Living generously the theme for yearend celebrations
Brenton Stacey
Public relations officer
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
Jessica Parsons and Reuben Ennor are among the 284 graduands who were eligible to march during the graduation service at Avondale College. Credit: Ann Stafford.
They studied, they served and now they plan to marry. Reuben Ennor and fiancée Jessica Parsons are among the 284 graduands, including the first from the Bachelor of Theology (Honours), who were eligible to march during the graduation service at Avondale College, December 5.
The two graduated with similar degrees—Reuben a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Business and Jessica a Bachelor of Arts. They have also shared similar experiences, volunteering with the Transformational Development Agency in Rwanda to work with those orphaned because of the genocide and with sex workers and their children.
Some 284 graduands were eligible to march during the graduation service. Credit: Ann Stafford.
The former included a project called Photo Voice, for which Reuben and Jessica offered young adults training in photography to encourage them to visually tell their stories. The aim: to raise awareness of how these people view their world and to bring positive social action. The latter saw Reuben and Jessica ministering to a sex worker called Valentina. She is HIV positive and has seven children, five of who have died from AIDS. Valentina is now a Christian. Reuben and Jessica helped her establish her own business to provide a self-supporting income, which means she no longer works in the sex industry. The business is growing and Valentina’s children are now attending school.
Reuben and Jessica’s classmates also recognised the importance of service in the giving of the graduation class gift. The gift is an interactive white board, which co-president Shona Clarke presented to a representative of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in northern New South Wales’ new Currawah Adventist Aboriginal College during the consecration service on the Lake Macquarie campus. Speaker Anton Selvaratnam, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, used the class’s Matthew 10:8-based motto, “Treated generously . . . live generously,” as the focus of his address. The concept of infinity in mathematics exemplifies our God and His unconditional love, said Anton.
Barry Oliver, Ray Roennfeldt and Bernard and Murray Brandstater at the opening of the Brandstater Amphitheatre. Credit: Ann Stafford.
Lecturer Katherine Cooper spoke to graduands during the consecration service on the Sydney campus, noting how compassion “significantly aids holistic care provision.” Listen to your patients, not just their spoken but also their unspoken words, she said. Provide care that meets obvious but also obscure needs. Serve as an advocate, ensuring your patients receive the best care. “Above all, pray that God will give you the grace to provide compassionate care and that nothing will stop you from providing this.”
Avondale announced the third recipient of its most prestigious prize, the Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Prize of Excellence, during the service. Jewells Kiviranta, also the graduation class co-president, joins Hannah Rowe and Chris Starrett as winners of the $1500 prize.
Service also featured during the Saturday morning Sabbath school as Avondale honoured: the students who gave up their holidays to serve in regional New South Wales as part of a ministry called Storm Co (Service To Other Really Matters); the student club One Mission, which returns to the Philippines on the Tuesday after the graduation service; and the students who served with their lecturer at Atoifi Adventist Hospital in the Solomon Islands.
Professor Trevor Cairney presented the graduation service address. Credit: Ann Stafford.
Avondale president Dr Ray Roennfeldt preached the Sabbath sermon, which he called “Cinderellas and princes.” “How will you live now you have been transported from poverty to the palace?” he asked. The answer: look to the Hero of the Bible. Scripture does not give a complete roadmap for living the generous life, he said, “but it does give us a model—Jesus Christ—and it challenges us to live as He would.”
Dr Bernard Brandstater on behalf of the family joined Ray, Shona and Avondale College Council chair Dr Barry Oliver that afternoon in opening the new Brandstater Amphitheatre on the site of the former baptismal font opposite the Chan Shun Auditorium. The venue proved fitting for live music, with senior lecturer in theology Dr Rick Ferret leading a male quartet and those attending in singing the hymn “Sweet, Sweet Spirit.”
Professor Trevor Cairney, master of New College at The University of New South Wales, described education as a “great privilege” during his graduation service address. “When you graduate today, you join a community of scholars who stretch back even to great institutions like the Abbey of St Gall [the Swiss-based home of one of the world’s oldest medieval libraries]. You join a community of scholars who have used the minds God gave them to learn, to teach and to make a difference in their world.”