The numbers attending Church in the UK has been in decline amongst the UK population since the 1950’s, with exceptions like Northern Ireland (and Norfolk, where my parents lived for nearly 30 years and I met many regular Church goers)
Despite this I was surprised to find from the paper that The Church of England has Chaplains at almost every English university (Calhoun Pg.26), UAL being among them
With a student cohort that has rapidly changed in the last 10 years, taking in a larger international body of students, I wonder how appropriate it is for non Christian students to have the sole religious contact a chaplain from the Church of England, even if they are also an interfaith advisor
It can be understood from the paper (2) that whilst Church going numbers are going down, immigrant communities are more likely to have more concern ( and active involvement ?) in religion. Most prominent in the public consciousness are Muslims; for instance, the wearing of hijabs makes Muslim women identifiable and therefore targets of hatred, and sadly the prominence of terror attacks by Islamic fundamentalists since 2001 has meant more negative stories finding prominence in mainstream media, without counter information about the majority of Muslims’ who’s religious practice and views are counter to the terror groups
The resulting Islamaphobia also implicitly implies a racist attitude is also at play in attacks against Muslims, as most Muslims are non white. I can attest to this; I am of South Asian heritage and every time there has been a major Islamic terror attack I have found myself on the receiving end of hostility, both direct and covert. This is especially apparent in rural areas.
It is important to recognize the complexity of racism and how it intersects with religious beliefs, gender, disability age and sexuality. The pervasive racism in this country means alongside their religion Muslims are also targeted because of their race
In this intolerant climate I wonder what it means for students of Faith, particularly Muslim women entering universities and what support is provided for students of Faiths other than Christian
Looking at the UAL arts chaplaincy page I was encouraged to find current Chaplain at CSM, Mark Dean, has a broadly inclusive approach to his work as Chaplain and inter-faith advisor; there was a vast amount of information covering all major religions and faiths with varied approaches and ways to get involved ranging from; making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday at Chelsea, an external award aimed at artists using faith in their work, well-being workshops, a service to commemorate UAL students and staff who died during the pandemic and a video featuring assistant curate Jarel Robinson Brown on how his studies at a French music school shaped his faith and identity as a “Black Queer person”
Jarel Robinson Brown
Working on the Faith and Religion part of the IPU unit made me interrogate the arts chaplaincy at UAL, and I was really encouraged to find the breadth of the work Mark Dean (CSM) is doing. It’s a great resource for both students and staff and I feel staff would definitely benefit from visiting the site to broaden both their / our understanding of different faiths and how we may encourage students in their work around faith moving forward
Mark Dean also has his own website which is worth a visit, and an extra resource to direct students to
https://artschaplaincy.net/author/mark/
References:
Modood, Tariq, and Craig Calhoun. Stimulus Paper. June 2015. https://artschaplaincy.net/author/mark/
Thanks for sharing this Fiona,
I feel like i’ve learnt something by reading your post as I wasn’t aware really of the ‘role’ of the Chaplain within UAL- its super positive to see the work Mark Dean is doing! I too had wondered about this role and what it meant as certainly from what i’ve experienced so few of the UAL students I’ve taught are (at least vocally!) Christian.
Thanks Liz
I went to see Mark when I was a student at WCA; to be honest I didn’t find talking to him about Christianity and my faith especially helpful but in terms of the work around faith he does i think he’s a good direction to send any students in who are working with faith within their practice
Hi Fiona,
I agree with Liz, your post was so informative in terms of the extra research you did into the role of Chaplain within UAL. I will now know where I can direct students who work with religion and spirituality as core interests in their practice as before I thought of Chaplaincy as wellbeing hub only that wasn’t linked to artistic endeavours too.
I also agree with you on the points you made about Islamaphobia and how Muslims are disproportionately targeted because of being more identifiable and also because of the their media portrayal. In my post I looked into the PREVENT government policy too and how that structurally targets young Muslims. The more we are aware of the complexity and intersectionality of racism the more equipped we will be to dismantle it together.
You talking about your personal experiences in this post and other ones is so valuable, thank you for your honesty and bravery! I think the personable narratives are the most relatable and therefore more powerful to learn from. Personal is political, as they say.
Thank you!
Hi Kat
thanks so much for your response; I myself having a somewhat loose connection to my Christian faith (pick and mix lol) I didn’t feel confident regarding dealing with students whose Faiths are central to their positionality but seeing Mark Deans work I now feel more confident of how to address students who use Faith in their practices
And also I want to thank you on your comments regarding the sharing of my personal experiences, it was only then I realised why I had been so reluctant to write and post my blogs. I’m used to keeping much of my views to myself so the thought of posting my thoughts was daunting but comments like yours, well it just made me feel so much better about the whole experience. I thank you for your generosity, it’s much appreciated !