Snapshots of Religion, Spirituality, and Ethics at Harvard
Source: https://chaplains.harvard.edu/snapshots-religion-spirituality-and-ethics-harvard Parent: https://chaplains.harvard.edu/
Interfaith engagement through photography
About the Project
In Spring 2025, students from across Harvard came together each week to share their experiences and perspectives related to religion, ethics, and spirituality. Using PhotoVoice methodology—an approach that uses dialogue, reflection, and visual documentary to build connection and foster awareness—they curated a photography exhibit that presents the original photographs, voices, and lines of inquiry shared by student participants.
Together, these photos and stories are a glimpse into students’ personal lives and the generative dialogue they engaged in.
The exhibit was in residence in Cafe Gato Rojo, the Student Center at Harvard GSAS, Lehman Hall from April 1-30, 2025.
Cosponsored by the Memorial Church of Harvard University, the Harvard Chaplains, and the Office of Community and Campus Life.
Digital Archive
Veronica Ruiz
Scripture Study
This is a compilation of the four books of scripture that we use in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints: The Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine & Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price. I wanted to include my copy of it to show a simple aspect of my faith that I share with many people who identify as religious or spiritual – studying our sacred texts. I try to make a habit of reading a little everyday. During my time in the interfaith discussion, I was able to learn more about the habits and practices that others do to feel closer to their faith or to improve as people and I found them to be very inspiring. I believe that this is a unifying human desire – the desire to improve and be a good person and it was a wonderful experience to learn from others with different faiths and worldviews.
Veronica Ruiz
Tokyo, Japan Temple
This is a picture of a temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints in Tokyo, Japan that I took while I was volunteering in the country last summer. Temples in my faith are used for religious ceremonies called ordinances which focus on forging eternal connections with God and our loved ones. It was a very heartwarming experience to be able to visit this temple across the world from me. The fact that I was even in Japan was a miracle to me – I never imagined having the opportunity to do so – and I loved feeling connected to people so far away from me through faith. It shows that my faith is practiced by people from all over the world and while we have different languages, cultures, and nations, our love for God, His Son, and our faith is the same.
Veronica Ruiz
Sunday Dinners
During my time at Harvard I have had the opportunity to meet incredible people with a rich range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. One of my favorite spaces where I have found this was at my local congregation for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. Our congregation is made up of young single adults in the Cambridge and Boston area and I’ve been able to meet people from all over the world and on different journeys in life. Every Sunday, members of the LDSSA (our student organization on campus) enjoy dinner together with friends from within and outside the school. These dinners are always a warm reminder of home for me and a way to surround myself with amazing people who have become like family. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn from their different perspectives and to create a space for us on campus.
Anonymous
Days with God
Aarti is a Hindu ritual in which devotees sing to God, expressing their love and reverence. The ritual incorporates veneration through the five elements. While fire safety regulations restrict the use of open flame, hence the tealight beside the bell, I perform aarti every morning to begin my day with God and every evening as a return back home to God. Days here inevitably get busy and our minds rarely come to standstill amidst the go-go-go of life. Daily rituals like aarti guarantee me a time for dedicating undivided attention to the relationship I value most.
Anonymous
Faithful Friendships
This quote is from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Institute of Religion at the University of Utah. I have a habit of reading everything in my way and so was the case as I walked through the hall. This time, though, I halted mid-step as I processed the words completely a few steps past the sign. It struck me that I felt these words resonate with my sentiments, despite a difference in faith background. I immediately returned to stand at the sign in reflection. During this trip to Utah, I joined one friend for Shabbat rituals and another friend for a church service. These were completely new experiences, but interfaith interaction felt so natural when initiated through friendship. I simply wanted to learn more about someone I loved. This trip taught me the beauty of acknowledging differences rather than minimizing them, and choosing to come together despite that.
Luke Tan (he/him)
beaver, harvard forest, march 8, 2025
My plant biology class took a field trip to the Harvard Forest, and along the trail we spotted evidence of a beaver (we didn’t see the beaver). Nature has been where I feel most steady – connected to myself, the many people I share space with, and the joyful responsibilities of pursuing a more sustainable world. With this tree, focusing on the little interconnected details of the space around me reminds me of the vastness of the world—it’s humbling, and inspiring.
Luke Tan (he/him)
persimmons on the washing machine, november 25, 2015
There is a persimmon tree in the backyard of my family’s home in New Jersey. They are the “wrong” kind of persimmon: they are extremely astringent as the fruits grow, and when they finally do ripen, squirrels eat them before we can. One year, though, we harvested them early and ripened them indoors - it was successful, and we had enough to make persimmon pudding to share at church. Nature has always been a core part of my religious beliefs: we’ve been blessed and entrusted with a beautiful world, and even when its painful astringency makes your lips tingle, it’s still worth understanding and cherishing.
