Global Graduation

As we reach the end of the school year it seems appropriate to consider people graduating in other cultures and circumstances. Br Bill Firman (left) has just helped celebrate students graduating South Sudan. Students who have a great deal more to deal with than many of our own. As always Br Bill describes it best...

Early in the morning on the day of her departure from the CHTI, one female graduate was spotted quietly shedding a few tears as she contemplated leaving the friends she had made and the place she had called home for the past three years.  There are always mixed feelings on such occasions – great elation at achieving one’s goal but sadness at parting from the security of life in the college and the company of very good friends. Such is life in all residential colleges world-wide but there is a special poignancy when you are going home in a country where more than half of the people do not have enough to eat, where too many, random, violent deaths continue to occur, where pay levels have not kept anywhere near to the inflation rate, where promises are made and broken too glibly.
I took lots of photos of joyful moments during the graduation ceremonies at the STTC and CHTI and joined in the gala atmosphere. The capacity of the South Sudanese to celebrate joyfully, even when surrounded by so much deprivation and hardship, is quite extraordinary. These are people who have endured many years of war and staggering loss of life; yet they are nor crushed. We pray that may continue to celebrate the gift of life and find the way to live united as South Sudanese rather than be divided by tribal prejudices.  I know our graduates are prepared to go as ambassadors for peace and reconciliation. Now that is something I am proud to celebrate.