Faith & Belief Celebration Month
Throughout November, we are celebrating different faiths and worldviews in our community and their contributions to campus life. We will be hearing from members of our community about their experiences, and celebrating with different events and socials.
This month is an initiative from our Faith & Worldview Equality Group and centres around the national Inter Faith Week, which falls in mid-November. We hope to give students and staff with faiths and worldviews an increased sense of belonging as part of the diverse university community, and increase awareness of different practices and traditions.
Events, resources and support
Multifaith Chaplaincy Event: Movies & Meanings
Thursday 14th November, 6pm, Streatham and Penryn Campuses
Join the chaplaincies on either the Streatham or Penryn Campuses for a simultaneous Movies & Meanings night. Eat snacks, watch a film, and have a friendly discussion about what it meant to you! Visit the chaplaincy webpages for more information.
Dr Brandon Thomas Crowley - Queering Black Churches: Dismantling Heteronormativity in Congregations
Thursday 7th November, 2.30pm, Streatham Campus
Dr Crowley is an honorary research fellow of our department, one of Exeter's Societies and Cultures Institute's visiting professors for 2024-25, a Lecturer in Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School, and Senior Pastor of the Historic Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts, one of America's oldest Black congregations founded by formerly enslaved persons at the end of Reconstruction and one of the USA's few open and affirming historically Black churches.
Dr Crowley will be giving a lecture on the afternoon of Thursday 7 November in Knightley (building 55), on the subject of his recent Oxford University Press book Queering Black Churches: Dismantling Heteronormativity in African American Congregations: please do join us for refreshments from 2.30pm with a welcome from Prof Rajani Naidoo and the main lecture at 3pm followed by response and questions. This event will finish by 5pm. You can book tickets for the lecture here.
Multifaith Chaplaincy (Devon)
Do you want to find about more about your about connecting with your faith community on Devon campuses? You can reach out to the Multifaith Chaplaincy and the Student faith groups. The Chaplaincy serves the whole University community and is there to listen to students and staff of all faiths and none. Chaplains provide a safe space to talk and offer discreet and confidential listening. In addition, they can also provide details on faith activities and worship both at the University and in the wider community.
Multifaith Chaplaincy (Cornwall)
Do you want to find about more about your about connecting with your faith community on Cornwall campuses? You can reach out to the Multifaith Chaplaincy and the student faith groups on the SU website. If you have a faith, the team can support you to practice your religion or spirituality on and off campus. They also provide pastoral care for everyone (whether or not you have a faith) and manage spaces on our campuses for you to enjoy.
Exeter Students’ Guild (Devon)
The Guild’s Community Empowerment Team works with Exeter’s diverse student community groups through projects, advocacy, and support so that students of all backgrounds and beliefs Love Exeter. We support our Student faith groups to host religious festivals and cultural celebrations, as well as advocating with them so that Students of Faith have everything they need to study and practice their faith at Exeter. Do you have an idea for a project or celebration? Get in touch with the team, they’d love to help.
Faith & Belief Perspectives: Heval Kartal
To mark our November Faith & Belief Celebration Month, the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team has asked staff and students at the University to share their own personal perspectives on their faith and beliefs. Over the course of this month, we will hear what their faith means to them and their lives - and to their experiences at the University.
In the first in this special series, Heval Kartal, Head Brother of the Islamic Society and 3rd year undergrad on the Law Degree, provides an insight into how Islam offers companionship, discipline…and extra motivation to get up early in the morning!
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Has my faith added anything to my university experience which I wouldn’t have had otherwise? Well, you have new friendships being made and new brothers and that's the university experience, you know, making friends and having fun. I feel like bulk of that has been through the Islamic Society.
Islam gives you a schedule – it’s not just a belief system, it's a way of life as well. You wake up in the morning, sometimes 3, 4, 5am, depending on what time of year it is, to pray. You pray at midday, pray when the sun is at an angle, you pray five times a day, and it gives you a structure to build your life around. It teaches you discipline. For example, no eating or drinking during the daytime for a whole month. Having to abstain from certain things, it makes you disciplined. Islam makes you structured, which is something that obviously translates into the academic arena as well.
