Messiah College to celebrate commencement with 650 graduates
May 15th, 2009
GRANTHAM, Pa. (May 15, 2009) — Messiah College invites your coverage of its annual commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 16, at 10 a.m. on Shoemaker Field at Starry Athletic Complex, located on the college’s Grantham campus.
In the case of inclement weather, the ceremony schedule may be adjusted. To verify schedule changes, please call (717) 691-6084 on the morning of commencement or visit the college’s website at www.messiah.edu/commencement.
With a graduating class of 657 students, Messiah College anticipates a total commencement crowd of more than 5,000 people. The speaker for this year’s commencement ceremony will be evangelical speaker and writer Ronald J. Sider.
Sider is professor of theology, holistic ministry and public policy, director of the Sider Center on Ministry and Public Policy at Palmer Theological Seminary, and president of Evangelicals for Social Action. A widely known evangelical speaker and writer, he has published 31 books and numerous articles. In 1982, “The Christian Century” named him one of the 12 “most influential persons in the field of religion in the U.S.” His book, “Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger,” was recognized by “Christianity Today” as one of the 100 most influential religious books of the 20th century and named the seventh most influential book in the evangelical world in the last 50 years. Sider is the publisher of “PRISM” magazine and a contributing editor of “Christianity Today” and “Sojourners.” He has lectured at scores of colleges and universities around the world, including Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Oxford. Sider will be awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Messiah College as part of the Commencement ceremony. For more information about Sider, visit Messiah’s commencement website at www.messiah.edu/commencement.
Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls more than 2,800 undergraduate students in 55 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.