Dear Friends of Chapman,

The Fish Interfaith Center at Chapman University is pleased to introduce CHAPMAN HOPE! We have been working diligently in faith to create a platform for meditation, prayer, Chaplain support, and wellness resources for faculty, staff, students and our community, and support for our various spiritual and religious student groups. We are offering regular blogs from all our staff, and daily social media posts! Please check out our webpage CHAPMAN HOPE for our many offerings.

We realize in this time that we are all working and studying from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that spiritual centering, meditation and prayer are needed more than ever. We are pleased to be able to meet the multiple requests we ae receiving for prayer, meditation, stress relief, grief counseling, and more, for members of the Chapman family. At the Fish Interfaith Center, each of our 10 staff members is regularly in touch with students in our faith and interfaith groups, and any who are in need of our services. We reach out to individuals as well as engaging students, staff and faculty with such virtual offerings as one begun by Rev. Cisa Payuyo: “Chat with a Chaplain,” Shaykh Jibreel’s weekly Qur’an study, and Jewish student online gatherings sponsored by Rabbi Corie and Chapman Hillel. And we respond to requests for individual or specialized group stress relief sessions.

We invite you to be part of our weekly online offerings that are growing all the time: log in live or watch the recording later of my weekly “Calm” meditation session, Rev. Nancy Brink’s prayer service, or Dr. Jay Kumar’s Wellness Webinars (see website for links). We are working as many hours as always to find ways to support the spiritual health of our community.

I hope this finds you and your loved ones safe and healthy. Chapman University, our administration and Board of Trustees, are taking meticulous care in every way possible, leaving no one behind in this historic time. Students who could not leave are being cared for with food and resources in their residence halls. Chapman professors in a few short days learned to teach online with the same dedication as they always bring to personalized education. Students are as eager as ever to learn, even in virtual community. It is truly remarkable to witness and be a part of.

Thank you as always for your support and all you are doing for your community!

Here is one of my weekly musings I sent out to the Chapman community the first week we were all working, studying and researching remotely. See our blog site for more.

Sending you blessings,

Gail Stearns, Dean, Wallace All Faiths Chapel

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