2011-2012 Award Convocation

Today at Mulder Chapel Western Theological Seminary the 2011-2012 Awards Convocation was held. The worship service was filled with joy and thanksgiving. A wonderful place to be. Within it each of the graduating students was given a gift of a Bible. This tradition was started by Gerald and Marian Rocks. Here is the letter that comes with the Bible:

May, 1985

Dear God:

We humbly ask you to grant your manifold blessings to the graduating class of Western Theological Seminary. Guide and protect them through the years of their ministries, and comfort and sustain them in their trying hours.

We thank you that it has pleased you to pour your precious ointment into earthen vessels, which vessels they are, and that they have been accounted worthy to have been chosen as co-heirs and co-workers in the furtherance of your kingdom. May they ever be true to the trust that you have placed in them, and may they always be found working for your cause.

We hear much of our way of life, but through prayer may your way of life be revealed to them, and to all people. Help us all to find that highway which you established in Matthew, chapters five through seven, which when followed, would lead us all into your kingdom. Then the storms of our lives would be over, our wars would cease, and there would be peace on earth and good will among all people.

May this class not only honor you with songs and words of praise, but through the living of their lives may they exemplify their true love for you.

Like children who need the helping hand of a parent to safely guide them through heavy traffic, so they need to grasp your ever-extended hand in faith and be led by you, if they are to successfully terminaty their journey through the sin-laden avenues of this life.

Bend them to your will, reveal unto them your plans, and commit to them a portion of your wisdom. Reshapte the structures of their lives into temples of character and into strongholds of justice and loving kindness. Lead them in your paths of truth, that the words of their mouths, the meditations of their hearts, their thoughts, and their deeds may lend honor to your cause. Teach them that love endures all things. Circumscribe and keep them within your laws and forever in the shadow of your mighty wing, the Christian church.

And when it is appointed for them to judge, let them judge according to your standards of divine righteousness.

Grant unto them, we pray, the fortitude to bear their sufferings by themselves; and when their labors on earth have ended, receive them into your kingdom of eternal light.

In our master's name we ask. Amen.

Gerald and Marian Rocks


A note from the president of the Seminary mentions that "following the death of Gerald and Marian, the Rocks's daughter, Marilyn Cox, and her husband Ken continue to provide a New Revised Standard Version in black leather..." for students. "[A]n impressive and thoughtful gift" indeed.

Blessed are those who are passing on the legacy of faith.