Ceremonial graduation in Friedensau Chapel

On 16 October 2022, the ceremonial presentation of the Bachelor's and Master's certificates took place at Friedensau Adventist University. 29 graduates received their certificates from the hands of the two deans of the university, Alexander Schulze, Ph.D., for Theology and Prof. Dr. Thomas Spiegler for the School of  Social Work. Mário Brito, President of the Inter-European Division of  Seventh-day Adventist Church, gave the keynote address at the graduation ceremony.
Some graduates have already arrived at their places of work and it was not possible for them to travel from regions, some of them far away, such as Burundi, Lebanon, Hungary, Ghana, Bangladesh, China, but also from Germany. They graduated in absentia. Six students graduated in the Bachelor's and Master's programmes in Theology and in the English-language Master of Theological Studies. 23 students graduated in the field of Social Work, which includes the Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Arts Counselling, Master of Arts International Social Sciences and Master of Arts Music Therapy.
If this were not enough reason to celebrate, there were also prizes to be awarded. The prize of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD Prize) was awarded to Charles Karorero for outstanding achievements by foreign students. He was one of those who could not attend the graduation ceremony and the award ceremony. He sent virtual greetings from his home country Burundi and thanked them for the award. Prof. Thomas Spiegler gave the laudatory speech (for the wording see: thh-friedensau.de/blog):
From the hands of the second chairperson of the Friends of Friedensau International e.V. (FFF), Dr. Friedegard Föltz, Emmanuel George Fihavango, graduate Master International Social Sciences, received the award of the Friends of Friedensau for special commitment in the Department of Christian Social Sciences.
Dr Johannes Hartlapp, head of the B.A. Theology programme, presented the Waltraud and Herbert Blomstedt Prize: The Blomstedt Prize for Theology went to two graduates of the 2021 Master's programme in Theology: to Philip Nern (in absentia) and Christian Menn. The Blomstedt Prize for Music was awarded to Itje Zepnik, a 2022 graduate in B.A. Theology.
The academic year began a week earlier, on 10 October 2022, and Rector Prof. Roland Fischer was able to welcome the first-year students in the Friedensau Chapel, with a few arriving belatedly. In total, there are 57 new students enrolled in the Bachelor of Theology, the English-language Master's programmes Pastoral Ministry and Theological Studies, the Master of Counselling (marriage, family and life counselling),
International Social Sciences, Development Studies (online) and in the language course "German as a Foreign Language". They come to us from 25 different countries, the largest group from Germany. Now the nations represented among the students are Ethiopia, Brazil, Burundi, China, Germany, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Japan, Cameroon, Kenya, Congo, Croatia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Mexico, Romania, Zambia, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Ukraine and the USA.
A group of nine participants from the Advent Youth "1Year4Jesus" volunteer programme began their training in Friedensau at the same time.

Friedensau Adventist University is a state-recognised university run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Nine B.A. and M.A. degree courses can be taken here – some of them part-time and part-time – in the fields of Christian Social Work and Theology, as well as a course in 'German as a Foreign Language'. https://www.thh-friedensau.de.