PhD Graduation Address
On Friday 21 March, 2025, I finally graduated with my PhD. It had been a long a rocky journey to get there, so it was amazing to share in that occasion with family and friends, and other PhD students I had studied with along the way. I had the privilege of being asked to give one of two valedictory speeches on the night. Below is what I shared on the night, with the video at the bottom of this page. ____________ Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Archbishop, distinguished guests, staff, fellow graduands, family and friends. A PhD gave me the chance to wrestle deeply with significant questions: “given that the church confesses that Jesus is fully human and fully divine, why did Jesus worship?” And what does that mean for how we understand worship itself? Is it merely a human activity towards the divine, or is something much bigger going on? To explore that, I turned to the world of drama. With that framework in mind, I saw Jesus, the worshipper, as an actor revealin...