2023 Baccalaureate Service Program Book

ORDER OF SERVICE

Prelude "Revive Us Again" (see insert, page 7)

Call to Worship

Jin Young Choi, Ph.D. Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins Baptist Missionary Training School Professorial Chair in Biblical Studies

Friends in Christ!

We come together in this place in hope and expectation. We come together in the hope that we cherish in the God who loves us. We come together also in expectation: expectation boldly confident of things not seen; and expectation so tentative that we don’t even understand what we are waiting for. Know that you are welcome into this place of hope and expectation with all of what makes you who you are. Come with your deepest joys as well as with your most piercing doubts. Come with the promises that have sustained you. But most of all, come with courage: come with the courage to endure transformation. The God who has been with the poor and the oppressed also has called prophets to stand with them. Because of Jesus Christ who is most faithful and compassionate and who became the life-giving spirit, we, despite our fragile heart and body, can be courageous today. Thus, we dare to invite God into our midst. God is merciful and gracious. Come and worship.

Invocation

Kishundra D. King, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Practical Theology Director of Black Religious Life and Thought

Scripture Reading Galatians 5:1; 13-15

Ms. Qhamora Kimbrough Registrar and Coordinator of Financial Aid

Invitation to Reflection

Rev. Melanie Duguid-May, Ph.D. Interim Dean of Faculty & Professor of Theology

Reflections from the Class of 2023

Rev. Steven Paul Moore

Rev. John Eric Thompson

Hymn #140 "Great is Thy Faithfulness"

Celebration of Holy Eucharist

The Great Thanksgiving

The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right and a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you, almighty God...

... And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Cady, II Senior Pastor

...In remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here…

...Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty God, now and forever.

(Eucharistic Acclamations by Roger Wilhelm)

Hymn #620 "One Bread, One Body"

Charge to the Graduates

Rev. Angela D. Sims, Ph.D.

CRCDS President

Sending Prayer

Doxology

Rev. Cynthia Rasmussen, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Public Theology & Eco-Justice and Director of the Program for Anglican Studies

Congratulations Class of 2023 Graduates

School for Christian Leadership

Marchon S. Pouncy

Doctor of Ministry

Steven Paul Moore

Thesis:

The Pathos of God: A Theology of Liberation for Those Who Struggle with Mental Illness

Master of Divinity

Brianna Renee Darling

John Eric Thompson

Thesis:

Denominational Reconciliation in the English Reformation Tradition

Hymn: "Revive Us Again'"

We praise thee, O God, for the Son of thy love, for Jesus who died, and is now gone above.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory, hallelujah! Amen!

Hallelujah! Thine the glory, revive us again.

We praise thee, O God, for thy Spirit of light who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory, hallelujah! Amen!

Hallelujah! Thine the glory, revive us again.

We praise thee, O God, for the joy thou hast giv’n to thy saints in communion, these foretastes of heav’n.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory, hallelujah! Amen!

Hallelujah! Thine the glory, revive us again.

Revive us again, fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above.

Hallelujah! Thine the glory, hallelujah! Amen!

Hallelujah! Thine the glory, revive us again.