Hamline marks commencement with annual multi-faith ceremony

Hamline University students, faculty and staff gathered at Anderson Center Forum on Friday, May 8, for the annual multi-faith Baccalaureate ceremony.

Organized by the Wesley Center, this longstanding tradition serves as an important component of Hamline University’s commencement experience. The ceremony celebrates graduating seniors by featuring diverse religious expressions through reflections, participatory readings and musical selections.
 
This year’s theme was "Reckoning, Repair and Reconciliation.” Rev. Henry Dolopei, elder in the United Methodist Church, delivered the invocation followed by welcoming remarks from Hamline President Mayme Hostetter, Rev. Mariah Furness Tollgaard, senior pastor of Hamline Church United Methodist, and Brittany Radford, director of racial equity and justice for the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Graduating seniors participated in readings that emphasized resilience, justice and community. In one participatory reading, attendees reflected together on the text “resilience is not only endurance - it is the courage to grow, to change, to begin again.”

Musical performances included renditions of Higher Ground and Arise and Shine by Sherri Orr, along with a choral piece titled Mosaic, performed by Hamline faculty, staff and the student choir. Bruce Bolon composed the piece which was based on the poem of the same name by Shani Casper.

Students also shared passages from a variety of sacred and philosophical texts, including the Odyssey, Bible, Qur'an, Torah and Dhammapada.

The ceremony concluded with another participatory reading, a message from Chaplain Kelly Figueroa-Ray and a call to action and closing blessing from Rev. Rachel McIver Morey, director of community and interfaith engagement at Interfaith Action of Greater Saint Paul.