The 500+ voyagers of the spring 2020 Semester at Sea experience will be celebrating four days of World Interfaith Harmony Week from February 6-9th, as they navigate interfaith waters together. On these dates, the ship will be journeying from Shanghai, China to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Activities will include an interfaith meal of gratitude, film and discussion and lots of creative engagement. These activities allow individuals to speak from their own experience and recognize the religious/non-religious “other” as someone with inherent worth and dignity. Engagement activities such as creating “Belief-Identity Family Portraits” are meant to recognize cultural intolerance (or indifference) of minority beliefs and counteract that intolerance through curiosity, conversation, relationship building, while taking photos together. At each event, the UN Declaration of World Interfaith Harmony Week will be read aloud. 

(Background information) Back on dry land, in Colorado, USA, the Multi-Faith & Belief Student Council at Colorado State University and the Fort Collins Interfaith Council have been collaborating for the past six years to increase interfaith literacy, facilitate engagement across different beliefs and commit to interfaith harmony (many different voices, singing a common tune). Since 2013, the groups have engaged over 2000 students and local community members to interact harmoniously across difference of belief. The groups collaborated to co-sponsor WIHW week on this voyage of Semester at Sea to impact a greater diversity of college-students who are likely to be in positions of private and public leadership and policy-making in the future.