For a little bit of inspiration, as I was writing this week’s article, I pulled up YouTube on my computer and typed in Pomp and Circumstance. After I clicked on the first option, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, I turned my attention to my other screen and started typing.
Did you know… Pomp and Circumstance has words? As I was sitting, listening to the traditional march, all of a sudden, all of Royal Albert Hall – and what seemed like all of London – burst into song!
It turns out that the music we’re most familiar with is only a portion, just a section, of six marches composed by Sir Edward Elgar in 1901. The piece was utilized in 1902 for the coronation of Edward VII and was so dearly loved that it was considered a possible replacement for God Save the Queen as England’s national anthem.
It was adopted into American tradition four years later when Yale University presented Elgar with an honorary doctorate in music. The song served as that graduation’s recessional, but as other colleges and schools began utilizing the piece, it quickly transitioned into the processional we are accustomed to experiencing at graduations.
Today, as we take a few minutes to recognize and celebrate these incredible students and their accomplishments – as well as the parents and loved ones who have invested in them and helped make these achievements possible, I find today’s text appropriate as we commission them into whatever next steps God has for them:
Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving…
Students, know these things to be true:
- Your Church Family has been, is, and will be praying for you.
- God’s Word and His Holy Spirit are always faithful. Always.
- While not all life is necessarily pomp and circumstance, it is, without question, an incredible journey that Jesus has in store.
Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.
Graduates, congratulations.
And may the God who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet!