
MAY 2020

  • 1
    • Beltane - Samhain * - Wicca/Pagan  Northern and Southern hemispheres
  • 2
    • Last day of Ridvan *  - Baha'i
  • 3
    • Saints Philip & James - Christian
  • 7
    • Visakha Puja - Buddha Day ** - Buddhist
    • National Day of Prayer USA - Interfaith
  • 21
    • Ascension of Jesus - Christian
  • 23
    • Declaration of the Bab * - Baha'i
  • 29
    • Ascension of Baha'u'llah * - Baha'i
    • Ascension of Jesus - Orthodox Christian
  • 29-30
    • Shavuot * - Jewish
  • 31
    • Pentecost - Christian



Religious Involvement and High Pressure Groups
 
Involvement in campus organizations is an vital aspect of college life. At Oberlin, just as on other college campuses, destructive and high-pressure religious, political, and social groups exist, and so it is important to learn how to avoid these groups in order to protect yourself from harm they may cause. Some people would call such groups "cults," but whatever term is used, any religious, political, or social group that practices deceptive, destructive, or high-pressure tactics is not welcome on Oberlin's campus and should be avoided for your own wellbeing.
 
Oberlin College's guidelines for recognized religious communities prohibit behaviors such as deceptiveness, proselytizing (outreach that applies pressure or exploits vulnerabilities), and harassment. Therefore, we strongly encourage students to begin their exploration for spiritual communities with those recognized through the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life.



REFLECTON

FOR THE PANDEMIC I AUDIO FILE HERE




Shared by a cohort of women priests



In the News...


Benedictine nuns release Gregorian chants to help ease coronavirus isolation

Guardian
Kate Connolly I April 9, 2020


The Jouques nuns' lead a strict life of contemplation in which they recite the chants daily.

The abbey, which has its own congregation, is closed as a result of rules applied to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. "Because of the measures taken ... we can no longer admit worshippers to our abbey's church, and we are deeply sorry for it," the nuns said.

They have instead allowed the release of a week's worth of their chants HERE.

The chants are presented together with their simple scores, Latin texts and translations, allowing subscribers to sing together with the nuns.
 
...The nuns pressed "record" every time they entered the church and "stop" when they exited after each service. A 4G modem was installed at the monastery, enabling the nuns to upload the 24GB of contents to the technicians' Google Drive account every evening, from where the recordings were mixed and mastered.
Organised so as to be as minimally invasive to the nuns' lives, the recordings of clear unaccompanied voices are speckled with authentic sounds such as the creak of wooden benches, the occasional coughing or dropping of prayer books and bell chimes.

Anderson, a founder of Odradek Records originally from Kansas but now living in Italy, said the launch of the project, which was eight years in the making and would raise money for the order's sister monastery in Benin, west Africa, had come at the right time, when many people were detached from their work and social contacts.










contact us
The Rev. Dr. David F.H. Dorsey
Multifaith Chaplain
Director ,Religious and Spiritual Life
To submit inclusive and non-coercive events or opportunities for this publication, please email [email protected] by Thursday 12 p.m. to be posted the following Monday.