Truth and grace at Convocation
Convocation, held Tuesday, September 4, began with greetings from Calvin provost Claudia Beversluis: “You will sit here just like this, and we will celebrate with you, and we will pray over you four years from now,” she told the first-year class seated in the front of Van Noord Arena.
Calvin senior Calvin Wiersma, a senior majoring in business and economics, remembered sitting with the incoming class three years ago. He hadn’t attended a Convocation since, Wiersma admitted, and the main reason he was sitting in the bleachers for the 2012 edition was the main speaker:
“The reason I came today was President Le Roy … to see what he’ll say. My roommates have met him and say he’s really personable and really engaging and just genuine,” Wiersma said.
A lesson in justice
Le Roy was preceded by the traditional faculty processional, a time of worship, and college chaplain Mary Hulst—who asked students to rise in groups representing the percentages of people who lived at various levels of poverty, who suffered from hunger and who were unable to read or write. Hulst exhorted the group of students representing the three percent of people who had the privilege of a college education: “While you worked hard to get to Calvin College, you did not get here by yourself … Do not take this privilege lightly.”
After welcoming the Class of 2016, President Le Roy delivered his first address to the full Calvin community. His scripture was John 1: 1–5, 14 and 16, and his topic was “Truth and Grace”.
“That Jesus should be full of grace and truth would appear to be a paradox … ,” Le Roy said. “We want to be full of truth sometimes and grace other times. We want it to be one or the other … Grace and truth need each other.” He rounded out his talk with illustrations from his own life, contrasting the harshness of one graduate school professor with the grace exhibited by his mentor, former president of Whitworth University Bill Robinson.
Following Le Roy’s address student body president Yeaji Choi offered the customary prayers for faculty and staff, and Beversluis led the prayers for students.
Convocation 2012 was the first such event for Jooyoung Kong, and she enjoyed the new president’s speech: “So far, I think he seems really friendly and fun—outgoing,” said Kong, a Korean student raised in Cambodia. “I think he’ll be a good president. I’m anxious to know him more.”
