Office of Religious and Spiritual Life

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The Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL) is a multifaith resource center and lively ‘hub’ that provides and supports diverse religious, spiritual, and dialogue-based programs and activities. First and foremost, the ORSL bears witness to the inherent and immovable dignity and worth of every student at Oberlin. We work in partnership with student leaders of all and many traditions.

The ORSL serves the educational, spiritual, and personal needs of a wide array of spiritual orientations, including non-theists and those who are coming from interfaith backgrounds. It houses two ‘streams’ of activity serving the wider campus: dialogue work, with its popular signature programs Barefoot Dialogue and On Topic, and religious and spiritual life more broadly. In the ORSL, attentiveness to high-level listening is a transformative and generative event on its own. The office is also a space where students can access the chaplain, a confidential ear, as well as other staff tasked to offer meaningful, trustworthy, and dynamic spiritual, interpretive direction to resources and/or pastoral counsel.