2023 Baccalaureate

Baccalaureate

Friday, April 28, 2023 6:00 p.m.

Baccalaureate Ceremony

Prelude Graduating Seniors from the Division of Music

Brennen Swope, Violin

Ryann Anderson, Piano

Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108

Johannes Brahms II. Adagio

Hannah Elberson, Soprano

Andrew Napolitan, Piano

Astonishing from “Little Women”

Jason Howland

Danielle Dadisman, Piano

Toccata from “Le Tombeau de Couperin”

Maurice Ravel

Processional Andrew Napolitan

“Pomp and Circumstance”

Composer: Edward Elgar

Welcome

Dr. Jon S. Kulaga

President

*Invocation

Mr. Roger Alcock

Director of Wesleyan Student Initiatives

Corporate Worship Led by Redeemed and Rejoice

“This is Amazing Grace”

“Sing to the King”

“Christ be Magnified”

“Do it Again”

Special Music

Rejoice - Sarah Joy, Jadyn Mucher, Rebekah Pyle, and Anna Wright

“Nearer My God to Thee”

Words by Sarah Flower Adams

Music by Lowell Mason

Arranged by MaryAnne Muglia Smith

Address

Dr. Emily Vermilya Assistant Professor of Christian Worship

School of Theology and Ministry

*Commissioning of Dr. Andrea Summers Graduates Campus Pastor - Dean of Spiritual Formation

**Recessional Andrew Napolitan Various Selections

*Audience Standing

**Audience Remains Seated Until the Recessional is Complete

Commissioning of Graduates

Leader: Graduates, dearly beloved children of God, it is hard for us to watch you prepare to leave this place. Yet we know there is a time for every purpose under heaven. And we know that at this time the world that you enter needs what you carry with you: the Joy of Salvation, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Motions of Grace.

Graduating seniors: We carry with us the Cross of Christ.

Leader: And do you understand what it means to carry His Cross?

Graduating seniors: It means that all we do, we do as grateful servants of Jesus.

Leader: It means that without complaining or tiring, you must pursue your vocations with energy and discipline, practice your professions with purpose and integrity, serve your families, your churches, your colleagues, your friends and your enemies with the humility and the love of Jesus.

Graduating seniors: We understand what it means and pledge to carry the Cross of Christ.

Leader: It means that you must dedicate yourselves to accomplishing all that is good in your communities, you must promote peace and justice, you must fight against cruelty and greed, you must advance healing and hope wherever you move in the world.

Graduating seniors: It means that all we do, we do as grateful servants of Jesus.

Leader: And thanks to the Living God, to carry the Cross also means to bear the light and the power of the resurrection—to carry the imagination of the Creator, the resolve of the Redeemer, the breath of the Spirit—into a world in need.

Graduating seniors: We are prepared and privileged to carry the Light of Christ into a world dark without the hope of salvation.

Leader: Then shine like stars in the world’s dark sky. Be bright with the light of Truth and Love. Become to the world a constellation, stars together that outline the beautiful story of Light and Life.

Graduating seniors: With God’s grace and help, we will.

Leader: We will thank our God for you and always remember you with joy, confident that the God who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. Carry His Cross. Hold out the Word of Life. Carry His Light into the World.

All: Thanks be to God.

Prayer of Commissioning

Leader: Dear Father, On behalf of these who will be graduating, I thank You for the blessings that You have showered upon them during their years at Indiana Wesleyan University. I thank You Lord for the support and prayers of parents and friends, for the patience and devotion of professors who have often gone beyond the call of duty to serve their students, and for the lifelong friendships that have been formed with fellow classmates and roommates. These, Your beloved, have sat in numerous classes with numerous professors… but help each one of our soon- to-be graduates recognize that their greatest teacher truly has been You…You who have sought to teach them that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Help these whom You love so dearly and deeply to live in purity.

Make all their words so pure, that You may hear them.

Make all their deeds so pure, that You may see them.

Make all their thoughts and desires so pure, that they may bear Your scrutiny.

Help them to live in Your truth so that they may never speak or act a lie.

That they may not be misled by false or mistaken beliefs.

Take away wrong desires and ambitions: May their lives shine like lights in a dark world.

As these, soon-to-be graduates, leave the familiarity of this campus, remind them that they are called to use their talents and what they have gained through education for the betterment of all humankind. Help them to realize that worship does not take place only within the confines of a worship service, but that worship also takes place when they reach out, in Your name and power, to minister to the needs of others.

Graduating Seniors: Help us who are graduating to recognize that You have called believers to help others to find their way into Your kingdom. Use the hurts and struggles we have gone through to better understand the hurts and pains others may be going through. Use us to bring Your comfort and love to others. Help us to love all people unconditionally. Help us to love purely, to love humbly and to love generously.

Show us how to receive more of Your love so that we will have more love to give out to others. Help us to touch the lives of others for good, whether through the words we speak or through the prayers we lift up or through the life we live in You.

Help us grow in our desire to minister to all people in Your name.

Leader: Today, and every day, help these soon-to-be-graduates to decrease so that You may increase in them. Help clear every obstacle that may hold them back from serving You fully; with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. May each of them have a deep desire to serve others so that others can experience Your love and salvation.

Remind them that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to them. And they are to go and make disciples of all nations… teaching others that they are to obey everything You have commanded. And remind them that they are not alone… but that You are with them always. Help them to remember that with You, all things are possible.

O, Lord, use these, who are graduating tomorrow, for Your glory, as they go forth in Your name.

Amen.

2023 Baccalaureate Speaker

Rev. Emily Vermilya, DWS, serves Indiana Wesleyan University as an Assistant Professor of Christian Worship in the School of Theology and Ministry. A native Hoosier, Emily has spent more than 20 years serving the local church in the areas of Worship, Ministerial Development, and Administration in Indiana and Colorado. She is a graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University (B.A. 1997) and The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies (M.W.S. 2009, D.W.S. 2012).

She has served small, mid-sized, and large congregations, as well as a faculty member for The Webber Institute and Asbury Theological Seminary. She recently was a part of the faculty of the Leitourgia Project being conducted by Seattle Pacific University. Rev. Vermilya has been privileged to contribute to several worship blogs and other publications.

Rev. Vermilya is an ordained minister in the Wesleyan Church and serves as IWU’s Head Coach for Women’s Swimming. She and her husband, Jim, live in Marion, Indiana, and have two children, Silas and Aynsley.

About IWU

Indiana Wesleyan University is an evangelical Christian comprehensive university of The Wesleyan Church, with its world headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1920, the University is committed to liberal arts and professional education.

With a current enrollment of more than 11,000 students, IWU is recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a leading regional university in the Midwest. IWU is one of the largest institutions in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and the 2nd largest private university in the state of Indiana.

IWU has three Principal Academic Units:

The College of Adult and Professional Studies: Providing educational opportunities for working adults through instruction at locations in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, and globally, via online instruction. The College of Adult and Professional Studies serves more than 4,000 undergraduate and 2,500 graduate students, with cutting edge majors relevant to today’s workplace.

The College of Arts and Sciences: Founded on a traditional, residential educational model enriched by innovative instructional programs, The College of Arts and Sciences serves more than 2,300 undergraduate and more than 400 graduate students in over 80 liberal arts, pre-professional, and professional major fields.

Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University: With more than 500 Master of Arts in Ministry, Master of Divinity, and Doctor of Ministry students, the first seminary of The Wesleyan Church is impacting congregations throughout the country. The Master of Divinity program provides on-the-job ministry training in an onsite and online innovative format. The accredited Spanish Master of Divinity program offers courses primarily online.