On Friday, 20 February, the graduates of the Class of 2025 of St Andrew’s Theological College in Sydney received their degrees during an emotional graduation ceremony held at the Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady.
With the blessing of Archbishop Makarios of Australia, the Doxology preceding the conferral of degrees was presided over by Metropolitan Seraphim of Sevasteia.
In attendance were Metropolitan Basilios of the Antiochian Church in Australia; Bishop Bartholomew of Brisbane; Assistant Bishops, Bishop Iakovos of Miletoupolis, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Saint George, Yellow Rock, and Bishop Christophoros of Kerasounta, Protosyncellus of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia; clergy of the city of Sydney; the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Georgios Skemperis; members of the academic and administrative staff of the Theological College; as well as relatives and friends of the graduates.
Metropolitan Seraphim, after conveying to all present the blessing of their Chief Shepherd and Dean of the Theological College, Archbishop Makarios, spoke with visible emotion about the 40th anniversary of the College’s operation, as well as a personal milestone connected with it, his 35 years of service as Professor and in various other capacities.
In reviewing the historical course of the College, Metropolitan Seraphim expressed words of gratitude for the pioneers of its foundation: the late Archbishop Stylianos of Australia and the benefactors from the Greek community whose generous donations proved decisive. He also warmly thanked the Australian University College of Divinity (AUCD) for its steady support of the Theological College from its founding to the present day.
Addressing the graduates, His Eminence urged them to go forth as “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:20) and to bear witness to the world that “for behold, through the Cross, joy has come into all the world.” “At the heart of all that you have studied,” he noted, “lies the joyful proclamation of the Lord Himself: ‘I am the resurrection and the life… he who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live’ (John 11:25–26). This is precisely the joy of the Cross, a joy of which you are now called to become bearers and living witnesses.”
Elsewhere in his address, Metropolitan Seraphim emphasised that the contemporary world does not need graduates who merely possess knowledge about theology, but people who have been inwardly transformed, “who do not serve themselves, but God and others; who do not conform to the fragmented logic of our age, but work quietly, even unseen, for its healing; who by their lives can show that hope is real, because Christ is risen.”
In conclusion, Metropolitan Seraphim offered the prayerful wish: “May you go out into the world like the first Apostles of Christ, with courage and humility, always seeking Him in every step you take. May you become true bearers of reconciliation and steadfast witnesses of the Resurrection.”
