With an estimated 150 attendees hailing from over 10 universities, the Ripple Conference, held from Feb. 21 to 23, showcased the importance of interfaith dialogue on college campuses.
The Ripple Conference is the largest student-led interfaith conference in the Southeast. This year, the conference’s theme was “The Art of Interfaith” and explored how art can bridge the gap between people of different faiths.
On Feb. 21, the first day of the conference, participants gathered in the Richard McBride Gathering Space to hear from keynote speaker Rodger Kamenetz, a poet and author.
During his keynote address, Kamenetz highlighted the importance of interfaith dialogue and how art can help foster those conversations.
“If we want to do serious dialogue it’s better not to start with a difference, it’s better to start with something in common,” Kamenetz said, setting the tone for the rest of the conference.
On Feb. 22, participants attended several breakout sessions, a group art project and a panel.
The breakout sessions highlighted different art forms, including music, poetry and calligraphy. The sessions were led by student leaders, professors from Elon and other universities, and spiritual leaders.
Student leaders also organized a group art project, where attendee’s painted rocks that would later be traded with other participants at the conference. Here, participants were encouraged to sit and chat with people they didn’t know, and some shared why interfaith is so important on college campuses.
Sam Davis ’14 worked at the Truitt Center during his time at Elon, and attended the conference with Emory and Henry University where he works as director of new student advising.
Davis said interfaith was only just beginning when he interned at the Truitt Center and is happy to see how much it has grown.
“I feel like I’m seeing the waves of the ripples that I saw when I was here, which is kind of cool,” Davis said.
Jonah Morgan, a third-year at Texas Christian University, said having multifaith spaces is especially important on campuses that are religiously affiliated, as not every student practices that specific religion.
“If we didn’t have those spaces, especially at a Christian university, they wouldn’t feel comfortable to be here, they wouldn’t come to our campus, and then I feel like campus would be a sadder place if everyone was just the same denomination,” Morgan said.
One of the final events of the night was the Plenary Panel, which featured Roman Williams, founder of Interfaith Photovoice; an organization that aims to bring people together to photograph and reflect on faith-related topics in day-to-day life. Josue Vega, student at the Art Institute of Philadelphia and Arabic calligrapher; and Hannah Podhorzer ’19, graphic designer also spoke on the panel.
The panelists spoke on their personal experiences with art and how it impacts their faith, and the ways they believe art can bring people together.
Vega touched on art’s ability to cross boundaries and levels of understanding, and communicate that there is beauty in all things and faiths.
“When words fail you can connect through imagery,” Vega said.
Williams said interfaith, much like art, has the ability to connect people from all different backgrounds.
“Interfaith also is an art in and of itself,” Williams said.
Elon senior Sarah Cadol helped direct and plan the Plenary Panel, and wanted listeners to feel inspired by the panelists' words.
“I hope that a sense of inspiration ripples out for people to feel more comfortable discussing their faith background and to feel more comfortable having interfaith dialogue in general,” Cadol said.
Co-directors of the Ripple Conference seniors Morgan Williams and Ryan Gibbons shared what they hope participants take away from the conference and all of its events.
“I want one of the ‘ripples’ of the Ripple Conference to be that more people have hope and belief in the fact that interfaith is something that can happen,” Gibbons said.
Gibbons said he was proud to be involved in the conference and was happy to have created a space for many people from different universities and faiths to come together.
“That’s what interfaith is, it’s bridging the gap over the spiritual boundary that we kind of force ourselves into,” Gibbons said.
Williams said many participants told her that they didn’t believe interfaith was possible on their campuses either because of the size of their university or that it hadn’t yet been established.
“I hope people leave with hope. I hope they leave with a sense of new renowned purpose when it comes to building interfaith on their own campuses,” Williams said.
On the importance of interfaith events such as the Ripple Conference, Williams said its importance couldn’t be overstated.
“Interfaith allows us to see each other as human,” Williams said.