A total of 99 graduates from Moore College in 2014 were encouraged to fix their eyes on the transfigured glory of Christ, and not be turned aside by a lesser image of the gospel.

The Rev Mark Dickson, Principal of George Whitefield College in Cape Town, South Africa, gave his address to the students from the gospel of Mark, along with over 600 guests at the City recital Hall in Angel Place, Sydney.

The graduation was also the first attended the Most Rev Dr Glenn Davies in his position as the Archbishop of Sydney and the President of the College’s Governing Board. It was also the first presided over by the Rev Dr Mark Thompson as the Principal of Moore College.

“I think tonight was about, it’s always about the spread of the gospel out from the College,” says Dr Thompson. “The College doesn’t exist for itself, it exists for the world, and to take the gospel to the world, and it was important tonight that we had that connection with George Whitefield college. Having that address given by Mark [Dickson] was important in that it said that we are partners as colleges. Of course, you have Broughton Knox who was the long term principal here and also the founder of the college, so that global link is so important.

“The buzz around the place, the fact that this place is packed with people who are supporting their family and friends, it’s a wonderful gathering of people.”

The graduations included 12 postgraduate students, with two PhD students, the Rev Dr Stephen Liggins and the Rev Dr Dan Wu, earning their doctorates on the night, having completed their degrees at the University of Sydney. Dr Wu began as a lecturer at Moore College early last year.

For many students, particularly those completing the four year courses at the college, their graduation brings an end to a special time of learning and close mentoring.

“I think college helped me grow in my knowledge and understanding of God, it really equipped me in that way,” says graduating Bachelor of Divinity student Cameron Howard, who will now be working with the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) at the University of Western Sydney. “But the thing that helped me most was that the college lecturers, even though they’re world class scholars, top of the field, they just love the Lord Jesus, and they love all of us. They just wanted to keep upholding Jesus in all that they did, and the love of Christ meant that they wanted to love us. That was a wonderful example to me going into university ministry, that I want to have that same love in everything that I do.”

The night was given over to God in prayer by the Archbishop, and it also began with a prayer for God’s mission, including a new prayer for and acknowledgement of the people of the indigenous Eora nation, and their traditional custodianship of the land on which the Recital Hall and the College stand.

“It was very deliberately a Christian prayer to God, thanking God for the people to whom he gave custodianship of the land,” says Dr Thompson. “We wanted to do something that was deliberately very Christian, rather than just copying the culture that is around us, so that’s why we prayed that prayer. It was written by our vice principal Bill Salier, we used it for the first time at the beginning of the year at college, and we thought this was an appropriate occasion to pray that prayer as well.

Dr Dickson concluded his address by calling the graduates to keep their focus on the cross, not allowing comfort to become a snare, while also urging all those in attendance to maintain the vision of the Lord’s transfiguration

“To the rest of us, at the close of everything, where do you go from here?” he said. “You will eventually turn off your light, lie down, and go to sleep. And as you close your eyes, it is possible that the transfigured Jesus and his words, as you lie in your bed that those things will have already faded, and will have faded forever. It is true that for some of us darkness overpowers the light. But know this, that tonight Mark’s gospel summons you to make a choice, one way or the other you have to make a choice."