Commencement set for May 4

Euphemian Hall on the Erskine College campus

Erskine College and Theological Seminary will mark the completion of the 2018-19 academic year with a commencement ceremony Saturday, May 4, at 10:30 a.m. under the towers of the Erskine Building. This year’s commencement speaker is longtime pastor and missionary Dr. Andrew Brunson, who was arrested and imprisoned in Turkey in 2016. He endured a two-year ordeal before being released in October 2018. Brunson’s arrest, imprisonment, and trial, as well as the mounting pressure for his release, received extensive media coverage.

Brunson is a graduate of Wheaton College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1988. He earned a master’s degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (1991) and from Erskine Theological Seminary (1992) and received the Ph.D. degree in 2001 from the University of Aberdeen. He will be awarded the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree during the commencement ceremony.

A baccalaureate service is planned for Friday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the Due West ARP Church, with Dr. Dale Ralph Davis delivering the baccalaureate sermon. Davis is a former professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Miss., and most recently served as Minister in Residence at First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, S.C., retiring from that position in 2018.