Thornbury Addresses Mystery and Fellowship at 74th Annual Convocation

On Tuesday, August 22, 2017, The King’s College held its 74th annual Convocation ceremony to welcome the incoming class.

New Students signing the Honor Code at Convocation
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President Gregory Alan Thornbury, Ph.D., delivers his Convocation 2017 address titled “Face to Face, Shoulder to Shoulder” at Trinity Church.

On Tuesday, August 22, 2017, The King’s College held its 74th annual Convocation ceremony to welcome the incoming class. Over two hundred new students gathered at Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan to celebrate the start of their college career and to sign the Honor Code. House student leadership teams, the student cabinet, faculty, and staff attended to honor the incoming students’ entrance into The King’s College community.

Dr. Mark Hijleh, vice president for Academic Affairs and dean of the faculty, delivered the invocation, and Professor Virginia Pike, adjunct instructor in music, led the singing of the hymn “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.” Carter Fletcher (’18), the 2017-2018 student director of spiritual life, read from 2 Peter 1:3-11. Hijleh then welcomed incoming students, seated beside banners bearing their House crests, to the years of study their King’s education would entail.

President Gregory Alan Thornbury, Ph.D. delivered the Convocation address, titled “Face to Face, Shoulder to Shoulder.” Thornbury drew metaphors from Susanna Clarke’s novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell to describe how Christian faith can seem preposterous to a culture that scorns mystery. Many believe that “the transcendent is only a part of the past, a fake illusionist in a dirty cloak wandering the street,” Thornbury said. It is the calling of The King’s College to serve “mysteries and truths much deeper than any magician could dream.”

Thornbury exhorted students to face difficult course assignments and competition in the marketplace by standing shoulder to shoulder with their classmates and the saints through history. Thornbury recounted how, in the midst of the Crusades, St. Francis of Assisi and his brother Illuminatus visited the sultan al-Malik al-Kamil. Face to face with the sultan, and shoulder to shoulder with his brother, St. Francis spoke of Christ and of peace. Thornbury closed his address by reading a prayer traditionally attributed to St. Francis. The prayer begins, “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.”

To introduce the signing of the Honor Code, Student Body President Michael Martinez (’17) charged the new students to commit themselves to a life of goodness. The Honor Code, Martinez said, points students to serve one another through accountability and friendship. “It is not a list of rules and regulations. It is a commitment to love one another, to make this world look a little more like the world that is to come.”

Martinez called each of the ten Houses in turn, and students signed their names to publicly pledge to uphold the Honor Code and the community standards outlined in the Student Handbook. The Honor Code reads, “A student of The King’s College will not lie, cheat, or steal, or turn a blind eye to those who do. Every student is honor-bound to confront any other student who breaches the Honor Code.” After new students signed, House leadership teams greeted them with hugs and handshakes.

Pike led all those present in the Alma Mater hymn of The King’s College and the Doxology, and Dr. Anthony Bradley, associate professor of religious studies, closed with the benediction from Numbers 6:24-26: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”


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