Federal District Judge Karon O. Bowdre told Samford University seniors that “a great journey lies ahead, full of adventure, full of unknown joys and sorrows, but what a ride awaits you.” She asked them to “embrace the ride, enjoy the journey … and cherish every moment.”
Judge Bowdre, a two-time Samford graduate, addressed an audience of about 2,000 in Wright Center at Samford as the university awarded degrees to 269 Fall graduates Dec. 15. Bowdre earned her undergraduate degree in 1977 and law degree from Cumberland School of Law in 1981.
Bowdre shared her 1975 undergraduate experience as part of a January Term class that renovated a small storefront to serve as an outreach center in lower Manhattan, New York City.
“I had never seen such a place, a true ghetto with dilapidated buildings, populated it seemed by drug addicts and dealers, street walkers and assorted characters,” she said. “My eyes were opened wide to a different world with different needs and different problems.”
After a two-week orientation at Samford, the group of 19 students headed to Manhattan’s lower east side with campus minister Esther Burroughs and religion professor W. T. Edwards.
“We worked hard that week despite the cold,” she said, tearing out old Sheetrock and joists, replacing them and cleaning and rewiring the storefront as the community’s inhabitants watched. They painted the word Graffiti on the wall and named the place Graffiti Center. “We returned to Samford deeply changed by what we had seen,” she said.
“I know that many of you have had similar experiences while at Samford,” she said, maybe helping someone learn English or helping build Habitat homes or reaching out to help tornado victims. “Know that those experiences will reap benefits,” she told the graduates.
At commencement exercises for Samford’s Beeson Divinity School on Dec. 5, Frank F. Limehouse III, dean of Birmingham’s Cathedral Church of the Advent, advised the 23 graduates to beware of seeking great things only for the sake of greatness for themselves. Jesus Christ, he reminded them, has already done that for them.
“There is nothing greater than becoming a child of God, which you are,” he said.
Limehouse based his remarks on Jeremiah 45:5, which reads: “Seek thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.”
The commencement program included the traditional prayer of consecration and blessing of each student in which Beeson faculty members pray individually for each student.
This time of consecration, Beeson Dean Timothy George pointed out, underscores the divinity school’s dual role as an academic institution that sends forth its graduates to serve in the Lord’s work.
Along with their diplomas, each graduate received a Bible. Continuing a tradition begun several years ago, the most recent Beeson graduates contributed to a fund that will help provide Bibles to an unreached people group in another part of the world.
(SU)
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