Better Together

Happy Friday! We hope you all are looking forward to the weekend. As we enter March, Better Together has a new project to share with you all. Currently, interns Saraya Abner and Sam Houtchens are leading a fundraiser in support of My Sister’s Place. For those of you who are unfamiliar with My Sister’s Place, … Continue reading Better Together’s My Sister’s Place Fundraiser

Hello, all! Join us at the Multicultural Genealogical Center in Chesterhill, Ohio for Better Together’s Multicultural History Tour on October 20th from 12 PM-5:30 PM! We will be learning about the center’s work in documenting the history of multicultural and multiracial communities in Southeast Ohio while sprucing up and organizing the center’s space, collections, and … Continue reading Better Together’s Multicultural History Tour

Thanks to all who cosponsored and participated in our 7th Annual Interfaith Peace Walk.  You can read all about it on Ohio University Compass  If you’re interested in getting involved with Better Together at Ohio University this year, please email bettertogetherou@gmail.com!

HELP SUPPORT THE NEXT GENERATION OF INTERFAITH LEADERS! We’re excited to be sending four OU students and Campus Minister Evan Young to the Interfaith Youth Core Leadership Institute in Chicago August 11 – 13, 2017!  Interfaith Leadership Institutes (ILIs) equip undergraduate students and educators with the skills to engage diverse faiths and worldviews to build … Continue reading

Ohio University students Ansam Al Harthy and Aspen Wilson, and UCM Director Melissa Wales attended the Interfaith Youth Core Leadership Institute in Atlanta on January 27.  We appreciate the support of the Margaret Boyd Scholars Program at OU. Better Together at OU meets weekly, Thursdays at 10:30am at UCM. For information on getting involved, email … Continue reading

Come Walk With Us….. Fifteen years ago, a horrific act of violence changed the world for all of us. This year on September 11, the sixth annual 9/11 Interfaith Peace Walk will remind us again that the world is still changing, and we can all take steps to ensure that it changes for the better. … Continue reading Come Walk With Us…

UCM sent five Ohio University students to the Interfaith Youth Core Leadership Institute in August 2016! Look for Kentisha, Aleksandra, Kelsey, Robin and Kaitlan (not pictured) to do important interfaith work on campus this fall – starting with our Annual 9-11 Interfaith Peace Walk, Sunday, 9/11, 7pm at the Church of the Good Shepherd (54 … Continue reading

BETTER TOGETHER AT OU WINS 2ND  CAMPUS IMPACT AWARD FROM INTERFAITH YOUTH CORE! This award goes to a student group that has left a substantial mark on their campus and community this year and best demonstrates the power of interfaith partnerships.  Ohio University made a major impact this year by working hard to recognize and … Continue reading

BETTER TOGETHER AT OU PRESENTS  STORIES OF INTERFAITH BRIDGE BUILDING WITH PEGGY FAW GISH TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 7PM – 9PM WALTER HALL ROTUNDA Peggy’s stories from Iraq, West Bank, and Nigeria of courageous interfaith collaborating, difussion tensions, working for peace and reconciliation, advocating for and helping others of differing religious or ethnic groups, can inspire … Continue reading

Fall Semester Wrap-up Some highlights of Better Together at OU Fall Semester include the Annual 9-11 Interfaith Peace Walk, where hundreds of students and community members from many religious and nonreligious backgrounds walked for peace, including a stop at Hillel for a recitation of the Mourners Kaddish and concluding with a candlelight vigil at the … Continue reading Fall Semester Wrap Up

We are excited to be sending two more Bobcats to Interfaith Youth Core’s Leadership Institute in Chicago next month! We look for these students to come back inspired and equipped to help Better Together at Ohio University continue to build interfaith community through education, engagement and service!  Thanks to the Ohio University Dean of Students … Continue reading OU Students are Interfaith Leaders!

Better Together at OU took 20+ students out with Monday Creek Watershed Restoration Project to clear access to a doser facility treating acid mine drainage.

Published by Interfaith Youth Core on Oct. 16, 2014 Just as the Better Together team at Ohio University was getting back to campus and getting their feet under them for this year’s  campaign, something happened that changed everything. On September 2, the newly elected president of Ohio U’s Student Senate uploaded a video response to … Continue reading CULTIVATE PEACE – by Rev. Evan Young

My name is Mackenzie Kistler and I am the author of this blog. I am a Freshman at Ohio University looking to major in Strategic Communication. This is my first year being a part of Better Together and the Interfaith Peace Walk but I have already learned so much about ways connect with others peacefully. … Continue reading Interfaith Peace Walk

THE POWER OF INTERFAITH COOPERATION AND ACTION ~ 2013-14 BETTER TOGETHER COORDINATOR KRISTA MOBLEY KRISTA MOBLEY @ THE BETTER TOGETHER KICKOFF I never thought about the power of an interfaith dialogue in overcoming social issues. In fact, this past spring was the first time this idea had ever been presented to me. This idea inspires … Continue reading THE POWER OF INTERFAITH COOPERATION AND ACTION!

