Liverpool was awash with the University’s colours, as students and their loved ones gathered in the city centre for Winter Graduation.
Taking place at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, the ceremony saw more than 250 students collect their PhD, Masters, and Undergraduate degrees.
Elina Innanen, who left her native Finland to study at Hope, described how she loved the University so much she returned five years after completing her undergraduate to study her masters.
She said: “I’d never been to Liverpool before, but the combined honours option of the Film Studies and Media course appealed to be. I was keen explore the broad spectrum of both the practical and theory side.
“I graduated from the BA in 2012 and decided to return to Hope for my Film, Media and Society MA in 2017. I really loved my time here and I’m now working as a Graduate Assistant in the University’s Audio Visual department.”
As well as recognising the hard work of Liverpool Hope students, the Graduation ceremony saw Professor Christopher Rowland awarded with the degree of Doctor of Divinity honoris causa.
Speaking about the award, Professor Rowland said: “The invitation to accept an honorary doctorate cited my work using the experience of marginal communities to interpret the Bible and my connections with Liverpool. Nothing could better summarise what has been central to my life for the last 35 years.
“The connections with Liverpool have enabled me to live out my vocation to the full. I am thankful for that opportunity, and also now the recognition by Liverpool Hope University of my work with people in Liverpool. That has gone on alongside my university work, but has been absolutely essential to it.”
Professor Rowland has written widely on the interpretation of the New Testament and the relevance of early Christian experience to contemporary life, particularly the contribution to political criticism of the Book of Revelation and its contribution to Christian intellectual thought.
He spent time in Brazil learning about radical Christian discipleship from grassroots communities, and this connection with Brazil and Latin American liberation theology led to his appointment as chair of Christian Aid’s Latin American and Caribbean Committee and a member of its board of trustees.