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Visiting Information

Memorial Church Open Visiting Hours:
Monday - Thursday, 9 AM - 4 PM
Friday, 9 AM - 1 PM
Tours on Fridays at 11 AM.

Memorial Church is closed for University holidays, University closures, services, and private events. Windhover Contemplative Center is currently closed. There is no expected re-opening date at this time.

About Memorial Church and Companion Spaces
Stanford aerial photo. Credit: MichaelVi / Deposit Photos

ORSL Courses

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Find out more information about the courses offered by the Office for Religious & Spiritual Life. 

Cardinal Red Decorative Accent
Offered Fall, Winter, and Spring - 1-2 Units - Ways CE

WELLNESS105/LIFE105 - Meeting the Moment: Inner Resources for Hard Times

Thursdays 11:30-1:20 pm 
DINKG10 (Winter 2024)

Instructors: Marissa Floro, Colleen Hallagan Preuninger, Jonah Willihnganz 

In the face of social, economic, environmental, and public health upheavals, many of us are experiencing an unprecedented degree of uncertainty, isolation, and stress affecting academic and day-to-day life. Challenging times ask us, in a voice louder than usual, to identify sources of strength and develop practices that sustain and even liberate. In this experiential, project-oriented class: Explore practices to find true ground and enact positive change for self and community; Cultivate natural capacities of presence, courage, and compassion; Develop resources to share with one another and the entire Stanford community.

Offered Fall Quarter - 2 Units

ENGR 104R - Designing Your Muslim Life

Tuesdays 5:30 - 7:20 pm
Design School Studio 1

Instructors: Junaid Aziz (Design School) and Dr. Amina Darwish (Office for Religious and Spiritual Life)

The Stanford Life Design Lab applies human centered design thinking to tackling the "wicked" problems of life and vocational wayfinding. The Life Design curriculum is now expanding to different affinity groups to support students with shared identities in showing up as their full selves on campus and beyond. This course will introduce the innovative problem-solving methodology of Design Thinking within the context of “life design,” with two main objectives: 1.) to serve as an affinity space for Muslim students to approach the wicked questions of life with a structured framework that helps them to work out and  process the various challenges that are unique to their college and life experiences as a racial & religious minority, and 2.) to equip students with practical ideas and tools with which they can proactively craft their post-undergraduate vocational and life experiences. This class includes seminar-style and small-group discussions, activities, personal written reflections, guest speakers, and individual mentoring/coaching. 

Offered Fall Quarter - 2 Units

LEAD 114 - Athletes as Leaders: Learning to Embrace the Intersection of Identities with Athletics as a Tool for Social Change

Wednesdays 1:30-3:20 pm 
CIRCLE Seminar Room (Third Floor of Old Union, Room 301)

Instructors: Diane Friedlaender, Toni Kokenis

Calling all athletes! Explore who you are beyond your athlete identity and discover your leadership potential. How have the visible and invisible identities you carry shaped your athlete experience? What opportunities for leadership does your platform as an athlete provide?

Offered Winter Quarter - 1 Unit

WELLNESS 106A/LEAD 106A: Spiritual Wellbeing and Religious Encounter: Reflecting on Our Personal Spiritual Journeys

Wednesdays, 6:00 - 7:20pm
Common Room, CIRCLE (Old Union, 3rd Floor)

Instructors: Tiffany Steinwert, Amina Darwish, Laurie Hahn Tapper

Engage in meaningful spiritual dialogue and religious encounter with one another, fostering a conversation across differences. Explore ways to nurture meaning and purpose in daily life through experiential learning activities. You will have the opportunity to focus inwards on your own spirituality and write your spiritual autobiography. It is not expected that you will be an adherant of or have expertise in religious practices and traditions or background in religious scholarship. You will gain skills and knowledge enabling you to wrestle with life's ultimate religious and spiritual questions through readings, facilitated discussions, and breakout sessions. All sessions will be held over dinner as communal meals are ways of community building between the students. Dinner is provided.

Offered Fall Quarter - 2-4 Units

URBANST 127A - Community Organizing: People, Power & Change

Thursdays, 3:00 - 5:50 PM 
CIRCLE Seminar Room (Third Floor of Old Union, Room 301)

Instructors: Toni Kokenis, Rabbi Laurie Hahn Tapper

Organizers ask three questions: who are my people, what challenges do they face, and how can they turn their resources into the power they need to meet these challenges? Organizing requires leadership: accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty. Organizers identify, recruit, and develop leadership; build community around that leadership; and build power from the resources of that community. In this fellowship course, students will build their coaching and leadership skills to support other students in the craft of community organizing. Students will be introduced to the five core leadership practices: public narrative, building relationships, structure, strategy, and action. In the first module, students will learn what coaching is and how to coach one another through leadership challenges. We will then focus on public narrative in the context of organizing. Students will learn to tell their own public narrative, coach one another on their public narratives, and learn how to use public narrative to analyze responses to leadership challenges. Students will receive the opportunity to coach other students at a public narrative workshop week 4 of the quarter. We will build off of the knowledge and skills students gain in the first module by diving into the remaining leadership practices: relationships, structure, strategy, and action. Students will apply the organizing principles by viewing the fellowship experience as a campaign - who is our constituency? What is our strategic goal? How will we reach it? Students will leave the retreat with a draft of our collective strategic plan. In the remaining three sessions, students will take the lead in facilitating and practicing the activities and skills modeled during the retreat in preparation for coaching at the Winter Intensive.

Offered Winter Quarter - 3 Units

URBANST/CSRE/ETHICSOC 127B - Leadership, Organizing and Action

Winter Quarter Intensive: January 12-14 & January 19-21
CIRCLE Common Room (Third Floor of Old Union, Room 302)

Instructors: Toni Kokenis, Rabbi Laurie Hahn Tapper

Two Consecutive Weekend Course: Community Organizing makes a difference in addressing major public challenges that demand full engagement of the citizenry, especially those whose voices are marginalized. In this course you will learn and practice the leadership skills needed to mobilize your communities for positive social change. We identify leadership as accepting responsibility to enable others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty. As organizers you will learn how to develop capacity within your community and analyze power dynamics to develop a strategic plan. By the end of this course, you will create an organizing campaign that builds power rooted in the resources of your community. The class will be an intensive held the first two weekends of winter quarter, Jan 12-14 and Jan 19-21, 2024. Class begins on Friday in the afternoon and runs through early Sunday evening. In weeks 3-10 there will be team meetings schedule TBD along with one final all class gathering Week 7 or 10.