Welcome.
Since its founding nearly 300 years ago, the University of Pennsylvania has been a place where the religious and spiritual lives of its students are affirmed, encouraged, and faithfully served. Today a large number of undergraduate, graduate and professional students, as well as an also sizable number of faculty, staff, and administrators participate in the dynamic religious communities, fellowships, religious based service projects and off campus communities of faith that comprise religious and spiritual life here at Penn.
The Office of the Chaplain sponsors, supports and encourages religious activities and reflection on faith and concerns of the spiritual dimensions of life. These concerns include the relationship between personal faith and social issues. Likewise, the Office of the Chaplain, along with the Religious Studies Department and the Penn Religious Communities Council (PRCC), works towards not only religious literacy among members of our university community, but also for the perpetuation of a welcoming “interfaith community” as opposed to simply a “multi-faith" one.
The University Chaplain seeks to care for the welfare of members of the university community, walking as a fellow sojourner alongside them. The Chaplain is available to students, faculty and staff for pastoral support, guidance, or just an informal ear to bounce ideas off of.
The Chaplain, an ordained clergyperson, also performs wedding ceremonies, conducts memorial services, and participates in university-wide ceremonies.
We invite you to participate in religious life activities at Penn. We encourage you to seek out the faith communities that will strengthen you spiritually and intellectually. At the same time we encourage you to participate in ecumenical and interfaith activities.
May your season at Penn be a wonderful time of growth, challenge, and deepening.