Around 1,000 friends and whānau packed into Church Unlimited in Auckland on Saturday 22 May to celebrate Laidlaw College’s 2019 and 2020 Graduates. 

After two lockdowns and two ceremony cancellations for our 2019 graduates, it was with great anticipation that we gathered on Friday night for a pre-graduation celebration before the big day. This time, the party was really going to happen! 

And so – after getting gowned and hooded, photos taken and lined up, our 2019 graduates and 2020 graduands processed in, responding to the call of Karanga and with Whakaaria Mai singing over them. 

We loved hearing from our graduating students, Margaret Foe (BTh, GradDipEd), Max Fraser-Masters (BCouns) and Fiona Sherwin (MTh). They inspired and encouraged us with reflections, shared memories, acknowledgments – of those with us and those who have passed - and general celebration at the achievements of their fellow classmates; all enabled, empowered, and supported by a massive network of loving whānau and friends. National Principal and CEO Dr Roshan Allpress captured this reality when he noted, “it takes a village to raise a child; it takes a kingdom to raise disciples”. 

Paul’s theme of transformation by the renewing of our minds from Romans 12 rang through the addresses from Roshan Allpress and Board Chair Professor Jessica Palmer. Jessica charged our graduates to embrace two truths; to “celebrate that in your time at Laidlaw you have been engaged in the transformation that comes from renewing your minds”, and that “what is asked of you now is to use that to serve the mission of God in this world – to strengthen and grow the body of Christ and to bring His truth and love to his world that so desperately needs it.” 

We pray God’s richest blessings on our graduates as they go out to fulfil that charge in the schools, workplaces and communities in which he has placed them.