“We can’t care for one another if we don’t know each other in the first place.” For Jules and Jess Andrews, Dungeons & Dragons offers an unconventional but powerful way to begin building those relationships. We spoke to them about a D&D ministry, bringing young adults together around role-playing, storytelling, and community, and their hopes for what might grow from the program in the time ahead.
The ministry was inspired by the Sanctuary project in Vancouver offering D&D ministry in church sanctuaries, sometimes even complete with pipe organ musical accompaniment! Here in Calgary, the ministry began as a pilot through Campus United, the United Church’s campus ministry network in Alberta and British Columbia. Following four initial sessions last fall, interest led to a weekly group which ran from January into July at Summit View United Church, near the University of Calgary campus. We spoke to Jules and Jess as the ministry prepared for new intake in September, with the hope of welcoming more university students and young adults.
For Jess, the program responds to the challenge of finding meaningful relationships with other young people in faith communities. While churches may enthusiastically welcome them, congregations often lack critical numbers in young adult programming so it can be hard to find opportunities for deeper relationships to form between young people. To alleviate this, D&D provides a regular social space where relationships can develop naturally through a shared activity. Role-playing also allows participants to explore “their own storytelling of their own identity” through the characters they create, deepening the experience.
The adventures themselves have been chosen with a diverse group of participants in mind. The group plays Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, a collection of adventures inspired by different cultures and written by an ethnically diverse group of creators. Jules described the setting as intentionally “intersectional,” incorporating queer characters alongside different cultural, religious, and spiritual traditions. The result is an invitation for people of different backgrounds to “gather at the same table” and “share joy together.”
This makes the program an opportunity for interfaith engagement as well. Rather than gathering specifically to discuss religious differences, participants have something else around which to form relationships. Andrews described it as people first coming together around a shared adventure, and connections emerging from there. “The shared adventure is wide enough and inclusive enough to hold a lot of different diversity,” she explained, including “neurodiversity, cultural diversity, [and] faith diversity.”
Jess and Jules are already seeing the beginnings of the community they set out to create. Participants have stepped into leadership roles as game masters and monthly potlucks have become another part of the group’s activities. Jess hopes these seemingly small developments will eventually grow into something broader, with members attending interfaith or social justice events together and supporting one another through important moments in their lives.
Expansion is also underway, as Jules is developing partnerships with other Calgary faith communities. Another group may begin at Mount Royal University. The broader Sanctuary project, under which the D&D ministry operates, is also developing its online presence and exploring opportunities elsewhere in Alberta and British Columbia.
The measure of success, Jules says, is “a community network that […]doesn’t really need any oversight,” but instead “flourishes and listens to each other and grows.” For Jess , the game is the “stepping stone” which makes that possible. Around a table and a shared adventure, strangers can become friends and friends can begin caring for one another. From a weekly game, a community can gradually form.
