Volume
37, No. 2 [back] BICENTENNIAL HIGHLIGHTS
Keynote Speech, Bicentennial Banquet, October 5, 2007
Kay Ward '80
“There is no special merit in being old, for an institution as for an individual; but there is cause for grateful satisfaction in having been useful and in having fulfilled the purpose and mission for which we were created. ” That’s what the president of Moravian Seminary said in 1907. It’s true today. It’s a good place to start.
We started small 200 years ago. Two teachers came, Ernst and John. And three students came, William and Samuel and Peter. And there was a school. We know the names of the first three. We know the names of the 101 who are students now. We know the names of those in between, they are printed on beautiful posters in Bahnson Center. We know many of the names from the posters — they are us — the students of Moravian Seminary for the last 200 years. We race to see our names there on the posters. Did they spell it right? Am I in the right class?
I have called you by name, you are mine, says the Lord. I have laid my hand upon your shoulder. And 1397 folks said yes to God’s call.
There were masculine, old-fashioned names at first — 56 Johns, and 59 Charles and 64 Williams — many years of men. Until, oh praise the Lord, a woman came. Her name was Anna — she was the first. We followed in her steps. And the female names began to show up on our Posters of Life. They are a great cloud of witnesses.
I read each John, each Charles, each William. We are not anonymous. I read the Williams, and I read Wilma and Wilson and Wilton and Wilbert and Wilbur and Wilfred and Willard. We are not anonymous. I read 56 Johns and 59 Charles and 64 Williams. I read one Aden, one Milo and two Kays.
We started male, preparing for ordination, and Moravian and small. We grew — male, preparing for ordination, and mostly Moravian and small. We have become male and female, with three degree programs, Moravian and ecumenical and small.
100 years ago, they said that denominational interests should not be an end in themselves. Appreciation and loyal maintenance of one’s own church and the broad platform of co-operation between the churches — both are needed in an ecumenical community.
100 years ago, the speaker named the advantages of being small: the larger the student body, the less moral influence teachers have on students — a closer personal contact between students — a better quality of students. That was how they saw it 100 years ago.
We may see it differently today. We may see that it is about the quality and passion of the faculty and staff that have been called here over these 200 years. We may see that “being small” is about strong relationships. We may ask how big can we get before we aren’t small any more?
To celebrate our mission — our ministry over these 200 years — we could have built something big. We built a ministry — we sent out 1397 ministers. There has never been anything small about our mission. There has never been anything small about our ministry — the ministry of all those names.
Most folks don’t go to seminary because it is easy or will make them rich, or famous, but once they have felt God’s hand on their shoulder, they will go. They have been called by name. That’s why you are here — you or someone you love has been called by name. That’s what happened to all those names on the posters, those 1397 names.
For 200 years, the Moravian Church and Moravian Theological Seminary has never wavered from requiring and preparing an educated clergy. 100 years ago the Seminary modestly proclaimed that it offered high intellectual learning, the best moral training, the soundest devotional culture and the practical preparation for the duties of Christian service. That’s what the Seminary offered a hundred years ago. That is what the Seminary offers now. Our faculty and staff prepare pastors and counselors and leaders for the church of the now.
I am feeling grateful satisfaction that our seminary will continue to send graduates out into the world. And the work will be hard and we will never know the whole story — of the 1397 of the past or the 101 graduates who are studying now. We won’t know all the good — all the ministry in Christ’s name — all the transformation that will result. But believing in that ministry is what will keep us going. For the next 100 years or so.
My husband, the one who reads science books, tells me that if you drop a stone in an ocean eventually there will be friction and the ripple will stop. But I am a poet and I prefer to believe that if you drop a small stone, say a seminary, into a very large body of water, say the world of the now, the ripple will go on and on. One touching the next and the next and the next — until you run out of ocean.
And the stone in the middle? It begins as it always has, with that first touch. That touch on the shoulder of the one who calls us by name.
But now, says the Lord, who created you, Who formed you, Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are mine. (Isaiah 43:1) |
