Baccalaureate Service Honoring RHS Class of 2016

RATON MINISTERIAL ALLIANCE

Presents the 

2016 Baccalaureate Service

honoring all 2016 Raton High School Graduates

Sunday, May 15th

6:00pm

First United Methodist Church

A reception for the Graduates and their Families will follow the service, in the First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall.

The Baccalaureate service is a community sponsored, optional event, but All Raton High School Graduates and their families are invited.  Students should sign up in the high school counselor’s office by Wednesday, May 11. Students are encouraged to wear their caps and gowns.

( “A baccalaureate service  is a celebration that honors a graduating senior class from a college or high school. The event is typically a Christianity-based interdenominational service.

The baccalaureate service derives from the medieval European custom of presenting the candidates for the degree of Bachelor (bacca) with laurels (lauri) of sermonic oration [aka preachers].  The Baccalaureate ceremony is a service of worship in celebration of and thanksgiving for lives dedicated to learning and wisdom.

The baccalaureate service is believed to have originated at the University of Oxford in 1432 when each bachelor was required to deliver a sermon in Latin as part of his academic requirements. Since the earliest universities in America were founded primarily to educate ministers, the British practice of the baccalaureate service was continued.

Because of United States Supreme Court rulings regarding the separation of church and state, baccalaureate services are not official, school-sponsored events at American public schools.  However, many have student-initiated services at private facilities not paid for with government funds, and as such are fully permitted by law. Until recent years, school-sponsored baccalaureate services were common in American public schools, on school grounds.” )