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Bible Ceremony 2017
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Students in sixth and seventh grade were presented with their very own Harding Bible at the Bible Ceremony today.
A Harding Academy alumnus and teacher had a dream—a dream to start each seventh grader on a path that would lead not to college or a successful career but to a lifetime as a disciple of Jesus Christ. What better way to bless the youngest students on the Cherry Road campus than to place in each child’s hand a copy of the Word of God?
Mr. Chris Dahlberg’s dream became a reality in the 2000-2001 school year when seventh graders participated in the first Harding Academy Bible Ceremony. Each seventh grader was given a leather-bound Bible stamped on the front with a gold Harding crest and the student’s name. During the ceremony, Mr. Dahlberg said he hoped the students would carry these same Bibles across the stage at their commencement five years later.
This year’s students are the seventeenth and eighteenth groups of new students to participate in the Bible Ceremony, but they are the eighteenth and nineteenth group to receive Bibles. During homecoming in the fall of 2004, the class of 2005 was surprised and given Bibles. They had been eighth graders the year of the first Bible Ceremony and had missed out on receiving Bibles. Since then, seniors who entered Harding after seventh grade have been given Bibles in the fall of their senior year.
Bibles for the ceremony are now funded by the Dr. Gaylon and Mrs. Deanna Smith Memorial Endowment Fund, that was established in 2003. Dr. Smith was a board member of Harding Academy, and he and Mrs. Smith were great supporters of the school. Their two sons, Craig (‘92) and Keith (‘93) are Harding Academy alumni.
In today’s Bible Ceremony, the sixth and seventh graders entered stage right and exited stage left, carrying brand new, shiny Bibles. At commencement in May, graduating seniors will mount the stage in the opposite direction, carrying Bibles that we hope are by then well worn and well-loved.
Click here for the individual photos taken by Holland Studios.