One Blood, Many Faiths
Berea College has always placed a priority on meeting its students’ needs as supportively and holistically as possible. From the time of its founding by the Rev. John Fee, the College has always known that students have deeper needs that go beyond education, opportunity, and work experience. Students also need spiritual care and support.
The chaplains who staff Berea’s Willis D. Weatherford, Jr. Campus Christian Center (CCC) provide that care and mentorship. And because Berea students come from across the country and all around the world, the CCC puts a special emphasis on interfaith programs. These efforts help Bereans of all backgrounds discover the beauty and wisdom of their classmates’ faith traditions.
Community, Love, and Understanding
For more than two decades, interfaith work has been a big focus for both the CCC and Berea more broadly. “From the year 2000 on, I see a real determination to make interfaith grow on the campus,” said Jim Grove, Berea’s Interfaith Chaplain. This work has its roots in Berea’s very earliest days as well. “In his first churches that he founded here, John Fee wanted people who believed in what abolitionism was all about. He didn’t really care what background they came from, so he invited all these people into his churches,” he explained.
Grove’s work as an Interfaith Chaplain follows Fee’s example—helping to build a place where shared values unite people of all backgrounds as they work together to make the world a better place. That’s how he balances Berea’s Christian roots with the need to welcome and support students of all faiths. “Christianity is a religion that opens its arms to all people. Not just to join, but to care for all types of people and be in dialogue and conversation with them,” he said.
Love, forgiveness, care, and reaching out to others—in Grove’s view, these are the core values that Jesus taught. And because they also form the very foundation of Berea’s mission, Grove sees these ideals as the perfect ground on which to build a vibrant and loving interfaith community.
Caring for Students of All Faiths
Helping to foster those connections is a big part of Grove’s work. As the College’s Interfaith Chaplain, he helps Berea create an environment where all its students can thrive spiritually as well as academically. Recently, he helped the Muslim Student Association coordinate with the Office of Student Life so that its members could properly observe Ramadan.
“We worked very hard with the Muslim Student Association and with the Student Life Office, and we got things set up so they could observe the whole month of Ramadan,” said Grove. “We planned it out for them to all be able to eat and pray together in one spot, for them to be able to cook their own food and have their own celebrations.” Grove thinks that efforts like this are the most important part of his job—advocating for students and helping them find the resources they need for their spiritual lives to flourish.
For Malak ’27, the Muslim Student Association’s treasurer, that’s exactly what makes Berea so special. “Berea provides a truly unique experience for Muslim students, one I believe is hard to find anywhere else,” she explained. “As a junior, this is my third year observing Ramadan on campus, and each year I’m reminded of how special this community is.”
Peer Support in Every Residence Hall
The College’s student chaplains are another core aspect of interfaith engagement at Berea. “We have seventeen student chaplains, and out of seventeen, seven of them are dedicated to focus on interfaith things with me,” said Grove. “Our student chaplains are one of the most highly trained groups on campus. They come almost three weeks before school starts and get intensive training every day.”
All that training is crucial for the important work they do—being a student chaplain is a very distinctive work position. The CCC places at least one of them in every Berea residence hall so that students who need support can always find a chaplain. “In a sense, all of our student chaplains have to be well-trained in interfaith because they’re going to find students of different faiths in the residence hall they’re assigned to,” Grove explained.
Student chaplains work for several hours every day, just like all Berea students. Most of their working hours are dedicated to the students in their residence hall—building relationships, organizing programs and events, listening to problems, and responding to their classmates’ needs. In turn, each student chaplain quickly becomes a pillar of their residence hall community.
Cultivating that strong sense of community in her residence hall is something Sareena ’27 takes very seriously. What she loves most about her work as a chaplain is finding opportunities for understanding among her fellow students. “Building bridges with people from other faiths is one of my favorite parts of being a student chaplain,” she said.
All Peoples, All Faiths
Grove and his student chaplains try to create opportunities for students to explore both their own faith traditions and those of their classmates. “Interfaith is about safe space—not in the sense of ‘not challenging,’ but ‘safe’ in a sense that people can come with whatever questions or struggles they have and talk about them,” he explained. “We’re here both for students who want to deepen the faith they already have and also those who are searching for spirituality for the first time.”
One of Berea’s longest-running interfaith programs is based on exactly that kind of exploration—the Spiritual Seekers group, which first started meeting all the way back in the 1980s. Every week, this group brings Bereans together to learn about each other’s religious beliefs, find common ground, and cultivate understanding.
Spiritual Seekers gave Chantel ’26, a student interfaith chaplain, the perfect chance to help build connections between students of different beliefs. Earlier this year, she and two of her friends presented at one of the group’s meetings. Their topic was friendships between people of different faiths. “One of my friends is Muslim, and the other doesn’t attach herself to religion and has her own personal spiritual beliefs. We were able to talk about our different beliefs and how they play a role in our friendship,” Chantel recalled. “That was very meaningful for me, one of the most impactful experiences I’ve had as a chaplain.”
Chantel wants to help other students discover the same interfaith enrichment that she found on campus. “Since coming to Berea, I’ve met people from so many different walks of life. That’s allowed me to have a very diverse friend group, and it also helps me broaden my perspective,” she reflected. “I want to challenge the notion that people of different beliefs can’t be friends.”
One of Berea’s eight Great Commitments is “to stimulate understanding of the Christian faith and its many expressions, and to emphasize the Christian ethic and the motive of service to others.” In keeping with that Commitment, Jim Grove and his student interfaith chaplains believe that serving others is the best way to help them understand the Christian faith. “Grounding ourselves in the values of Jesus gives us an openness toward people of all faiths and motivates us to welcome all people,” said Grove. “It’s very important to me that students of other faiths see us committed to serving them and showing that we respect their religion. I want them to see that Berea really cares about them.”
