Congratulations to our graduates. We are very proud of you. What you have accomplished is quite significant, and I hope that fact becomes clearer and clearer to each of you as your journey in life unfolds.
Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, we are honored that you are here with us today. You delivered a brilliant and memorable commencement address, addressing topics of profound significance. Thank you for all that you have done and will do for the protection of human rights and religious freedom.
And, Hon. Amb. Richard Swett, thank you for being here with us today to offer congratulatory remarks. Thank you also for being part of HJI’s Religious Freedom Conference, convened last August, and contributing a chapter to the volume just published by HJI Press on Threats to Religious Freedom.
Graduates! Thank you for being part of the HJI family and for contributing to its noble mission. I hope we’ve inspired you as much as you have inspired each of us.
HJI’s ultimate goal is to contribute to building a world of universal and lasting peace, the aspiration of our Founders, and indeed the aspiration of the Founders of the world’s great religions, and of the peoples of the world.
Rev. Moon used to say, “The Hope of All Ages is a Unified World of Peace.” He lived every day of his life as though the world’s future depended on his efforts. He knew that peace doesn’t just fall from the sky. Peace requires that each of us live in service to one another, and in service to God, our Heavenly Parent.
At this time, our Co-Founder Holy Mother Han is incarcerated in Korea, despite her age and failing health. The irony, the paradox, the shame, and injustice of this reality are deeply problematic. On this day, we offer our thoughts, prayers, and deepest gratitude for her inspiration, vision, guidance and generous support for this institution. We will continue to do our best to fulfill her hopes, and aspirations for this institution.
It’s wonderful to be here in the Crystal Ballroom of the New Yorker Hotel for this commencement ceremony. It’s our first graduation ceremony at this venue, and our new campus. While we have the fondest memories of our time at both our Barrytown campus in upstate New York, and our 43rd St. campus here in Manhattan, we feel greatly blessed to be now situated in this iconic building, only a stone’s throw from Madison Square Garden, Hudson Yards, the Moynihan Train Hall, and just down the street from the Empire State Building. We’ve fallen in love with our new home.
As has been mentioned, today’s graduates, as members of the class of 2026, are participating in the 50th graduation program of this great institution.
Our 50th anniversary represents an inflection point for HJI. For this reason, many of us among our faculty and staff are reflecting both on our past and our future. In a way, what you graduates are going through at this point in your lives is similar to what we also encounter as an institution.
We are continually asking ourselves how we can do better. How can we improve. How can better serve our students, our church, and the wider world.
While I don’t have special sage advice for you today—for example, I can’t tell you how AI will impact your lives ten years from now—however, I do want to say that I respect and truly honor you for having the foresight to study religion, the theological arts at this time in history. Choosing to study at HJI was, I believe, a dramatically important decision. You intuited or understood that religion is not merely a decorative part of human history and human development. It is absolutely central and essential.
You somehow grasped or were led to understand the significance of the role of religion in both personal and public life. You were perceptive enough to recognize that religion is not what Marx would describe as a superstructural phenomenon, something that is an outgrowth of other more basic or fundamental substructures such as human biology, or social and economic systems.
As important as categories such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, geographical location, culture, and nationality are, religion provides what Peter Berger called the Sacred Canopy that encompasses the whole.
Religion is the shaper, the revealer of the essential. Indeed, history so often rides on its shoulders.
You engaged the world of the essentials. For this you are to be applauded.
Our deepest desire as faculty and staff is for our graduates to go on to enjoy meaningful and rewarding careers and vocations in areas that serve the public good, making an impact on the wider society.
As you go forward to fulfill your aspirations, drawing on knowledge, wisdom, and experiences you have acquired during your time here at HJI, we want only the very best for each of you.
In a world that often seems to lose sight of the value of religion and the theological arts, you stand in a unique position. You recognize that while often taken for granted, religion remains a powerful, if not the most powerful force in our world, undergirding, like the roots of a great tree, our understanding of so much of what makes life meaningful: the birth of a child, a marriage, the passing of a loved one, appreciation for the dignity of each human being, the distinction between right and wrong, the companion of the conscience.
Although secularist thought suggests that religion is a holdover from a primitive era in human evolution, religion nonetheless remains foundational to billions of peoples across the world, shaping their thoughts, their solidarity, and their deeds in the wider world.
HJI is a small school. However, we are not merely a small communitarian enclave. Although we are a small institution, we have a broad global vision, with students from across the world, representing more than 40 countries.
For 50 years we have done more than keep the light burning. We are a burning light, if not a city upon a hill, an academic institution upon a hill.
We remain ever grateful to our Founders, not only for the support so generously provided, but for the vision that underlies this great institution.
Once again, congratulations to our graduates, and to family and friends who are gathered here today.