University Ministry: River Deep, Mountain High

Oct. 18, 2024

This week we want to highlight our Queering Religion Spectrum Retreat! This event, held on the last weekend of September, provided an experience for students to build community through promoting and exploring the intersection of their queer and spiritual/religious identities. 

The Green Faiths Initiative (GFI) is a student-led program at USF that bridges the gap between faith and environmental action. Through leadership development, hands-on environmental projects, and interfaith dialogue, GFI empowers students to tackle urgent ecological challenges while fostering mutual understanding across diverse faith traditions.

Throughout the year, GFI offers leadership training, monthly volunteering opportunities, and workshops focused on environmental justice. Highlights include an immersion trip to Ecuador (January 2025) and an interfaith vigil for the planet during USF's Environmental Justice Month in April. The initiative is open to students passionate about sustainability, faith, and social justice. Join GFI and be part of a movement creating real change on campus and beyond!

Are you feeling stressed or anxious about the state of the environment? You're not alone. We invite you to take part in our Eco-Anxiety Survey, a short and anonymous questionnaire designed to better understand how environmental concerns are affecting our campus community. Your feedback will help us create interfaith healing spaces and support initiatives that address these feelings through meaningful action and reflection. Let’s work together to foster a space where we can turn eco-anxiety into hope and positive change!

Wednesday, Oct. 23  |  4:45 p.m.
University Ministry, Toler 122 and City Hope Community Center

Join us for Wednesday Dinner & Movie Night at City Hope Community Center! Serve restaurant-style meals to neighbors in need, share a meal with them, and connect with fellow students passionate about social justice. Make an impact, enjoy dinner, and debrief over snacks afterward!

Friday, Nov. 1 – Sunday, Nov. 3
Mercy Center Burlingame

Be part of the Jesuit experience, make authentic connections, build community, and more!

Friday, Nov. 22 – Sunday, Nov. 24 
Maryknoll Retreat Center, Los Altos

Join us for this retreat, introducing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. During the retreat, participants are invited to explore the Ignatian style of prayer by reflecting inward and taking a closer look at their own experiences of God and the sacred through imagination and the Bible. For more information, please contact University Chaplain Donal Godfrey, S.J.

Cost: $100 for faculty and staff, $50 for students (Scholarships are available for students attending for the first time)

Mondays  |  12:30 p.m. PDT  |  Zoom

Join us for a guided meditation to start the week right. Guided meditation can help reduce stress, increase patience, improve focus, and more! Open to all students, faculty, and staff! Register in advance through Zoom.

Monday Meditations will occur weekly through Nov. 25.

Monday, Oct. 21  |  5:30 p.m.  |  Welch Field, JSSJ Sukkah

With two weeks until the election and voting early in various states available, we are seeing folks from all walks of life voting for their communities and future generations. Join us in our Open Doors Sukkah for a warm meal, where we break bread and harvest the wisdom of our collective power to act for our collective future.

Tuesday, Oct. 22  |  12 p.m.  |  Welch Field, JSSJ Sukkah

Lunch in the Sukkah featuring food made with love by the students in Community Garden Outreach. Bring yourselves and bring your friends and fill your bellies and your souls. Free food. Donations gladly accepted.

Tuesday, Oct. 22  |  5:30 p.m.  |  Zoom

How does recognizing that there are people who don't fit binary gender identities change our understanding of ourselves, one another, and God? In this talk, Joy Ladin will present selections from two newly published books – Once Out of Nature, a selection of writings about how gender is changing, and Family, her eleventh, most intimate collection of poetry – that highlight what living between and beyond gender categories can teach us about becoming, loving, losing, mourning and otherwise being human.

Thursdays  |  11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.  |  Loyola House Jesuit Community

Join Fr. Donal Godfrey for book club discussions on The Whole Language, the Power of Extravagant Tenderness by Greg Boyle, S.J. Discussions will be held over a period of three separate meeting times: Oct. 31, Nov. 7, and Nov. 21

This event is limited to 10 people, and registration is first come, first served. 

Book club members must bring their own copies of the book. 

Sundays  |  7 p.m.  |  St. Ignatius Church

Join us every Sunday for our weekly student liturgies! Visit our website, or email Laura Díaz-Flaviani to learn more about our student liturgies. Sign up to be in the choir, or participate as an altar server, lector, or Eucharistic minister.

Can't join us in person? Join us by watching our broadcast on the St. Ignatius Parish livestream site!

Thursdays  |  11:30 a.m.  |  University Ministry, Toler 122

Qmmunity and Breaking Bread and the Binary begins this Thursday and continues every Thursday through the fall semester! Nourishment for the body and the soul and a place to celebrate your true fabulous self. Questions? Email Rabbi Camille Angel.

These groups are a space to ask real questions, learn a helpful approach to reading the Bible, and build deeper friendships on campus. They meet weekly, so visit one anytime!

Men of Faith - Led by John and Troy
Tuesdays  |  12–1:30 p.m.  |  UC 414

Ephesians - Led by Megan and Jocelyn
Tuesdays  |  7 p.m.  |  UC 415

Alpha Video Course - Led by Enoch and Angela
Wednesdays  |  6:30 p.m.  |  UC 503

Ephesians - Led by Jackie
Thursdays  |  11:40 a.m.–12:30 p.m.  |  UC 415

Tuesdays  |  12 p.m.  |  University Ministry, Romero Room

Orthodox Christian Fellowship is a student-led group dedicated to exploring the Orthodox Christian faith, fostering spiritual growth, and exposing our campus to the faith, cultures, and customs that are authentically Orthodox. We are a small but dynamic group of students from many different backgrounds who share a common desire to learn more about the 2000-year tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. All students, including non-Orthodox, are very welcome! Pizza will be provided for lunch. We're reading Genesis together (Creation! Humans! Fall!). Please drop by or email our spiritual adviser, Fr. Kirill Sokolov, or our student leader, Christianna Yano, for more information.

We look forward to meeting you!

Join Dance Generators, USF’s intergenerational dance company, in collaboration with University Ministry, in the creation of a new performance
piece that uses dance, storytelling, and sound design to investigate Jesuit values and spirituality.

Rehearsals on Wednesdays
6:30–8:30 p.m. in Koret

Want to join? Contact Liv Schaffer 
to get involved! 

Photo Credit: Hillary Goidell

If you are a Jewish student looking for ways to observe the High Holidays, SF Hillel can provide you with free tickets to your synagogue of choice in San Francisco. Just fill out their form and they will reach out to you to coordinate! 

Thank you for reading our bi-weekly newsletter. If you would like to submit content for future newsletters, please make sure to fill out the UM Newsletter Intake Form. If you have any questions about submissions and deadlines, please email Sarah Manzano.

Content deadline for upcoming newsletter: Oct. 24