In an effort to address the growing anxiety about the pending war, many of Penn's religious communities met yesterday afternoon in an interfaith forum.
Campus religious leaders spoke on how to embrace peace before a small group of students in Bodek Lounge of Houston Hall.
And according to University Chaplain William Gipson, it is this "ongoing interfaith dialogue and engagement" that is "the jewel in the crown."
The forum, originally scheduled for later in the week, was bumped up because Gipson felt that Penn's community needed a more immediate outlet.
The event was sponsored by the Office of the Chaplain, the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life and the Penn Religious Communities Council.
The four speakers -- Chuck Pfeffer from the Newman Center, Volunteer Chaplain to Muslim students Kenneth Nur-id Din, Executive Director of the Christian Association Beverly Dale and Penn Hillel Director Jeremy Brochin -- echoed one another's hopes for peace, love and togetherness.
Dale recalled that "there is an intimate connection between fear and the lack of love" and said that especially in trying times, people need to find each other and gauge themselves with their neighbors to find comfort.
Brochin followed up by saying that while we don't have control over the events in the Middle East, "we do have control over how we respond to each other."
College freshman Eric Rechtschaffen said that he felt perhaps the views were even too similar.
He attended "in the hope that they would present a more balanced version of events" but said he was surprised at how tipped the opinions were.
Rechtschaffen added that it was "upsetting to find [the speakers] so uniformly one-sided... ignoring the fact that some wars are just."
Gipson said that although war sentiment may oscillate within different organizations, ultimately everyone wants peace.
"While we acknowledge different perspectives about the war," Gipson said, "I don't know anyone with a pulse that is not concerned about this international crisis."
In addition to the speakers' advice, other suggestions were offered on a handout from the Office of the Chaplain -- among the tips were ways to conserve oil to reduce dependency on the Middle East, a call to educate others on current affairs and the necessity to confront one's emotions about the conflict.
The spontaneity of the event may have contributed to the sparse crowd, organizers said -- however, there future discussions are planned.
