Ohio University student group Interfaith Impact is moving– not just the day and time, but moving deeper.
In an effort to feed more than just the spirit, but the body too, Interfaith Impact’s new meeting day will be every Thursday at 7 p.m., giving members an opportunity to attend UCM’s weekly free meal, Thursday Supper, at 5:30 p.m. Both programs are held at UCM, 18 N College St.
United Campus Ministry’s Campus Minister, Evan Young, will now be attending all meetings, providing structure and creating a safe and sacred space for students to share and explore their spiritual journey. The group is also adding a community service aspect to its core, giving students the chance to put their faith and beliefs to action.
“Too often we hear about faith as something that divides us,” explains Young. “I want Interfaith Impact to be that space where what you believe and what you think will never keep you out. But what you yearn for and what you can envision might bring you in.”
Interfaith Impact is part of UCM’s endeavor to promote dialogue and cooperation across faith lines and to build a genuinely interfaith community. Programs such as Interfaith Bible Study, and organizing efforts like the Interfaith Youth Core campaign at Ohio University, make UCM a pioneer in interfaith work. UCM's important role in this work was recognized recently in an entry in President Obama's weekly blog announcing the White House's Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge.
“A big part about what we’re doing is relating what we study and learn to what we experience in our lives,” says Young. “It’s the ‘so what?’ question for me--that point where you explore and explain how what you believe leads you to choose and to act in your own life. And that’s the key to Interfaith Impact; engaging people in the ‘so what’ factor.”
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