As Muslims, we have a commitment on Fridays - that's our holy day, basically. You know, in Christianity the holy day is Sunday, and Judaism it’s the Sabbath on Saturday, and then we have Friday. Men have to go to the mosque on Friday. So, it’s nice that if you ever have lessons on a Friday, you can always e-mail, and they're very receptive to helping with timetabling. It’s not really a big change or a challenge, especially if you've grown up doing it. I'm very thankful that there’s a prayer room on campus, so you can go in between lectures.
For me, finding community here in Exeter was very easy. I was born in Germany, but I grew up in London, and I had a pretty normal childhood. In North London, almost everything you want or need is right there, so moving to Exeter for my degree was obviously a big change. I always knew Exeter was less diverse than London, so that wasn’t really a big issue for me. I embraced the change as it's quieter than London, and it's more peaceful, more green. That’s my favourite thing about Exeter, especially coming from London; a concrete jungle. You're able to travel just 20 minutes and you get these forests, and nice places, and you get all this greenery, and the air feels clean.
And the Islamic Society is very strong. They’re probably the best society at uni – but I’m not biased! The way they welcome you into the group is great, and there are so many events. Sometimes there are events almost daily, especially during Ramadan, which is our holy month.
And it’s not just the society, but the broader community in Exeter. For example, I have many friends that don't go to uni, they just live in the city and I met them through the mosque. In the Islamic Society, we don't only do events for students, it's also for people who are outside the university. We bring them into events, whether that's football or something else we're doing. We'll always bring them in because as Muslims, our duty is to people first regardless of whether they’re at the university or not, if they're this or that, if they're young or they're old, you know.
The community is very strong, especially so because we only have one mosque in Exeter (except for a new one a few miles away in Pinhoe). It means everyone comes together in one place, and the mosque is always open for us. For example, I go in the morning to pray at 5 or 6am and even then, it's open and there's people there. So, it's a very strong community. You're seeing the same people, depending on how much you go, three, four times a day. Coupled with the brotherhood that Islam encourages, that means it's very easy to find a strong close-knit community at university and in Exeter.
I think the most important thing for me about finding this community is it fosters a good sense of Islam. It keeps us on the right path for our beliefs. For example, it's no secret in Islam alcohol isn’t allowed. It's a bit of a no-no. And we're pretty much the only society, or one of a few, that don't go to clubs or don't have socials and bars or pubs. I feel like when you're new to university, it's very easy - if you're a Muslim, that is - and you don’t know anyone yet, to be tempted to do something that in our religion is not allowed. It's very easy for you to slip up when you’re scared that you won’t make new friends. So having the Islamic Society there, it really means a lot to the community. It's a nice alternative, that I think students can look to as a home away from home.
Often new students are coming away from areas which may be bigger or more diverse; it may be easier to practise their religion. I've heard a lot of people tell me, ‘If it wasn’t for the Islamic Society, I'd be doing this and this. And I'm very thankful for it.’ So I think the impact we make on people is big, and I think it's a big responsibility and a lot of trust we have - something that I think is very important for us and for the broader community.
As Head Brother of the Islamic Society, I organise the men's side of the committee, the brother’s side. Whether that involves delegating or trying to cover a task, if someone's not there, it's a holistic thing, filling in for and overseeing the other roles. Admin, brothers’ welfare, brothers’ events, and overseeing the other sections of the committee – that sums up what I do.
The friends I've made here are friends for life. So I think if you’re a student reading this, whether you’re a brother, sister, whoever, or even just interested in Islam, I think you should definitely get in contact with the Islamic Society and the community that we have here.
If you want us to share more of these stories and would like to take part in the Faith & Belief Perspectives series, please get in touch at edi@exeter.ac.uk.