My deepest thanks to Presidents Hagiya and Kuan and the faculty and board of trustees for this unexpected honor – and my congratulations to all our graduates.
From the personal perspective, the Claremont School of Theology’s innovative collaboration with the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont enabled a working father and fiancé to complete his M.Div. I’ve never stopped applying lessons I learned from CST professors about liturgy, parish administration, urban ministry, and ministry to the first- and second-generation immigrants who make America great.
From the ecumenical perspective, next summer in Phoenix, at our General Convention, The Episcopal Church is expected to join the United Methodist Church in full communion – a unity devoted to the dignity of every human being without regard to race or nation, orientation or identification. May the spirit of full communion inspire new collaborations between us in theological education.
And from the multi-faith perspective – this bears particular mention after the gun violence yesterday at the Islamic Center of San Diego — CST continues to innovate with its trailblazing program with the Bayan Islamic Graduate School. The golden rule is the plumb line of all faith and applies to all in power. It is the law of the universe. May the divine unity that CST exemplifies continue to give its students a modern vocabulary for telling God’s ancient story of love.
Holy one, we give you thanks for the peace and beauty of this day, for our graduates’ hard work and their devotion to you, for family members and friends who lifted them up in their studies and work, and for our faculty, staff, trustees, and benefactors. We give thanks for this day even as our hearts ache for victims of violence in San Diego and those at risk from wildfires. Theological education is not a retreat from the world, but a source of empowerment, that we might cheerfully know what you would have us do in your name — especially when the lie that we can’t help is at its most beguiling. Thank you for the year that is past at CST and for all the years that are ahead. In God’s name, in the name of the Risen Christ, we pray. Amen.
[My remarks and closing prayer at Claremont School of Theology commencement ceremonies Tuesday afternoon at Westwood United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, where I received an honorary doctor of divinity degree.]
