The One Hundred Eighty-first
Commencement
BACCALAUREATE SERVICE for Candidates for the Associate of Arts Degree Old Church Friday, the eighth of May Two Thousand Twenty-Six Five in the Evening
HISTORY OF THE BACCALAUREATE SERVICE
The baccalaureate Service is believed to have originated in an English statute of 1432 at Oxford University requiring every bachelor to deliver a sermon in Latin as part of his academic exercises. Since the earliest universities in the United States were founded primarily to educate ministers, British practice was continued in colonial America, and baccalaureate services have since become an integral part of commencement exercises. The first baccalaureate address at Emory was delivered by Bishop William Capers in 1840 in Oxford, Georgia.
OLD CHURCH
Old Church was built in 1841 to serve as both the chapel for Emory College and the place of worship for the Methodists of Oxford. Soon after it was built, its Bishop Andrews, who owned a slave, became the focus of a national conflict between Methodist abolitionists and those who defended the Bishop. The result was a schism that divided the Methodist Church into Northern and Southern churches, and this division prefigured the secession of Southern states and the Civil War. During the Civil War, Old Church was used as an infirmary. In 1880, Emory President Atticus G. Haygood preached a Thanksgiving sermon here entitled “The New South: Gratitude, Amendment, Hope,” which inspired George I. Seney, a Brooklyn banker, to give Emory its largest gift up to that time. In 1974, the Oxford Historical Shrine Society was given a ninety-nine year lease of this Wesley Street property with responsibility for maintaining Old Church and determining its uses. The Shrine Society, with encouragement from the college and the town, raised funds to renovate the structure, which was rededicated on June 18, 2000.
PRELUDE
Prelude in C Major, from The Well-Tempered Clavier
Kristi Helfen, pianist
PROCESSIONAL
all stand as you are able
Rondeau ........................................................................................
Johann Sebastian Bach
Jean-Joseph Mouret (arr. L. Latham)
Oxford Chamber Ensemble
WELCOME
Molly McGehee
Interim Dean
GREETING
Derek Fusco 26Ox
President, Catholic Student Union
CONGREGATIONAL HYMN
Praise the Source of Faith and Learning
Praise the source of faith and learning that has sparked and stoked the mind with a passion for discerning how the world has been designed. Let the sense of wonder flowing from the wonders we survey keep our faith forever growing and renew our need to pray.
God of wisdom we acknowledge that our science and our art and the breadth of human knowledge only partial truth impart. Far beyond our calculation lies a depth we cannot sound where your purpose for creation and the pulse of life are found.
May our faith redeem the blunder of believing that our thought has displaced the grounds for wonder which the ancient prophets taught. May our learning curb the error which unthinking faith can breed lest we justify some terror with an antiquated creed.
As two currents in a river fight each other’s undertow, till converging they deliver one coherent steady flow, blend, O God, our faith and learning till they carve a single course, till they join as one, returning praise and thanks to you, the source.
WORDS OF REMEMBRANCE
The Reverend Brent Huckaby Director of Religious and Spiritual Life College Chaplain
STUDENT REFLECTION
Chloe Chiang 26Ox President, Journey Christian Fellowship
PRAYERS OF THE FAITHS
everyone please stand as you are able during the following prayers
SHANTIDEVA’S PRAYER—BUDDHIST PRAYER
Shaunika Buttan 26Ox Interfaith Coordinator
May I be a protector to those without protection, A leader for those who journey, And a boat, a bridge, a passage For those desiring a further shore. May the pain of every living creature Be completely cleared away. May I be the doctor and the medicine And may I be the nurse For all sick beings in the world Until everyone is healed. Just like space
And the great elements such as earth, May I always support the life Of all the boundless creatures. And until they pass away from pain May I also be the source of life For all the realms of varied beings That reach unto the ends of space. As long as space endures, As long as sentient beings remain, Until then, may I too remain And dispel the miseries of the world.
GAYATRI MANTRA—HINDU PRAYER
Sharanya Sinha 26Ox Co-President, Hindu Student Association
Oh god, you are the giver of life, The remover of pains and sorrows, the presenter of happiness, Oh creator of the universe, may we receive your supreme sin-destroying light, May you guide our intellect in the right direction.
SHECHIANU—JEWISH PRAYER
Saia Kalash 26Ox President, Jewish Student Union
Blessed are You, Hashem our God, King of the universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this time.
ANTHEM
Goodness of God ................................................................................................... Fielding, Johnson, et al.
Dani Sligh 26Ox Co-President, OxFellowship & Vocalist
Jasmine Yeh 26Ox Guitarist
SURAH AL-HASHR—MUSLIM PRAYER
AbdulRahman Saidi 26Ox President, Muslim Student Association
He is Allah, other than whom there is no deity, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed. He is the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. He is Allah, other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him. He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner; to Him belong the best names. Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise. (Quran 59:22–24)
PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS—CHRISTIAN PRAYER
Ethan Wu 26Ox President, Bread Coffeehouse
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
BACCALAUREATE SERMON
Value Add Reverend Huckaby
River Leon Bridges
Lilly Ferrell 26Ox, Shromona Malhotra 26Ox & Anish Vakalapudi 26Ox, Vocalists
CALL TO SERVICE
Adeniyi Ogunlana 26Ox Co-President, OxFellowship
LEADER: Our creator calls us to care about one another and the world in which we live.
ALL: Give us hearts open to our shared humanity.
LEADER: Today, we are charged to seek justice and peace in every nation and to participate in the struggle against all that is dehumanizing.
ALL: Give us eyes to see and ears to hear the cries of humanity.
LEADER: Oppression, war, poverty, and fear can be overcome by those who unite for the good of all humanity.
ALL: Let us set aside narrow vision and replace it with amazed appreciation for the many ways of living.
LEADER: Through lives of service we become people of courage and vision. We are commissioned from this day with the responsibility to heal nations and to restore the earth so that humanity may live in harmony.
ALL: May we be strengthened to be the desires of our heart named today.
MUSICAL BLESSING
Emory Alma Mater J. Marvin Rast (1918C 29T) Oxford Chorale
SENDING FORTH FOR GRADUATING SOPHOMORES
BLESSING OF GRADUATES in unison
We are grateful for the years you have lived, studied, and worked in this college community. We send you forth to your new responsibilities with love. Our support and concern will go with you as you continue the quest for education and understanding in a new place. May you be open to all that will be offered to you and may you be true to that which is deep and true in your own hearts. Go to meet the future without fear.
SENDING
all stand as you are able Reverend Huckaby
RECESSIONAL
remain standing while faculty, then students recess
Entrance of the Queen of Sheba ................................................................ .G.F. Handel (arr. L. Latham) Oxford Chamber Ensemble
POSTLUDE
For All the Saints .................................................................................................... .R. Vaughan Williams
Kristi Helfen, pianist
MUSIC DIRECTORS
Emorja G. Roberson, Assistant Professor of Music and African American Studies
Marvin McNeill, Assistant Professor of Music and African American Studies
Joe Skerik, Artist Affiliate
USHERS
Representatives of First-Year Class (Ox27)
Emory University acknowledges the Muscogee (Creek) people who lived, worked, produced knowledge on, and nurtured the land where Emory’s Oxford and Atlanta campuses are now located. In 1821, fifteen years before Emory’s founding, the Muscogee were forced to relinquish this land. We recognize the sustained oppression, land dispossession, and involuntary removals of the Muscogee and Cherokee peoples from Georgia and the Southeast. Emory seeks to honor the Muscogee Nation and other Indigenous caretakers of this land by humbly seeking knowledge of their histories and committing to respectful stewardship of the land.