Fr Jim explained that over half the student body identified as belonging to a religion. The students came from all corners of the world to study at this major international school. About a third identified as Christian, while significant numbers identified as Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish. LSE recognised that religious affiliation in their school was growing, not shrinking as most people assume. Fr Jim also pointed out that among the remaining students who did not identify with a religion, there was a growing recognition of the importance of spirituality in their lives unencumbered by organised religion.
Tertiary institutions often experience religious groups on campus as a barrier to, and even a cause of, divisions and conflict. However, we were invited to consider the growing relevance of religion and spirituality in social affairs more broadly. The way ahead in creating a better society, and thus forwarding the aims of LSE, was to explore what religion can bring to the table of creating dialogue and harmony. Instead of seeing religion as a problem to be managed, could it be a way to build peace and understanding?
The Faith Centre was therefore developed not only as a place where students and staff could find support for their faith and beliefs but also as a driver of multifaith interaction, to facilitate the education of future leaders as peacemakers who understand how to work effectively in complex multifaith contexts.
While the religious groups on campus continue to meet in appropriate ways for worship and social interaction, the Faith Centre began to run forums and multifaith events to explore what religion has to say on vital issues such as climate change and justice issues. The Inter Faith Week each year hosts talks on current issues, cross-faith meetings, visits to various religious services or places of worship, and social and sporting events.
The star of the activities developed by the Faith Centre is an extra-curricular Faith and Leadership Certificate designed to deepen understanding of different religions and develop leadership skills. The program demands a serious commitment and is open to 25 students each year. This year it was oversubscribed by three times that number.
The LSE Faith Centre also invites groups of Jews, Christians and Muslims to visit Israel and Palestine to together confront the challenges societies face in the light of religious conflict. Students are challenged to consider how religion might build bridges rather than prolong division.
The next day after this talk, the Sydney Morning Herald ran an opinion piece by the Rev. Andrew Judd, the Associate Minister, Discipleship and Campus Ministries at St Barnabas Anglican Church, Broadway. He wrote about how the University of Sydney Student Union wished to exclude the Evangelical Union from its student clubs because it did not abide by student union protocols. Judd’s argument was that to exclude a group on the basis of declaring their faith would be discriminatory and thus contravene both the union’s own commitment not to discriminate and the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
I couldn’t help thinking that it is precisely this attitude that makes religious groups on campus a problem to be managed by university administrations and student unions. Tertiary institutions should have places where students and staff can meet to worship or socialise according to their beliefs. However, when religious groups use the university space as a place for competition and proselytising, as the Evangelical Union does, is it any wonder the secular university is concerned that their name is associated with such activity?
It is not just in universities that this is important. How well are we creating ecumenical and multifaith connections between our local denominational and faith groups? It seems to me that sectarianism and fundamentalism are growing at precisely the time we should be working in the opposite direction. The principles, methods and strategies employed at LSE Faith Centre might inspire all those who wish to generate ways for religion to become a part of the solution, rather than a part of the problem.