Wednesday September 11, students, Athenians, and local faith communities will take to the streets for the third annual Interfaith Peace Walk. The walk will begin at 7pm at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd on University Terrace and will end at the Islamic Center on Stewart Street. Taking place against the backdrop of escalating … Continue reading September 11th Peace Walk to Demonstrate We Are Better Together

Interfaith Leadership Institute Conference (ILI) –  An Inward Journey of Leadership, Tolerance, & Inspiration By Javad Anjum, Doctoral Student in Aphasiology, OU           Javad, IFYC Founder Eboo Patel and UCM Director Melissa Wales at ILI Aug. 2014 When I signed up to attend the three-day ILI Conference in New York City this summer, I experienced … Continue reading UCM Participates in 4th Interfaith Leadership Institute

—-B R E A K I N G    N E W S ——  This just in! Better Together at Ohio University received honorable mention for “Loudest Voice” for successfully spreading the word about interfaith cooperation and the Better Together campaign. Given that we WON the Best Campus Impact award last year, it’s very cool to … Continue reading Better Together at OU receives honorable mention by IFYC!

–> Ohio University’s Better Together Campaign thrived this year with students leading the 9-11 Interfaith Peace Walk, raising “a ton of food” for the SE Ohio Foodbank, participating in two watershed service-learning clean-up projects with interfaith reflection, organizing an interfaith panel on faith and violence, hosting the first Better Together Day (April 4) with a … Continue reading Better Together wraps up one year and plans for 2013-141

View Original Post:  Religious leaders host discussion, show solidarity | The Post Religious leaders host discussion, show solidarity Publication Date: March 19, 2013 – 4:46am Updated: March 19, 2013 – 4:46am Ohio University sophomore Omar Kurdi speaks about violence at a panel that brought together members of five different religious institutions. (Sara Kramer | For … Continue reading Religious leaders host discussion, show solidarity | The Post

Written by Richard S. Gilbert The human race is a vast rainbow bursting into view. of white and black, red, yellow and brown. Yet for all blood is red, the sky is blue, the earth brown, the night dark. In size and shape we are a varied pattern of tall and short, slim and stout, … Continue reading We are all more human than otherwise

United Campus Ministry (UCM) and the OU Office of Diversity and Inclusion sponsored two Ohio University undergraduate students‘participation in an Interfaith Leadership Institute (ILI) in Atlanta in January. ILIs are organized by Interfaith Youth Core and their purpose is to train university students, faculty, staff and administration to be movement builders for interfaith cooperation and … Continue reading OU Students Attend Interfaith Leadership Institute

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Most people have heard of Dr. King’s “I have a Dream” speech. But did you know that he gave a speech stating his opposition to the Vietnam War exactly one year before his assassination? This speech, entitled “Beyond Vietnam, a Time to … Continue reading Dr. King’s Vietnam Speech

During the holiday season, I take time out to consciously ponder what I am thankful for. Of course I’m thankful for my family, my friends, my education, my opportunities, and my “stuff.” I’m not wealthy, but I live a relatively privileged life. With all of the privilege that I have, I have little room to … Continue reading Thankful

Spirituality- understanding and experiencing ourselves in relation to something larger than ourselves, of which we are a part, on which we depend, and which consequently we are called to serve This is Reverend Evan Young’s definition of spirituality.  How does that compare with your personal definition of spirituality?  How does it affect your feelings about your spirituality?

“Faith is silly,” a friend of mine put on his Facebook profile where it asks for “religious views.” I don’t agree, but I think I know what he meant.                “Faith” is an interesting word, one of those we use like we think we know what it means, when in fact it means different things … Continue reading To Serve the Spirit

Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, We eat, we sleep, we believe.   Human me, Human you. Shaman, Catholic, Pagan, Hindu, We think, we weep, we grieve. Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew. Atheist, Agnostic, Unitarian, Vodou, We breathe, we proceed, we leave. Human me, human you.   Taoist, Wiccan, Bahá’í, no clue, We need, we feed, we receive. … Continue reading Villanelle for Humanity

On Walking for Peace on 9/11 ~ Rev. Evan Young These are the words with which UCM Campus Minister, Rev. Evan Young, started the 9/11 Interfaith Peace Walk on and around the campus of Ohio University. Eleven years ago terrorists commandeered four commercial airliners and used them to perpetrate attacks on the World Trade Center … Continue reading

