Elon College’s Ripple Convention returns in-person from Feb. 17-19, 2023.
For Ivy Breivogel, director of the Ripple Convention and graduate intern for Multifaith and the Spirit & Pleasure Initiative, interfaith work is as pure and necessary as respiratory.
Breivogel first heard of Elon College by means of her participation within the Ripple Convention as an undergraduate scholar at Warren Wilson Faculty, and now, 4 years later, she is a graduate scholar within the Greater Schooling program at Elon and directing the convention herself.
“I see my faith as interfaith in itself. No two individuals consider the identical factor, and all of us come collectively and type lovely communities not regardless of that, however due to it,” Breivogel explains. “Spiritual work is a type of DEI (variety, fairness, and inclusion) work. It’s bridging throughout variations, studying about one another, working collectively and constructing a greater world collectively.”
As a Unitarian Universalist, a member of a small and comparatively unknown non secular custom, Breivogel has typically discovered herself on the sidelines of conversations about non secular id. However her want to have interaction with Interfaith work has turn out to be a key side of how she views herself and the alternatives she desires to create for others.
Elon’s Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life has lengthy been seen as a preeminent practitioner of multifaith work on school campuses, and the workers is all the time engaged in creating alternatives for training, celebration, and meaning-making round non secular id. The Ripple Conference, developed by a gaggle of Truitt Heart Multifaith Interns in 2016, is a student-led convention that encourages individuals to have interaction in real (and enjoyable!) interfaith work, discover their very own identities, ask powerful questions and additional interact in sustained interfaith inside their very own communities.
For the primary time in three years, the convention will likely be held in particular person at Elon College, this 12 months from Feb. 17 by means of Feb. 19. The theme this 12 months will likely be Stretching the Limits of Spiritual Identities, and facilities on the concept that no faith, spirituality, religion custom, philosophy or worldview is a monolith.
For Breivogel, this theme is a part of the best way she desires others to have interaction in interfaith work.
“Stretching the Limits of Spiritual Identification is a broad theme that actually invitations exploration into the non-public elements of faith. It’s not nearly coexisting and realizing about one another, it’s about understanding faiths as particular person, private, and deeply intertwined with our social identities. It’s about difficult stereotypes and generalizations and determining the best way to articulate your individual journey towards meaning-making,” Breivogel mentioned.
“If we’re in a position to interact in conversations about our personal non secular, religious, and moral identities, and make house to hearken to different views, we’re doing the necessary work of ‘Tikkun Olam,’ or repairing the world,” defined Interim Assistant Dean of Multifaith Engagement Hillary Zaken, who’s the workers advisor to the convention. “We invite Elon college students, college and workers, in addition to people from different universities, to affix us for this distinctive convention that Ivy and her scholar management workforce are curating. “
Breivogel hopes that individuals within the Ripple Convention come prepared to have interaction and study, but in addition to appreciate that id is fluid, and spiritual and religious orientations can – and will – change over the course of our lives, our journeys of self-discovery, and the methods we work together with the world.
“Each interplay we’ve got is an interfaith interplay. The higher we perceive that actuality, the higher we will likely be at navigating it, forming relationships, and asking the fitting questions,” she mentioned.
Extra concerning the Ripple Convention:
Early Fowl Registration for the Ripple Convention is now open and can run by means of Jan. 30.
Registration data may be discovered at rippleconference.org. Elon college students, college, and workers are invited to achieve out to Ivy Breivogel or Hillary Zaken for codes for discounted participation. On the web site, you may register for the convention, apply for management, and look at our schedule and different convention particulars as they turn out to be out there. Alternatives embody main Breakout Periods, Group Teams, Affinity Teams, or performing within the Sacred Sounds Espresso Home.
For extra data and updates concerning the Ripple Interfaith Convention, please comply with Elon College’s Truitt Heart for Spiritual and Religious Life on Instagram and go to the Truitt Heart website or the Ripple Convention website.
