Whitworth University President Beck A. Taylor

Benediction

Rev. Terry McGonigal, Ph.D.
Dean of Spiritual Life, Whitworth University

Covenant-Making and Covenant Keeping God,

For 120 years you have guided Whitworth University through 17 previous presidents, each uniquely gifted to lead this institution through particular times of distinct challenge. Through it all, the guiding presence of your Holy Spirit has kept Whitworth faithful to our founding mission, "to honor you, to follow our Lord and Savior and Redeemer and Friend, Jesus, and to serve others in this world for your sake and in your name."

Now our gaze shifts from past to future, as this afternoon we have inaugurated Beck Taylor as our eighteenth President. The Scriptures tell us so many stories of your calling upon people: Abraham, Joseph and Moses, Ruth and Deborah, David and the prophets, Mary and Joseph, the disciples and Mary Magdalene, Paul and John. You gave each one unique gifts, and their lives are testimony to your sovereign redeeming and reconciling and healing work in the midst of frail humanity. You promised your presence with each of these your servants.

So now we implore you for your presence also to be upon our new President Beck Taylor. May you give him wisdom and insight, comfort and courage, vision and endurance, strength to think and act in accordance with your will. Spirit of God, anoint our president for the task that is before him, to lead us and guide us for the sake of the Christian mission of this University. We entrust Beck and Julie, Zach and Lauren and Chloe into your care. And we commit ourselves to you, our gracious and loving God, to be the community of Christ's people around them so that their lives, professionally and personally and spiritually, will thrive.

We enter into this new chapter in the life of Whitworth University, confident because of your, unending faithfulness. As you have been faithful in keeping covenant with us for over a century, may we be faithful in sustaining our covenant with you. As we live out your calling upon us as a community, we are confident that the good news of Jesus, the one who was and is full of grace and truth, will spring forth from Whitworth and be heard all around the world through our scholarship and our relationships, through our vocations and our service.

We make this prayer in the name of Jesus, the solid rock of assurance this day and always. Amen!