Welcome to the Office for Religious Life
Our Mission
“To guide, nurture and enhance spiritual, religious and ethical life within the Stanford University community.”
We are collectively committed and devoted to ensuring lively, thoughtful and supportive contexts for Stanford students, faculty and staff who wish to pursue spiritual interests. We recognize that a spiritual/religious journey can be an important, balancing complement to the numerous challenges one faces in the pursuit of academic and career goals.
While each one of us participates in and leads worship and study in her/his own religious traditions, our primary objective as a staff is to collaborate as a multi-faith team and work with all constituents of this dynamic university.
Our aim is to promote enriching dialogue, meaningful ritual, and enduring friendships among people of all religious backgrounds.
News Features
Vernon Jordan addresses the Class of 2015 at Baccalaureate
June 13, 2015, Stanford Report
Be ‘disturbers of the unjust peace,’ civil rights leader Vernon Jordan tells Stanford graduates
Baccalaureate speaker Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. told graduates that the world was calling out for them to realize their talents – not just for their own gain – but also to lift up those in whose shoes, but for the grace of God, they might have been walking.
Jane Shaw officially welcomed into the Stanford Community
May 7, 2015, Stanford Report
During a service that featured the official investiture by President John Hennessy and a sermon by actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, the Rev. Professor Jane Shaw was formally installed as dean for religious life.
A spiritual practice is the foundation of a meaningful life, Oprah Winfrey tells Stanford audience
April 21, 2015, Stanford Report
At the end of her daylong visit to Stanford, Oprah Winfrey, who has worked for nearly 30 years to empower, enlighten and inspire people to live their best lives, delivered “Harry’s Last Lecture on a Meaningful Life.” Continue reading…
Photo by L.A. Cicero.
