Lebanon Valley College Baccalaureate to Feature Sojourners' Editor, Hit Single by Graduate

Related Media

Graduating senior Cristabelle Braden will perform at the Baccalaureate Service.

ANNVILLE, PA (04/16/2015)(readMedia)-- Rose Berger, senior associate editor of Sojourners magazine, will give the keynote address at Lebanon Valley College's Baccalaureate Service to be held in Miller Chapel on the College campus at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 8. The magazine, produced by members of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian community known as Sojourners, has a readership of more than a quarter million people. Musical elements at Baccalaureate will include a live performance by graduating senior Cristabelle Braden, whose single "Hope Survives" was recently included among the Top 100 Songs for download from iTunes. The event is free and open to the public.

Rose Berger's column "Hungry Spirit" appears regularly in Sojourners magazine and her essays, reporting, and poetry have appeared in The Huffington Post, Religion News Service, U.S. Catholic, and Radix, among other publications. Her Baccalaureate address, "Irresistible Force for Change," will relate the New Testament verse John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world...") to issues of climate change. She will also share from her experiences living as part of the Sojourners Christian community.

Christian artist Cristabelle Braden has written more than 200 songs since suffering from a serious brain injury at age 14. Several of these songs are featured in her two albums: I Am Yours and Harmony. In March 2015, Cristabelle was named Best Female Vocalist by the Kindred Music Awards. Her hit single, "Hope Survives," serves as the theme song to the ministry she recently founded-Hope after Head Injury. She will play this song during the Baccalaureate ceremony.

Other highlights of the service include a procession and recession of graduating students, the faculty, and administrators accompanied by students in LVC's organ program. LVC student Katelyn Umberger will execute a hand bell solo. Readings and prayers will be provided by graduating campus leaders.

"Observing students at the organ, podium, or platform at Baccalaureate is always inspirational," according to LVC's chaplain, Rev. Paul Fullmer. "It is the first time in LVC history that we will have Baccalaureate on a Friday evening as opposed to immediately before Commencement on Satruday," he said, "so we're hopeful that local residents will feel welcome to join us."

For more information, contact LVC's Office of Spiritual Life at 717-867-6135 or nsmith@lvc.edu.

Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., welcomes 1,573 full-time undergraduates studying more than 30 challenging and sophisticated majors, as well as customized self-designed majors. Founded in 1866, LVC has graduate programs in athletic training, physical therapy, business, music education, and science education. Learn more at www.lvc.edu.

Annville is 15 minutes east of Hershey and 35 minutes east of Harrisburg; Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore are within two hours.