New Emory chaplains appointed to serve university’s religious diversity
For many years, Emory students have been blessed with strong academic resources for their questions about religion and philosophy. Now they have chaplains as spiritual resources for growing in their diverse faith traditions as well.
Three chaplains—representing Buddhist, Hindu and Jewish faith traditions —have joined the Emory University Office of Spiritual and Religious Life to support Emory’s religious and philosophical diversity.
Muslim and Christian chaplains are also being hired, and the five will build upon Emory’s strong resources for Christian life at the Candler School of Theology and Glenn Memorial Church to serve Emory’s increasingly diverse and globalized student, faculty and staff populations. Current demographics show Emory’s religious diversity continuing to grow, including a large number of students who do not identify with any one religious tradition.
“Offering support for spiritual life that reflects and represents Emory’s religious composition today is an important part of our diversity and justice work, and it is also connected with our educational mission, including in the spiritual realms of the arts, music and poetry,” says the Rev. Greg McGonigle, Emory’s university chaplain and dean of religious life. “Students, faculty and staff have all said how important it is for them to feel ‘seen’ and to have the supports they need for their identities and communities and to be able to really thrive here.”
Chaplains provide leadership in worship and meditation, religious education, pastoral care and community-building, and they also support diversity efforts and civic engagement. McGonigle says Emory may be the first U.S. university to hire a full-time Buddhist chaplain and is only the fourth to hire a full-time Hindu chaplain (following Princeton, Yale and Georgetown). The last time Emory had a Jewish chaplain on staff was in 2011, he adds.
“The Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim religions are much newer to become established in the United States, and so they do not yet have the established structures that Christianity and Judaism have built over many years to support young adult and university religious life,” notes McGonigle, who recently defended his doctoral dissertation on this topic. “If universities want to support the spiritual lives of our diverse campus communities, and to educate all of us in these ancient traditions of wisdom, the universities have to provide them.”
College and graduate school can be times of intense questioning of personal faith and family and cultural traditions, and in the following interviews, the new Emory chaplains speak about what that time was like for them. Faculty and students in each faith tradition, many of whom helped with the chaplain searches, also offer their takes on what the new chaplains will bring to the Emory community.
Meet the new chaplains
Emory's new chaplains have begun offering weekly programming and special events as well as office hours. They are also helping to lead university interfaith initiatives, such as a new Interfaith Pre-Orientation program for incoming students that the OSRL is developing, and the annual Multifaith Baccalaureate Ceremony.
In addition, the chaplains are helping lead strategic planning for the future of spiritual life in which Emory community members are invited to engage. Emory is among the first U.S. research universities to undertake such a comprehensive interfaith strategic plan, the goal of which is to chart an inclusive future for religious, spiritual and interfaith life.
All chaplains are eager to get to know the whole Emory community. They can be reached through the OSRL website.
For many years, Emory students have been blessed with strong academic resources for their questions about religion and philosophy. Now they have chaplains as spiritual resources for growing in their diverse faith traditions as well.
Three chaplains—representing Buddhist, Hindu and Jewish faith traditions —have joined the Emory University Office of Spiritual and Religious Life to support Emory’s religious and philosophical diversity.
Muslim and Christian chaplains are also being hired, and the five will build upon Emory’s strong resources for Christian life at the Candler School of Theology and Glenn Memorial Church to serve Emory’s increasingly diverse and globalized student, faculty and staff populations. Current demographics show Emory’s religious diversity continuing to grow, including a large number of students who do not identify with any one religious tradition.
“Offering support for spiritual life that reflects and represents Emory’s religious composition today is an important part of our diversity and justice work, and it is also connected with our educational mission, including in the spiritual realms of the arts, music and poetry,” says the Rev. Greg McGonigle, Emory’s university chaplain and dean of religious life. “Students, faculty and staff have all said how important it is for them to feel ‘seen’ and to have the supports they need for their identities and communities and to be able to really thrive here.”
