The 2005 graduates of seminaries affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) held a variety of events in spring 2005 related to honoring students and awarding degrees. These included:
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Commencement exercise was held at University Church, Austin, Texas, on Sunday, May 22 at 2:30 p.m. The Reverend Dr. David G. McKechnie gave the commencement address. He is pastor of Grace Church in Houston, Texas, an Austin Seminary trustee and former candidate for moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 216th General Assembly.
The Reverend Dr. Carol Miles, Assistant professor of homiletics, preached during the baccalaureate service on Saturday evening, May 21 at University Church, Austin. Presiding during the service of Word and Sacrament: The Reverend Dr. Andrew Dearman, professor of Old Testament, and the Reverend Stanley Robertson Hall, associate professor of liturgics. Liturgist: The Reverend Dr. Ann Fields, vice president of student affairs. No honorary degrees were conferred.
Columbia Theological Seminary
The baccalaureate service was held May 13 at Columbia Church, Decatur, Ga. The Rev. Dr. Anna Carter Florence, professor of preaching gave the sermon. Commencement exercises were May 14 at Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Ga.
Dubuque Theological Seminary
Commencement was held May 14 at Westminster Church, Dubuque, Iowa. The commencement speaker was The Rev. Dr. William P. Wood, Senior Minister of First Church, Charlotte, N.C.
The baccalaureate service was held on campus at Blades Hall, May 13. The baccalaureate speaker was Dr. Elmer Colyer, professor of historical theology at the seminary.
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
The baccalaureate was held Sunday morning, May 22 at Caldwell Chapel on the Dubuque, Iowa, campus of the seminary. Dr. Nancy J. Ramsay was the speaker. Commencement was held Sunday afternoon, May 22 at Harvey Browne Memorial Church; Dr. Craig R. Dykstra was the speaker.
McCormick Theological Seminary
Commencement exercises were held May 7 on the campus of the seminary in Chicago, Ill. The commencement speaker was The Rev. Dr. Thomas L. Hoyt Jr., president of the National Council of Churches of Christ U.S.A., Bishop of the Fourth Episcopal District, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Baccalaureate was held May 20 at Hicks Memorial Chapel on campus.
Baccalaureate speaker was Dr. Susan L. Nelson, Directors’ Bicentennial Professor of Theology and Culture, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
Commencement was held May 21 at East Liberty Church. The commencement speaker was Dr. Marva Dawn, theologian, author, musician, and educator with “Christians Equipped for Ministry.” The other graduation speaker was Dr. C. Samuel Calian, president, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Honorary degrees, none.
Princeton Theological Seminary
Baccalaureate Service was held Friday afternoon, May 13 at Nassau Church in Princeton, N. J. The speaker was Dr. Brian K. Blount, professor of New Testament. His sermon title was “Pick a Fight.”
Commencement exercises were held in the evening of May 14 in the Princeton University Chapel, Princeton, N. J. President Iain R. Torrance (professor of patristics) addressed the graduates.
San Francisco Theological Seminary
The 2005 SFTS graduation exercises for students from both the Northern and Southern California campuses, baccalaureate and commencement, were held on the San Anselmo, Calif. campus. The baccalaureate service was held Friday afternoon May 20th at First Church, San Anselmo; the speaker was Antoinette Clark Wire, the Robert S. Dollar professor of New Testament, emerita. The commencement service was held May 21. The Distinguished Alumnus Award was presented to the Rev. James Moiso, B.D., 1967, pastor, Westminster Church in Portland, Ore.
Union Theological Seminary/PSCE
Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Va., held its joint commencement exercise May 28 at Reveille United Methodist Church in Richmond. The speaker was Thomas W. Currie, dean of Union-PSCE at Charlotte, N.C. There were no honorary degrees conferred; Union-PSCE graduated the first two students from their Charlotte campus at the ceremonies in Richmond. Auburn Theological Seminary A joint commencement service with Union Theological Seminary, New York was held on the afternoon of May 20. It is Union’s 169th commencement service. President Joseph C. Hough Jr. addressed the graduates.
Commencement information from other seminaries of interest includes:
Harvard University Divinity School
As part of the commencement exercises at the university, graduation will be held June 9 in Harvard’s Tercentenary Theatre at the campus in Cambridge, Mass. The Diploma Awarding Ceremony is on the Andover lawn at 1 p.m.
Fuller Theological Seminary
Commencement will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, June 11, at Lake Avenue Church, in Pasadena, Calif. The 2005 baccalaureate service was held on June 1 in the sanctuary of the First Congregational Church.
Erskine Theological Seminary
Commencement was held May 15 at the Due West Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Due West, SC. Dr. Thomas W. Gillespie, president and professor of New Testament emeritus of Princeton Theological Seminary was commencement speaker, and an honorary doctor of divinity degree was presented to Dr. Luder G. Whitlock Jr.
Gillespie served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Garden Grove, Calif., from 1954-66 and as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Burlingame, Calif., from 1966-83. He was adjunct professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary from 1972-73 and at Fuller Theological Seminary from 1973-78. He served Princeton Theological Seminary as president and professor of New Testament from 1983-2004.
Whitlock, for more than 20 years president of Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Fla., is now president of Excelsis, an educational materials company. He has been active with Association of Theological Schools and on the boards of a number of institutions as well as the boards of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and other organizations. He was executive director of The New Geneva Study Bible.
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Mass./N.C.)
Seminary trustees awarded a record 346 masters’ and doctoral degrees to 2005 graduates of its South Hamilton and Boston, Mass., and Charlotte, N. C., campuses during services in South Hamilton May 7, and in Charlotte on May 14. John V. Hanford III, Ambassador-at- Large for International Religious Freedom, U.S. Department of State, addressed the 2005 graduating class of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary on May 7 at the Bennett Center of Gordon College, Mass.
John V. Hanford III directs the Office of International Religious Freedom, whose mission is to promote religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy. Hanford and his staff monitor religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, recommend and implement policies in respective regions or countries, and develop programs to promote religious freedom.
Arsenia Bañaga, founder and executive director of Grace Christian Mission in the Philippines, and a 1968 alumna of the seminary, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree for her service to orphans in her native country. Mercedes Shoemaker received the Order of Barnabas Award conferred for distinguished service to Gordon- Conwell. She and her late husband, Albert, funded the Shoemaker Center of the Harold John Ockenga Institute to provide continuing education for alumni/ ae pastors and their churches.
Dr. Steve Strauss, Director of SIM USA, addressed graduates of the Charlotte campus during commencement exercises May 14 at University Park Baptist Church in Charlotte. The Rev. Linda McMillan Smith received the Towel and Basin Award conferred for distinguished service in ministry. She is pastor of Meadowlake Presbyterian Church in Huntersville, N. C. She received a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell–Charlotte in 1999. Student commencement speakers include Tamara Joi Park, Master of Divinity, and Stephen Ira Vance, Master of Arts in Christian Counseling, both of Charlotte.
A baccalaureate service was held May 13 in the seminary’s Cooley Chapel. The Rev. Dr. Claude R. Alexander, Jr., Senior Pastor of University Park Baptist Church, gave the baccalaureate sermon. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon-Conwell.
