Human Connection | Interfaith Understanding | Collective Transformation

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, January 21, Kirkhof 2263, 7-9pm

Lakers, join us for a meal with meaning on Tuesday, January 21. Come get to know some of our religiously and spiritually diverse neighbors and explore the importance of creating connections across our traditions. This event of deep listening and dialogue is intended to highlight both similarities and differences of our experiences, and to get Lakers talking about this crucial and often underexplored aspect of identity.

Registration Required. INT 100/201 approved.

 

Alternating Wednesdays beginning Jan 22, Zoom, 2:00pm

 For this facilitated book study, we will be reading Without Oars: Casting Off into a Life of Pilgrimage by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson. In “Without Oars”, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson blends history, storytelling, biblical insights, personal reflections, and spiritual formation in an inviting call to discover pilgrimage as a way of life. This book offers a unique perspective on the faith journey as an embodied practice of heading into the unknown and unknowable--with all the excitement, risk, and rewards that come with letting go.

For more information and to register please visit the event page.

The Kaufman Interfaith Institute is excited to facilitate several sacred site visits across the West Michigan area. Our January visits are:

January 14, 6-7:30pm - Masjid al-Tawheed

January 30, 6-7:30pm - West Michigan Hindu Temple

Follow the links to register. Some of the sites we will be visiting are smaller and will have limited registration. Should spots fill in those instances, priority will be given to GVSU students.

Thursday, February 13, 2025

This multi-author event offers a trauma-informed space of deep listening as together we explore ways of processing
religious/spiritual trauma, abuse, and pain through writing.

Session I: Breaking Up with Purity Culture, 12-1:30pm Allendale Campus, Kirkhof 2263

Session II: Processing Religious Trauma Through Art, 7-9pm at GVSU Health Campus, DCIH 104

Thursday, February 27, 2025, 7pm
Regency Room, GVSU Pew Campus

The 4th Annual Padnos Public Engagement Lecuture on Jewish Learning, featuring:

Karla Goldman, Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work, School of Social Work, and Professor of Judaic Studies, College of LS&A

“Women’s history is American religious history," as historian Ann Braude has famously claimed. The 2024 Padnos Lecture explores how American Judaism has been shaped by general societal expectations for women's religious behavior and by new active roles Jewish women took on within their religious institutions.

Stories and Updates

For many, 2024 was a year of stress. And for many, this coming year doesn’t look all that promising on the political front, as well as in other areas. I’m reminded of theologian and pastor Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer, which is often invoked in times like these. Both centering practices and pilgrimage are used across religious traditions to reclaim serenity and access deeper truth. Click here to read Doug's Insight.

Save The Date

January 20, 2025 - Community Event | LaTosha Brown - Martin Luther King Jr. Keynote 6-8pm

March 25, 2025 - Interfaith Leadership Lecture with Syda Segovia Taylor 4-6pm

April 2, 2025 - Talking Together | Michigan Listens 4:30-7pm

April 10, 2025 - Justice For All: Faith Leaders and the Non-Violent Fight Against Poverty 6-7:30pm