Monday, May 15, 2023

Dean Powery's Messages to the Class of 2023


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Commencement Invocation

In closing his invocation at this year's commencement ceremony, Chapel Dean Luke Powery said: “As a new day dawns in the morning light, let our little light shine and reflect a future that is truth-telling, justice-seeking, peace-making, love-breathing, grace-giving, joy-instigating, and hope-stirring. Let the awe of today be a foretaste of awesome tomorrows—with gratitude for the gift of this new day and the Class of 2023. Amen.” Watch the prayer:

Baccalaureate Reflection

In his Baccalaureate message to the Class of 2023, Dean Powery encouraged the graduates to see other people with "surplus sight," so as to look beyond appearances and peer into people's hearts. Watch the reflection:

Chronicle Column

In his final column of the semester for the (Duke) Chronicle, Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery looked ahead to graduation and back to the recent Easter Day celebrations and finds a theme—the mixture of joy and fear. "This combination may seem odd, but the journey of life is odd," he wrote. "And maybe this is how it should be, for fear and joy aren’t always strangers—like when we fall in love or are expecting a baby or are about to enroll in a new graduate program in an unfamiliar state or country."

Read the column.