Chaplains provide leadership in worship and meditation, religious education, pastoral care, and community-building, and they also support diversity efforts and civic engagement. McGonigle says Emory may be the first U.S. university to hire a full-time Buddhist chaplain and is only the fourth to hire a full-time Hindu chaplain (following Princeton, Yale and Georgetown). The last time Emory had a Jewish chaplain on staff was in 2011, he adds.
“The Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim religions are much newer to become established in the United States, and so they do not yet have the established structures that Christianity and Judaism have built over many years to support young adult and university religious life,” notes McGonigle, who recently defended his doctoral dissertation on this topic. “If universities want to support the spiritual lives of our diverse campus communities, and to educate all of us in these ancient traditions of wisdom, the universities have to provide them.”
College and graduate school can be times of intense questioning of personal faith and family and cultural traditions, and in the following interviews, the new Emory chaplains speak about what that time was like for them. Faculty and students in each faith tradition, many of whom helped with the chaplain searches, also offer their takes on what the new chaplains will bring to the Emory community.
Buddhist chaplain: The Venerable Priya Sraman
Born in Bangladesh, Sraman was 11 years old when his parents sent him to a Buddhist monastery in Sri Lanka, where he studied the religion and Buddhist languages. He followed that course of study through college in Thailand, graduate school in Hong Kong, and the master of divinity program in Buddhist studies at Harvard.
“Rethinking one’s beliefs is a natural experience that everyone goes through, and I did that,” he says. “I am a very curious person about everything. Especially when I entered college, I wondered, ‘Am I learning everything by studying Buddhism, or is there more?’ I had a lot of interest to explore other things outside of my practice, like philosophy and science. But somehow I kept on studying Buddhism.”
He finds that chaplaincy work, begun after receiving his divinity degree, rewards his curiosity and knowledge.
“I find meaning in the process of responding to questions from students and exploring Buddhism and life with them,” he says. “I believe this work is the purpose of what came before in my life.”
His message to the Emory community: “Thinking of ourselves communally can be helpful for us in terms of our individual and communal growth. I hope to enhance that practice of communal thinking and offer programs, activities and events to enhance collective growth.”
Faculty perspective from Tara Doyle, senior lecturer emerita, Department of Religion, and visiting research scholar, Candler School of Theology: “I have felt a need for this since Harvard, where my mentor was Dr. Diana Eck, whose Pluralism Project has illuminated the rapidly changing religious demographics of this country. Venerable Priya is a serious practitioner and a fine scholar who brings many gifts and invaluable experience in both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, which is unusual for an Asian Buddhist monk.”
Student perspective from Meha Srivastava 22C, president of the Emory Buddhist Club: “For a student in distress who needed a more private form of support from a teacher, Venerable Priya has filled a serious gap in the Buddhist community on campus. He has assumed a position that involves face-to-face interactions with those in need and he provides regular opportunities for students to seek counseling. Venerable Priya strengthens our community by providing this resource and he serves our community by living by the values he teaches.”
Hindu chaplain: Brahmacharini Shweta Chaitanya
The Hindu tradition has many branches, and Chaitanya drew inspiration from her grandfather’s varkari sampradaya devotional tradition. After her family moved from India to settle in Houston, they joined a Hindu center that practiced the advaita Vedanta (or monistic philosophical) tradition.
In college at the University of Texas – Austin, Chaitanya majored in the Sanskrit language, and became curious: could the core teachings of the traditions familiar to her, and the ones she was learning, be used as a foundation for caregiving in her communities and beyond? That sense of calling to caregiving, and an appreciation for the diversity of Hindu traditions, eventually drew her into chaplaincy work.
During graduate school at Columbia in Sanskrit studies, she took a leave of absence to move to an ashram in India and became a monastic. The title Brahmacharini identifies her as a monastic-in-training whose spiritual goal is the pursuit of brahman — a state of pure being, consciousness and bliss.
“Every Hindu tradition comes with its own inspiring teaching and some baggage, too, with stigma and taboos,” she says. “For me, growing up in a particular Hindu tradition and coming in contact with another one in my life, and now sort of living in both, I don’t feel these are in tension. I am seeing each informing the other.”
