Terahertz

Clubs Fair 2009: The first two days

So far the UofA Atheists and Agnostics has done pretty well at the clubs fair. In two days we've collected around 120 interested names and around 50 signatures for the Secular Convocation petition. Last year in total we received around 300 names of interested people.

The religious presence was decently high this year, featuring Campus Alpha fighting Campus for Christ for the most obnoxious advertising on campus award. Campus for Christ features a lot of side walk chalking, whereas Campus Alpha has posters everywhere, and also a lot of little magnets that they were giving out (not sure whether these were just some that were given away with their gum that people put on doors and stuff or whether it was part of marketing). Both groups were raffling a Wii while the Urban Bridge Church (Baptist or Pentecostal I think) were raffling an iPod (I entered for all three prizes). Campus Alpha represents the Alpha Course - a non-denominational Christian way to "learn about the life". I should also mention that Campus for Christ is giving away Soul Cravings, Case for a Creator, iamnext.com pillowcases and the same New Testaments as last year.

I had good conversations with Denise Davis-Taylor, the United Church Chaplain on campus. Being one of the most liberal churches in Canada (after the Unitarians), we are likely going to be working with them in the future. Some event ideas she had included "Queer and Christian without contradiction", a religion in Star Trek series, sharing volunteer lists, having the secular convocation idea be a dinner discussion item, and potentially having a general dialogue with the UAAA.

The highlight of today had to be the interactions with the Baptist chaplain. Basically while in the Students' Union Building I asked him if I could put some UAAA pamphlets on the chaplaincy's table (which featured pamphlets of various faith groups and whatnot). He met the idea with some hesitation, saying he wasn't sure how he felt, and that they didn't usually put out student group pamphlets. But after I pointed out the Newman Club (Catholic student group) pamphlets he let me get away with it. I also pointed out how the chaplaincy's website claims:

The Chaplains are available for guidance, care and support to any student or staff member, whether or not he or she identifies with a particular faith. [emphasis added]

However, less than 10 minutes later I saw him walk back through the clubs fair carrying our distinctive orange pamphlets. He did a double turn and came back to our table and expressed his regrets that he felt too awkward displaying them on his table. He tried to relate it to us having Bibles on our table, to which I said I would have no problem at all with and that we want our members to consider alternate viewpoints. So he decided that if he gave us a few Bibles that we could keep our pamphlets with the chaplaincy's material. A few minutes later he brought us 2 full Holy Bibles, a cowboy New Testament and a sports New Testament (the latter two were normal NTs but threw in random stories of cowboys and sports stars respectively who've been touched by JC). All the Bibles were the New International Version (which I was a bit disappointed with when I saw, it seemed too readable almost like it had traded poetic language for modern grammar police and subtitles). So later that day I saw that our pamphlets were indeed back on the chaplains table.

So now I must retire, as there is still a full three days of table-sitting, this time in the outdoors (with rain expected tomorrow). I'll be sure to pass along any amusing stories I have as they come up.

[tags]University of Alberta, orientation, clubs fair, tabling, atheism, baptist, chaplains, united church[/tags]