The religious community at Penn has made it a priority to fulfill the desire and need for special services and events in response to the war with Iraq, and according to campus religious leaders, students are taking advantage of this.
Wharton junior Rishi Bhutada, who is a board member of the Hindu Students Council/Young Jains of America, said that within his religious community, there has also been an increased interest and request for more religious services.
"People have asked what is being offered and what services are being held," Bhutada said, noting that attendance was higher than usual at a recent service.
"It was about 50 percent more than usual," he said. "People find the atmosphere relaxing."
"From our perspective, the masses have been more greatly attended," said College senior Zeina Ghayad, president of the Newman Council, which represents Catholic students. "I think that in times like this, people in all different aspects turn to some sort of form of [spirituality]... that usually comes through prayer."
Hillel Director Jeremy Brochin echoed Ghayad, noting that since the war began, there have been more people coming to services, but that "it's hard to know" whether this trend will continue. After Sept. 11, the Jewish community did witness increased attendance at services for the first few weeks, and Brochin expects that the same thing will happen in the current situation.
Still, University Chaplain William Gipson said that instead of an increase in numbers that occurred following Sept. 11, "What I've witnessed more of is efforts to try and respond concretely to the particular human situations of distress that surface at a time such as this."
He noted students' "humanitarian" efforts, which include working with various agencies to put together relief kits to aid refugees, as well as providing help to the children of soldiers.
Across campus, religious groups are also responding to the war in various ways, often tailoring their services and other activities to encompass war-related themes and issues.
Ghayad said that following President Bush's declaration of war last week, a group of campus religious leaders met to discuss plans for a campus-wide response.
The leaders decided to alter an already planned weeklong series of religious events scheduled for next week -- Programs in Religion, Interfaith and Spirituality Matters Week -- to serve as a way to address the war, Ghayad said. PRISM, organized by the Newman Council, Hillel, the Muslim Students Association and other campus groups, will include services, religious discussions and a blood drive.
At Hillel, some readings were added to the Friday night services, Brochin said, to help Penn students deal with their feelings about the war.
On Thursday night, there will also be a discussion within the Jewish community at Hillel. It will feature four students discussing various Penn perspectives on war. Depending on how this discussion goes, students at Hillel will decide whether they want or need to have more events of this nature.
"Students run a lot of the services, so they'll decide how they want to respond to the war," Brochin said.
On Friday night, Hillel held a Kabbalat service, which comes before the actual Shabbat service, to specifically address the peace movement.
"We've had ongoing events at Houston Hall since Wednesday night, but we wanted to have some prayer services," said Engineering senior Robert Levy, who led the service along with Brochin.
"We wanted to put together a Jewish service with readings about peace from the Jewish tradition," he added. "It wasn't just a Jewish service," Levy said. "It was open to everyone."
About 15 people attended the service, but Levy said he thinks that more interfaith events like this one could draw larger crowds.
"I definitely think that the community of faith has been a strong force within the anti-war community because they can bring their value system to the movement," Levy said, adding that he would like to lead more interfaith services that are open to everyone because it brings people together during a war in which religions tend to be divided.