Ohio University’s Better Together campaign recently received the Best Campus Impact award in the nationwide 2012 Better Together initiative, which took place on more than 100 college campuses during the 2011-12 academic year. Better Together is a project of the Interfaith Youth Core with the goal of empowering college students of all and no faith … Continue reading Better Together at Ohio University Awarded National Best Campus Impact Award

This week’s blog post comes from Better Together Committee Member Anne McGlamery, who joined me (Shea) for a springtime adventure around OU’s campus in Athens, Ohio. Once upon a time two bunnies left UCM to give out interfaith eggs to the Ohio University community. Ok so it was actually Shea and I, but we had … Continue reading Interfaith Spring Eggs

Hi again!  Shea here. *Waving.* There’s other posts coming but this week you’re stuck with me. And because you’re stuck with me you’re stuck with my current thought process. I have been thinking about the universe, and about the divine, a whole lot this week.  When I was a young teenager Joan of Arcadia was … Continue reading If God Had A Name, What Would It Be?

Happy Spring Quarter everyone! This quarter we’ll have posts from UCM interns and Ohio University students alike. This week intern Sam Fersky and her beautiful views on community gardening. Every time I think I know Athens through to the core, like an old friend, Athens surprises me with gifts of beauty and joy.  This quarter … Continue reading Interfaith Community Gardening

This week’s post is by Free Meal’s Intern and Better Together Committee Member Shea Daniels   I believe community is perpetuated when the worthiness of individual members is perpetuated. So often in spaces that are not the free meals program, I encounter humans disvaluing other humans and it makes me sad. I encounter humans saying … Continue reading Worthiness (Community)

This week’s post is from Better Together Committee Member and Free Meals Intern, Shea Daniels. As Free Meals Interns Samantha, Michael and myself learned the economy was tanking long before any news broadcast told us. We have gone from feeding 50 on Thursdays this time last year, to 80+ each Thursday currently.  On Saturdays we … Continue reading Washing Chairs and Waiting

This week’s post is by Michael Lupsa, one of our free meals interns and a member of OU’s Better Together Steering Committee.   I could not have even imagined the magnitude of change and growth that I would encounter whence I embarked on the wonderful journey that is my college career. I was nothing more … Continue reading Profiles in Radical Hospitality

This week’s post is from Rachel Hyden, OU’s Better Together campus organizer.   There is not a single thing in my life that is not affected by my core set of beliefs. Every action, every thought, every word I speak is connected to my morals and my ethics, which I define as my religion. For … Continue reading Living My Beliefs

Hi again!  *Waving.*  Shea here.   This quarter our Better Together blog is going to feature profiles of volunteers, as well as continued blog posts by myself and other White House Challenge organizer Rachel Hyden.  Other folks, such as Michael Lupsa, a member of OU’s Better Together Steering Committee and one of our free meals program … Continue reading Welcome to Winter Quarter at Ohio University!

Hi!  Shea here. *Waving.*  Here’s another Profile in Radical Hospitality, this one written by Allison  Schoeppner.  Allison is a regular at Thursday Supper and Interfaith Impact, and is on our White House Interfaith Challenge Steering Committee as well. – – – – – I grew up in Athens and as a freshman I had a … Continue reading Profiles in Radical Hospitality

Hi all!  Shea here.  *Waving.*  This week’s post is a continuation of our Profiles in Radical Hospitality written by Alice Ragland, an OU student and another regular volunteer at UCM’s Free Meal’s program.  – – – – – The world is a circle Continuous and connective; The whole thing will malfunction If one part is … Continue reading Profiles in Radical Hospitality

Hi there!  Shea here.  *Waving.*  As part of our Better Together at OU blog, we’re going to be posting pieces written by folks who spend time at UCM programming related to the White House Interfaith Challenge.  UCM runs on the idea of Radical Hospitality, which means we accept everyone who walks through our doors no … Continue reading Profiles in Radical Hospitality

Hi again!  Shea here.  *Waving.* United Campus Ministries has been incredibly supportive of the Occupy Ohio University movement.  After all, when a group of students works with administration to hold a non-violent, substance free, radically inclusive, social justice demonstration for the purpose of educating college students about civil disobedience, what’s there to say besides “Awe-some!”? … Continue reading Why I Am Occupying

Today’s post is from Rachel Hyden, Campus Organizer for Ohio University’s Better Together Campaign.  For the majority of my life I have had no religious identity. As a child my parents never took me to church, and through high school I never much spoke of religion. It wasn’t until college that I really started questioning … Continue reading No Label Required

Hi!  *Waving.*  My name is Shea Daniels.  Welcome to the Better Together at Ohio University Blog!  This week I’d like to tell you about the White House Interfaith Challenge, mostly because I’m really really excited about it.  Hopefully by the end of this post you’ll be excited about it, too! The White House Interfaith Challenge … Continue reading The White House Interfaith Challenge