The Carleton University Students’ Association’s (CUSA) new Multi-Faith Centre officially opened its doors Oct. 17.
The space is located in Unicentre 226C, a room formerly occupied by Ziggy’s hair salon. The room is small and carpeted, with a bookshelf to hold various religious texts.
Reda Zarrug, CUSA vice-president (student services), said the centre would be open on a drop-in basis unless booked in advance through his office.
Zarrug said different religious groups are able to conduct prayer sessions in the centre simultaneously.
Zarrug said in the future, CUSA wants the Multi-Faith Centre to be “a very big space” with such facilities as meeting rooms and an ablution room.
The president of the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA), Mohamed Abdalla, was present at the opening and called the Multi-Faith Centre a “good achievement.”
Amar Daouk, an MSA member, said the MSA would use the room primarily for prayer in addition to its existing prayer room.
“You have people from several faiths come together in one room, for everyone to do their individual thing, or to do some stuff together. It’s something amazing,” he said.
Randy Fox, a representative from the Jewish student organization Hillel Ottawa, said although they too have their own space, he supports the concept of a multi-faith centre.
“If we ever need to use it for anything at the school, it’s definitely a good thing to have here. Hypothetically, we would use it as a prayer space, if needed,” he said.
In his ribbon-cutting speech, Zarrug mentioned Rev. Tom Sherwood, without whom, he said, “none of this would have been possible.”
Sherwood, a member of the university Senate, adjunct professor, and former chaplain at Carleton’s Ecumenical Chaplaincy, gave CUSA an idea of how a multi-faith centre would operate, according to Zarrug.
Sherwood said he has visited more than a dozen multi-faith centres across Canada as well as internationally, and was able to provide Zarrug with resource materials.
He said he gave Zarrug lists of activities and requirements for various multi-faith centre possibilities, examples of policies and protocols for their use, and examples of some of the challenges other universities have run into, such as food preparation and booking issues.
“The small space opened this month is a significant step,” Sherwood said via email. “Now we shall see how it is used, what it can accommodate and support, what its limitations are.”