Luke Tan (he/him)
table decor, february 18, 2025
I tend to keep trinkets and objects in spaces I return to often—in this case, my desk at school. The dried flower, wood scrap, bag, and fruit all have their own stories involving many different people. Though not explicitly religious, this “shrine” reminds me of my family, friends, values, and hopes; indirectly, it grounds me in my faith. The oranges may appear as a food offering—that’s not something I practice, but I like to think about how motions from different religious systems can blur together when pursuing the same closeness with oneself and with God.
Luke “Lu” Vincent Testa (they/he)
Gaze at me, and I will gaze back.
As a child, I revered and feared the watchful eye of my judging God. As an adult, I learned to question, is it an all-loving God who judges, or their manufactured image, constructed to serve a carceral society? In recent years, I have been learning to recognize the divine in the gaze of my kin – human and non-human. In the shared awareness that gazes back. My ancestors remembered this. They knew to ask: “And what can the animals tell us? Inside their soft, ethereal warmth lies life – dark and wild, hearts beating in a perpetual storm. We cannot control this tempest, they say. We need to ride it out. If we extend ourselves into it and become one with it, in time we will find ourselves right at its center. Right where we are supposed to be.” Quote by Linnea Gits, Tarot: Notes from the Pagan Otherworlds (X. The Wheel of Fortune), Photo edits by Blue T
Luke “Lu” Vincent Testa (they/he)
Patient Protectors
Gazing at a painting that my sister Ritamarie gifted me, I am brought back to a familiar place, on that coarse, blue rug in my childhood bedroom in New Hampshire. That perch where every version of me has stretched out in the sun, dreamed, played, questioned, and looked out the window, up at you, great white pines. At 150 feet, for 150 years – 600 seasons – you’ve been here, rooted firmly in the land. Growing up, my sisters and I knew you as our protectors. The Iroquois know you as the Great Tree of Peace – a symbol of patience. And how patient you have been with me; twenty-nine years before I offered you a song and asked for your wisdom. Generous in your guidance – gentle in your sway – here with me now – my patient protectors, thank you. Photo edits by Blue T
Luke “Lu” Vincent Testa (they/he)
Honor to Our Teachers, Dharmas, and Communities of Practitioners
“XI. Justice – She moves forward with a compelling conviction that the place she is leading us to is a righteous place. But we are not there yet – it’s just over that horizon, which looks a little scary… like the edge of a cliff. That’s how it is with Justice. In commanding red robes, between scraps of humble earth and straw, she walks the line. Her eyes are focused on balance. She meets us right at that edge, where we are about to lose ourselves to anger, greed, and fear – those barren wastelands within us where nothing grows. We need a guide to lead us out of them, to help our thoughts rise above the petty and self-serving, to bring us to a place right over the horizon that is welcoming, balanced, and tempered. She knows the way. If we want to grow, we will follow.” Quote by Linnea Gits, Tarot: Notes from the Pagan Otherworlds (XI. Justice), Photo edits by Blue T
Frances Yee
At the Table
Growing up, I had dinner with my family every night. It was a small practice, but looking back, that consistent rhythm shaped me in big ways. Food and family are two core pillars of my identity, and I know a lot of other people who feel similarly. I’ve found that interfaith discussions and any kind of dialogue on deeper topics and beliefs can be difficult to get to and through, but there are some universal aspects of the human experience that never fail to connect across big differences. Something as simple as sharing food at a table can draw people together in unexpected ways.
Frances Yee
Strength
Two summers ago, my family travelled to Korea, visiting Gamcheon Village on a certain rainy day. This photo reminds me of the strength I draw from my faith community (friends and family) and how grateful I am for the people who have supported me through good times and bad times. Recently, I’ve been particularly thinking and challenging myself on how to be bolder in sharing my deeper thoughts and my faith. Faith groups sometimes tend towards insularity, and I get it. I’ve always found it scary to talk about what I believe to other people for fear of judgement and misunderstanding, but it’s so important to get comfortable with stepping outside your comfort zone to listen and share with people on a more meaningful level. That’s why I signed up for Interfaith Photovoice, and I’ve gained so much from the experience.
Frances Yee
Faith, Hope, and Love
Just a month ago, my dog Linus passed away at twelve years old. This was one of my first times experiencing real loss and grief. My family received Linus when I was only six years old, so I spent my whole life with him up until this past fall when I moved to college. I’ve heard someone say before that dogs are the best at showing the fruit of the Spirit, which is a name for the qualities love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This was certainly true of Linus and has made his absence feel really heavy. Without my faith that he is in Heaven now and that I’ll get to see him again one day, I don’t know how I would have gotten through this past month or generally survived my freshman year. My faith gives me something I can hold on to: a hope for the future, which otherwise seems so bleak here, and a purpose for the present, which can be so easily lost in the day-to-day of life at Harvard.
