Join us on campus
Around MIT, you’ll see us hosting
meals, dialogues, concerts, courses,
and more.
We gather all around campus. Join our monthly email list to find out more.
Sabbath Midweek: free lunch + prayer
The Octet Collaborative is rooted in an ecumenical Christian faith. We’re also devoted to pluralistic community, composed of a variety of philosophical, ethical, and religious viewpoints. And we think that kind of pluralistic community always works better when all of us are honest about our deepest beliefs.
Given our commitment to practicing our faith, we gather every week with faculty, staff, and students to engage in an ancient Christian rhythm of lectio divina, or spiritual reading. We spend half an hour eating lunch together, and then half an hour reading a passage from the Bible and praying about it.
We call this “Sabbath Midweek.” In the Hebrew Bible, God commands his people to take every seventh day, the Sabbath, as a time for rest. Both Jewish and Christian communities throughout history have committed to honoring the Sabbath through shared rest. We think that pausing in the middle of the week offers a small taste of this holy peace.
We warmly welcome all MIT community members curious about this Christian practice.
What to expect
Diálogos: intellectual hospitality dinners
Several times a year, we host Diálogos dinners: evenings with lecture, dinner, and conversation. We invite a speaker — or two — to share wisdom on a challenging topic. (Past questions: How should we use and build generative AI? Should faith have any place in the university? How should adolescents transition to adulthood?)
Afterwards, we share dinner and have long conversations about the ideas, engaging deeply with others’ agreements and disagreements. We think this kind of disagreeing well is what the university is made for.
We warmly invite any MIT community members to these events.
Courses and learning opportunities
We love partnering with MIT faculty and researchers to bring their quirky, cross-disciplinary ideas to life. That means trying out new classes on tech and ethics, or exploring philosophical questions in the Media Lab, or bringing an art historian to talk with a materials scientist.
In the 2025-26 school year, we’re sponsoring one spring course asking the question, “What Is a Better Future?”
Plus, every IAP, we offer activities exploring questions around scientific ethics, civil discourse, and creativity.
And we always have new lectures, film screenings, and more up our sleeves.