The University of Suffolk’s chaplain says she sees her role as helping students to “navigate the waves of life”. Since starting at the university six years ago, The Revd Linda Pepper has helped develop a thriving community of international students at the university’s chaplaincy centre, describing it as a ‘cultural exchange’.
Open to anyone of any faith and none, Linda says the space is a great place to meet new people from across the globe, discover different cultures and make connections.
“The chaplaincy centre acts as a safe space where people can come and relax, make themselves a cuppa and chat about anything on their minds,” she said.
Three years ago Chaplaincy started an International Café event for the 35 international students at the university at that time. This year there are 300 international students so it has become an ‘Open House’ event between lectures now. Students come to meet each other and to chat with the Chaplaincy Team.
She said: “Chaplains work can never just be about the numbers, it’s really all about the depth of relationships you build. I spend time doing groups like this because people are more likely to talk about their issues or problems – whether it’s about their own wellbeing or a family crisis if they are already known and cared for. The chaplaincy centre and the events we host here is a really positive expression of community. I see my role as chaplain in three ways - helping students and staff navigate the waves of life, creating space to explore and experience faith, and creating community.”
Among those who regularly attends events at the the chaplaincy centre is International Business Management student Muhammad Bilal, 25, from Pakistan. “I love the culture here at the university, it’s so diverse,” he said. “I come here because we can meet different groups of people from different countries and areas. We also love Linda – she is great.”
Khushi Arora, 22, from India, who is also studying International Business Management, said: “Most of the people that come here come for a chat, to find out about opportunities at the university and of course to see Linda. We get to know about each other’s countries and cultures, find out what is beautiful in each other’s cities and how they got here to the university.”
Linda was inspired to work with young people in an education environment during her own time at university. Having grown up in a small industrial village in the Welsh valleys, when she was 18 Linda went off to university to study World Religions at Lampeter, describing the experience as ‘life- changing’,
“I just loved it from day one, I loved the environment,” she said. “Just seeing people my age from lots of different places and cultures, it was amazing. I knew I wanted to continue working with young people, to help them explore their own faith and culture as well as learning about others. University has always been the best place to do this.”
Linda said being a university chaplain is a vitally important, but somewhat unusual role.
She said: “So much in university life is programmed and timetabled – there are not very many people whose job it is to hang around with people and offer them the gift of time. It’s about being there for them, creating open and comfortable spaces for people to meet and share ideas and allowing people to open up about any worries they may have. It’s a rare chance to have a role that gives you such opportunity to simply spend time with people, it’s a real privilege. I would describe chaplains as people who walk alongside others on life’s journey trying to give a helping hand, to point them to others who can help in specific ways, to encourage them. That’s how I see my role here, to be there to support people however they need. The chaplaincy centre and the environment we have created here is a beautiful expression of community within the university. It’s not necessarily a worshipping community – although the church itself is much more than a worshipping community too.”
For more on the chaplaincy service at the University of Suffolk please visit our website page here.
Picture one: Awais Afaq, Linda Pepper and Muhammed Bilal
Picture two: Linda Pepper, Navneet Kaur, Areeba Naveed and Khushi Arora.
Copyright: Friel