Serene Singh, Graduate President-Elect of the Oxford Sikh Society and a St Peter’s Welfare Officer, recited the Mool Mantar, a Sikh prayer, as a blessing on a meal at a prestigious equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) dinner event.
Mool Mantar translates to ‘root chant’ and includes the opening line to the Sikh holy text, the Guru Granth Sahibi, which is ‘Ek Onkar’ (‘One Shared Light’).
Although St Peter’s has regularly included prayers from different faiths and languages at formal hall, the Oxford University Sikh Society has noted that this may be the first time a Sikh prayer has been used.
Serene said: “It was a big moment for me to help share a fraction of my identity and faith with others who might not have ever known about it otherwise. It opens doors for questions to be asked, for conversations to be started, and for humanity to be bridged in important ways for years to come.”
St Peter’s College welcomed British sculptor and disability rights activist Tony Heaton OBE as honoured guest and speaker at the annual EDI dinner.
The aim of the annual EDI event is to celebrate the entire diversity of the College community and to enable members of the College, including staff, students and academics, to come together in celebration of our shared community life in entirely non-hierarchical ways.
