Read Smith’s plans for the fall 2021 semester.
Current Operating Mode: GREEN
Center for Religious & Spiritual Life
Reflect | Resist | Rejuvenate
The Center for Religious and Spiritual Life is an interreligious, nondenominational body that promotes spiritual flourishing for all students, religious and nonreligious alike. Our areas of focus are ethical reflection, social and racial justice and civic engagement, mindfulness and contemplative practice, and community building based in dialogue and respect. We provide resources grounded in different faith and wisdom traditions, and strive to raise religious literacy and promote interfaith engagement toward a more inclusive, just and engaged citizenry. In the midst of a vibrant academic community, we encourage explorations of mystery, faith, ritual and that which we experience as holy.
We invite you to reflect, resist, rejuvenate with us, and remember—whoever you are, wherever you have been and wherever you are going, you are welcome here.
Our Mission
The Smith Center for Religious & Spiritual Life offers guidance and pastoral care through a lens of mutuality and exploration, and we collaborate to respond with grace and courage to the events that threaten to disrupt our lives. We are invested in what Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and others before him called the “beloved community,” a dynamic vision in which the worth, dignity and promise of each human is honored and in which we strive to live as stewards of the earth and its creatures.
Connect With Us!
About the Center
The Smith Center for Religious & Spiritual Life is a unique setting for student engagement.
View moreOur Staff
Our staff members are here to guide and assist you in your spiritual growth and fulfillment.
View moreNewsletter
To learn more about what we're up to each semester, be sure to read our newsletter.
View moreStudent Advisory Board
The CRSL Student Advisory Board fosters collaboration and dialogue between students and the Center for Religious & Spiritual Life.
View moreFeatured Events
Generating Justice and Joy
- Boathouse Lawn 5:30pm and 6:30pm
A welcoming community memorial ritual wherein participants will have the opportunity to share and remember loved ones. This event is for any and all of us who have experienced a loss in the last year, or anytime, from Covid or otherwise; and to mark "dreams deferred" from this time of disruption. We will build community and generate hope together. We will also recognize that the year has been characterized by an increased awareness of police brutality against BIPOC citizens. We will mourn the loss of Daunte Wright, the most recent victim of widely publicized police violence, especially in the context of the feelings elicited by the Chauvin trial. We will say his name. Paradise Pond was chosen on the Smith Campus because of the ways in which water represents and reflects spirituality for many people. As a special part of this ritual we will have the opportunity to put bulbs gleaned from the bulb show into the ground to symbolize new life. Sign up here. Co-sponsored by Botanic Garden of Smith College, the Religion Department, the Design Thinking Initiative, and Student Affairs.
Ramadan Recitations
- CRSL Facebook 10am Daily
The Quranic recitations and reflections give us an opportunity to examine more closely aspects of the Islamic faith during the month of Ramadan. Find the readings here.
Mindful Mondays
- Noon, via Zoom
Mindful Mondays’s theme is “Finding Our Breath: Mindfulness Practice and Conversation with a Commitment to Compassion and Hope.” This is a weekly forum for light meditation instruction, sharing and building compassionate communities in times of uncertainty, isolation, and heightened revelation of the deep racial and social disparities that are part of the air we breathe in American society. In the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King: “No one is free until we are all free.”
Join by computer at https://smith.zoom.us/j/97540270782?pwd=cCtLQTdvSXliMk9QSTJmcVVvZ0hTZz09 Meeting ID: 975 4027 0782 Password: 226107 To join by computer and audio, or for questions, contact mcantwel@smith.edu.
Interfaith Spirituali-Tea
- Via Zoom 4:45pm
CRSL invites people of all backgrounds to share dialogue, and community. This is a student-led program that creates a space for spiritual nourishment as well as honest discussion about spiritual and religious life at Smith and beyond. We aim to be a place where people can bring their whole selves and forge a community grounded in solidarity and social justice. For more information contact Liah at lgilvarparke@smith.edu
Smith College has embarked on the first phase of an emerging strategic plan for racial justice. The proposed recommendations have been informed by student, staff and faculty contributions to Inclusion in Action work, consideration of student and alumnae/i demands, and discussions with the Inclusion Council and President’s Cabinet.
In this time of urgent racial crisis, we invite comment, critique and refinement of this emerging plan.
Center For Religious & Spiritual Life Blog
Recent Posts
Think of Criticalhope as One Word
Rhonda Shapiro-RieserThe Planting of Critical Hope: The Practice of Grief and the Blooming of Justice
Matilda CantwellRacial Justice in Islam Series Connects Leaders to Students
Kim AlstonMrs. New’s Tattoo
Rhonda Shapiro-RieserFor more, visit our Wordpress blog.
Contact
Helen Hills Hills Chapel
123-125 Elm Street
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
Fax: 413-585-2794
We are open daily to the Smith community from 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. for prayer, reflection, conversation, meditation, study and worship.