By BRIANA SPINA
Layout Editor
and
SARAH CLARK
News Editor
The Interfaith Sanctuary is more than a place of worship. It is a place open to all students of any or no spiritual background. This is the message that the Sanctuary sent when they hosted their first ever open house event on Thursday, Nov. 14.
One of Professor Mark Congdon’s COM classes helped the Sanctuary come up with the idea to have an open house. Joan Horgan, the director of Spiritual Life, said that she wanted the event to incorporate “different expressions of spirituality” that people may not usually associate with the Sanctuary. Horgan said she wanted the campus to know that anyone can come to the Sanctuary to reflect, pray, make a cup to tea, or connect with others.
The day started off with a yoga session led by John Avitable. He has been doing yoga on and off since he was 19 years old, and he has taken it more seriously in the past six years. Avitable has been sharing yoga with the Saint Rose community since 2016, and continues to offer his class every Thursday from 1:15 to 2:15 p.m. The classes are free and open to students, faculty, and staff.
“Yoga helps people live better lives,” said Avitable. “It’s a way of self-healing.”
After yoga, different people set up tables representing their areas of expertise in spirituality. A shop called Revibe had a table displaying an assortment of crystals and essential oils. Revibe is in Schuylerville and offers meditation, yoga, massage, and spiritual workshops. Ruth Ann Smalley had a table representing Vibrant Energies, and she educated a group of Saint Rose students about energy medicine.
“It’s been really, really enriching,” said Smalley. She also said how journaling and a healthy diet can help with energy awareness. “Once you start doing this, you can change your point of view.”
Damian Ubriaco from the Shambhala Meditation Center of Albany led students in Shamatha meditation, which translates to “peacefully abiding” and entails a focus on the body and the breath. Shambhala is a local nondenominational Buddhist center that offers basic course open to everyone. The cost is on a “pay what you can” basis.
“I hope students get a taste of their natural ability to relax and accept themselves in the present moment,” said Ubriaco on coming to Saint Rose.
Freshman Hannah Chase enjoyed the meditation and the energy medicine presentation. She said that she will take the meditation skills with her into her daily life, reiterating what Ubriaco said: doing a little bit of meditation every day will be more helpful than doing a long meditation once in a while.
“I like that [the Sanctuary] brought awareness to spirituality in general, not just religion,” said Chase.
There was also a table set up at the open house with information about the on-campus spiritual life. Marzia Syeda, a senior and a coordinator of the Muslim Student Organization was there representing the club.
“If anybody has questions, they can ask and be informed,” said Syeda. “This space is for everyone, not for any single specific group. We invite everybody in this space to learn more about the spiritual life.”
The open house closed with a viewing of a TED Talk by Emily Esfahani Smith called “There’s more to life than being happy.” Later that evening, many students gathered into the downstairs portion of the Sanctuary to watch the Disney film “Coco” about the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos.
Horgan’s main message to the community is that the Sanctuary is a home to everybody at Saint Rose.
“My own journey with this building has seen ever-expanding circles of who comes here. We want to keep expanding our circles,” said Horgan.
