KPU’s Multi-Faith Centre Invites Students to Meet Its New Chaplains

New Christian, Humanist, and Baha’i chaplains join the centre’s ranks

The chaplains at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Multi-Faith Centre are devoted to representing and connecting with all of its students, staff, and faculty—whatever their beliefs may be. Religious, spiritual, and secular communities are welcomed into the centres located on the Richmond and Surrey campuses, where visitors seeking friendship or guidance are encouraged to “drop by for a cup of coffee or tea, some conversation, and a snack for the road.”

The Multi-Faith centre is focused on reflecting the diversity of the KPU community’s beliefs and world views. For that reason, they have invited several new chaplains onto their staff this year: Skye Fulton, Lee Chernoff, Keith Bloodworth, and Jennifer Roosma.

Fulton and Jennifer Roosma join the roster of KPU Christian chaplains alongside Gary Roosma, Ethan Vanderleek, and Samuel Lee. Chernoff joins Joann Robertson and Marty Shoemaker as a Humanist chaplain.

Shoemaker, the first Humanist chaplain to be vetted at KPU, says that the Multi-Faith Centre “really is a community in the academic environment for students who don’t necessarily view themselves as religious.” He and the other Humanist chaplains represent that group.

Bloodworth, who is currently on leave for personal reasons, is the Centre’s first Baha’i representative. He plans to return to KPU in a few months.

As written on the Baha’i Community of Canada’s website, the Baha’i faith “is based on the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, which emphasize the oneness of humanity, the oneness of God and the fundamental oneness of religion.” It has a following of around five million people worldwide.

Although the Multi-Faith Centre does aim for diversity, there are many religions and beliefs currently missing from their team. At the moment, there are no Buddhist, Muslim, or Sikh chaplains at KPU, all of which would be useful in areas with large Asian populations such as Surrey and Richmond.

Ethan Vanderleek says that he and his colleagues are searching for anyone willing to occupy those vacancies—so far, to no avail. Because the Multi-Faith Centre isn’t owned and funded by KPU, its chaplains depend on external sponsorship for compensation.

“A local religious or secular community needs to support and sponsor a chaplain, so that’s sort of what creates the difficulty with trying to get new people on board. There are definitely holes that we would like to fill, certainly a Sikh chaplain or a Muslim chaplain or Buddhist chaplain,” he says.

Vanderleek says that the chaplains’ leadership “is important in order to bring people together and reach out to students to encourage conversation.” For that reason, the Multi-Faith Centre will continue to look for new chaplains of various faiths.

In the meantime, it will continue to organize events and accommodations for religious holidays from as many origins as possible, whether the communities are represented by chaplains or not. The Sikh holiday of Guru Nanak Gurpurab falls on November 22 and, as always, December will bring Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Human Light, and Christmas.

KPU’s Interfaith Harmony Week—which aims to spread acceptance between varying religions and beliefs—is coming up as well from February 1-7.

Prayer and meditation rooms are available in R1570 on the Richmond campus and Fir 305 in the Surrey campus, and the Multi-Faith Centres can be found in Room 1568 in Richmond and Fir 341 in Surrey.