The Conferment Ceremony for Doctoral degrees at the University of Helsinki attempts to imitate the rituals sketched in the University Statutes of 1275 at Paris, a ceremony that has been repeated for over 365 years, in what is now Finland.
The three-day celebration includes: preparatory practices and a welcoming dinner for honorary doctors; the formal Conferment Ceremony, which takes place in the Festival Hall of the University and at the neighboring Cathedral, followed by the Gala Dinner; and a celebratory cruise at the Archipelago of Helsinki. Given the grandeur of the celebration, doctoral degrees are only conferred every five years. This solemn event is in Latin and Finnish. The male faculty and degree recipients wear tails, while the female faculty and degree recipients wear long-sleeved, long black dresses.
This year 58 doctorates and 9 honorary doctorates were conferred.
The solemn ceremony lasted three and a half hours, and consisted of orchestral and choral music, a theological examination of the primus doctor, an inaugural discourse, the formal presentation of degrees, a church service of organ and choral music, Scriptural readings, and a sermon by the Lutheran Bishop of Helsinki. The ceremony tokens were the formal diploma, a Bible symbolizing the central focus of the Theology faculty (other university faculties gave swords), and a purple doctoral top hat.
The traditional character of the event was signaled by the program booklet, which listed all Doctors of Theology, by achievement and by honor, down through the centuries, beginning with the first known Finnish Doctor of Theology, Stephanus Laurentius Finno, a Master of Arts, Guardian of the Franciscan Friary in
Tiborg, Provincial Minister of Dacia, who died in 1496. Stephen F. Brown is #878 on the rolls of the Finnish Doctors of Theology.
The members of the Brown family all sensed the power of this long-standing university tradition, particularly when they compared their photos (R) to those from the 1950 Conferment Ceremony (L).
|
