Hobart and William Smith Colleges

In This Week in Photos, we recognize the 2020 Commencement speaker, The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry ’75, D.D.’20, and his moving address to, as he says: “the awesome, incredible, dynamic, remarkable, irretrievable, undefeatable Class of 2020.”

Like the Greatest Generation, the Classes of 2020 have been “formed and forged in a crucible of hardship,” the Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church tells the graduates.

“Whether you know it or not, and whether we know fully what this means or not, you have been and are being formed and forged in a crucible of hardship. Not yours alone, that of others. And you and the generation of which you are a part, have learned and reminded the rest of us about sacrifice.”

“Part of your most important formation as human beings has happened in the crucible not of a Great Depression, but of a great pandemic.”

Following the murder of George Floyd last year, Curry describes “a rising up of a generation of young people, and more than that, they were the most multiethnic, multiracial, pluralistic, rainbow children of God that America has ever seen.”

“And they — you — rose up and called on America: America, be America. Stand up for liberty and justice. America, be America: one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice, not just for some, but justice for all.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, not by vote of Congress, not by vote of parliament, not by a priest, pope, potentate or preacher, but endowed by the creator with an unalienable right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”

In these purpose-driven young people who “showed us hope again” and “reminded us of faith again,” Curry recognizes what his father meant when he once told a young Curry: “The Lord didn’t put us here just to consume the oxygen.”

Curry continues: “This is not a sermon, but if it was the prophet Micah might say it this way: What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?”

“Jesus of Nazareth said it this way: The supreme law of God in the highest end of humanity is to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Doing that, we will figure out how to take the jangling discord of our nation, as Dr. King said, and create a beautiful symphony of God’s wonders and humanity.”

In awarding Curry the honorary degree, President Joyce P. Jacobsen says: “In the pantheon of alumni, there are some who rise so high that they capture the attention of the world. Michael Curry is such an alumnus.” She defines his life and career as an “energetic, inspirational ministry of love that has touched the lives of millions of people around the world.”

“I'm not ashamed to say, that these Colleges helped to form Michael Curry for whatever good I have been able to do, whatever that was. What happened here, helped to shape me in ways I didn't even know, until they unfolded. And I daresay, you will discover the same for you.”

“So, I came here today to say thank you. But I guess I shouldn't have been surprised about you. After all, the Lord didn't put you here just to consume the oxygen. So don't give up, don't give in, don't you quit because it gets kind of hard.”

“Because, as Langston Hughes said in the poem Mother to Son, we're still climbing. We must continue to climb. In life, for you, ain't been no crystal stair.”

“Class of 2020, God love you, God bless you. And now you go out into that world. And don't you quit.”