Baccalaureate Service 2005
Sunday, May 29, 2005, at 3 p.m. in Merrill Gymnasium (rain location)
The Baccalaureate service derives from the medieval European custom of presenting the candidates for the degree of Bachelor (bacca) with laurels (lauri) of sermonic oration. Prefiguring tomorrow’s Commencement, today’s ceremony is a service of worship that celebrates and gives thanks for lives dedicated to learning and wisdom.
A religious and spiritual event planned and led by members of the Class of 2005, this service reflects the breadth of faith traditions represented in the Class. Ritually marking the close of the undergraduate years, Baccalaureate provides an occasion to remember that we do not belong only to ourselves and that our true vocations, our deepest callings, are discovered only by committing ourselves to the service of the common good. In gratitude and reverence for those sacred vocations, as numerous and as diverse in their particular expressions as the members of this Class, we gather this afternoon to remember, to rejoice, and to give thanks.