Ethan Ristu
Food
In Ethiopian Orthodoxy, practitioners fast before major holidays, like Christmas or Easter, by adopting a vegan diet, and so, at the conclusion of fasting, we throw a feast and celebration. This is a picture of the dinner my family prepared for Easter a few years ago. For me, Ethiopian Orthodoxy encompasses more than just religion. Food showcases this well, as both the food I eat during fasting and at the end of it usually is Ethiopian cultural food that reminds me of my roots and my home.
Ethan Ristu
Prayer Book
A gift from my grandparents: an Ethiopian Orthodox Prayer Book, with both Amharic and English translations. Having been raised Ethiopian-Orthodox in America, navigating the practice of an ancient religion in a modern world has had its challenges—be they practical ones like accessing translated works or more complex ones like reconciling conservative teachings with a progressive society.
Ethan Ristu
Friend
This is a photo of me with my friend Yoseph in our senior year of high school at a program at WashU in St. Louis. Yoseph is a good friend of mine who also serves as a deacon at our local Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Whenever I’m surrounded by community or with those of the same faith, Ethiopian Orthodoxy feels so natural and right. In instances like this one, the faith never feels complicated or like a burden.
Betty Wang
Spotlight on Falun Dafa
Falun Dafa is a practice of self-cultivation based on the teachings of the Buddha School. It could be considered an ancient practice for a modern age. Most of my family began practicing Falun Dafa in the late 1990s in suburban New Jersey, and it has helped us find more harmony and better understand our cultural heritage. Sadly, practitioners in the Chinese mainland have been subject to persecution by the Chinese Communist regime for the past 26 years—a persecution that continues to commit human rights violations to this day. Thus, practitioners around the world also join in international efforts large and small to raise awareness and counter the persecution.
Betty Wang
Three Core Principles
This trio of principles—Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance (真zhēn, 善shàn, 忍rěn)—is the foundation of the practice and what practitioners aspire to abide by in their daily lives. Falun Dafa focuses on cultivating both the body and the mind. This t-shirt displaying the three principles is a metaphor that we should “wear” our beliefs and keep our core values close to heart.
Betty Wang
Serenity in Harvard Yard
Meditation is a key component of Falun Dafa. We meditate in the lotus position—a pose descended from Buddhist traditions—to seek tranquility and connect with our spiritual selves. There are also four standing exercises that involve slow, gentle movements. Holistic well-being encompasses physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. (Pictured and photographed by: Chan School of Public Health Postdoc David Liang)
Ana Reveles Leon
Lamppost
Is God like a light shining in a snowy storm? I wonder if his light is warm, or warning me to go home. When I was in fourth grade, I read The Chronicles of Narnia and instantly fell in love. When my teacher told us the story was based on the life of Jesus Christ, I was amazed that such an old religious story could be told in such a new and imaginative way. This photo was taken outside my dorm at Harvard; the lamppost and the snow immediately reminded me of the iconic scene from Narnia. In that moment, I felt connected to my younger self. Now, as I read and learn more here at Harvard, I’ve come to see that religion can reveal itself in many forms. Education isn’t a barrier to faith, but rather another way to understand it.
Ana Reveles Leon
Guardia
“Angelito de mi guarda dulce compañía, no me separes de noche ni de dia”,
My parents have connected me to my Catholic faith since I was a young girl. My parents worked hard to give me the opportunity to attend private school, and now that I’m in college, they have become deeply involved in our church, especially my mom. She’s set to finish her masters in theology this May, and through her, I’ve learned that faith can be expressed in many different ways. It can be attending Mass, learning about religious history, serving the community, or simply spending time with family. I’m fortunate to have parents that have shown me that no matter how someone chooses to live out their faith, they are not wrong—just finding their own path to what is right.
Ana Reveles Leon
Maggie
They say Amerca is like a melting pot, or better said, a mix. While mix might capture the idea, I think another M-word describes acceptance even better: Maggie. Maggie is my high school friend's dog and she reminds me of the importance of how friendships and religion can intertwine. My high school friend group was the epitome of interfaith, our small, five-person, all-girl group representing faiths ranging from Christianity, the LDS Church, and Islam. While our backgrounds were different, we all loved each other dearly, and Maggie didn't seem to care much about our religious differences either. Maggie reminds me of my friends, how grateful I am to have friendships that showed me the power of interfaith and human connection. Even though they may be far away, I know my friends are supporting me, just like Maggie is with her Harvard hat.