Her message to the Emory community: “Being Hindu doesn’t mean one thing. I hope to offer an invitation to be at ease. The Hindu chaplaincy is an open space for everyone to authentically bring themselves into this discussion of how we engage the tradition and challenges, and be open and uninhibited in speaking about that in an educational space.”
Faculty perspective from Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, the Visweswara Rao and Sita Koppaka Assistant Professor of Telugu Culture, Literature and History: “Because Brni. Chaitanya has the rare combination of an academic background and a practitioner’s perspective, she can integrate study of the Hindu religion with sensitivity to diverse communities. Hindu students come from many backgrounds, and she will play a critical role in navigating questions of faith and life. When a student engages with a text and asks what that means for them personally, she can engage with them at a different, personal level.”
Student perspective from Himani Shetti 21C, co-president of the Emory Hindu Students Association: “Brni. Shweta Chaitanya is working tirelessly to ensure that all students feel supported and seen, regardless of their religious affiliation. She has reached out to students through introductory emails, sent out care packages and letters for students in isolation and quarantine, and strives to be a resource in a time of great need, such as we are in with COVID-19. She explains philosophical concepts in a way that everyone can understand, regardless of their knowledge, and she has great passion for interfaith work.”
Jewish chaplain: Rabbi Jordan Braunig
Braunig loves being in the kitchen, cooking up something delicious, and inviting students to open up over a shared task. His parents’ kitchen table in Louisiana was where, as a young adult, he tested his own faith.
“I asked them, ‘Do you believe in God?’ And they were both like, ‘Yeah,’” he recalls. “I told them I can’t believe that… How can you possibly believe that? I needed to reject a notion of an omniscient, omnipotent God who would allow so much suffering. Hitting that moment is part of the normal development of one’s faith and one’s experience of spirituality and divinity.”
Braunig’s search, as an NYU undergraduate, took him around the city looking for diverse worship experiences, from a celebration with whiskey and dancing to a solemn Orthodox service with men and women in separate seating. As he found his place in Judaism, he discovered he wanted to be at the table with people seeking transformative answers, too.
“How do I make sense of pursuing my own goals and career in the world that is deeply broken? How should I make priorities around learning and friendship and my own aspirations and familial relationships?” Braunig says, echoing the kind of questions he hears as a chaplain.
His message to the Emory community: “This is the work of helping people become the authors of their own stories. Not me telling them what I think they should do, because that’s not what anyone wants when they ask for advice. I help them figure out what they want to do and be, and assure them they have permission for being in process.”
Faculty perspective from Eric L. Goldstein, associate professor of history and Jewish studies and director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies: “Having Rabbi Braunig in the Office of Spiritual and Religious Life, as a member of the Emory administration, is particularly crucial, because it makes him accessible to students regardless of whether they are affiliated with any formal Jewish movement or community organization. And it also allows him to add a Jewish perspective to the office’s work, and to Emory’s campus life more broadly.”
Recent alumni perspective from David Kulp 20C, a member of Hillel International’s board of directors: “The opportunity to have a Jewish chaplain at Emory is one I am excited for because he can help create a more communal experience on campus. I am excited to see what is prioritized as he begins strategic planning to tackle systemic issues, because it is vitally important with the anti-Semitism and Islamophobia that exist on campuses these days. Rabbi Braunig is a very innovative rabbi.”
Meet the new chaplains
Emory's new chaplains have begun offering weekly programming and special events as well as office hours. They are also helping to lead university interfaith initiatives, such as a new Interfaith Pre-Orientation program for incoming students that the OSRL is developing, and the annual Multifaith Baccalaureate Ceremony.
In addition, the chaplains are helping lead strategic planning for the future of spiritual life in which Emory community members are invited to engage. Emory is among the first U.S. research universities to undertake such a comprehensive interfaith strategic plan, the goal of which is to chart an inclusive future for religious, spiritual and interfaith life.
All chaplains are eager to get to know the whole Emory community. They can be reached through the OSRL website.
To learn more, please visit:
Office of Spiritual & Religious Life
Emory News Center
Emory University
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