Hopegivers postpones largest ever convocation ceremony

Kota – US–based Christian ministry, Hopegivers International (HI) has postponed its largest ever graduation ceremony following threats by local Muslim extremists of burning down a Hopegivers supported school and a local church.

Hopegivers International – with some 92 Bible institutes and one seminary – was expected to conduct the world’s largest ever seminary graduation ceremony in February, with most of the students being Dalit Christians. A number of Christian leaders were scheduled to speak at the historic graduation, including US theologian and seminary president Dr. Paige Patterson.

Last year’s graduation ceremony of 6,300 students was marked with protests by Hindu extremists who shouted anti–Christian slogans and created road–blocks to prevent people from attending the ceremony. This year, over 10,137 students, many of whom are Dalits, were supposed to graduate and receive a bicycle and a one–way train ticket to their first assignment.

“No longer ‘unwanted burdens’ or ‘outcastes,’ these Dalits instead become assets to the entire nation—to the needy of every caste, creed and religion,” Hopegivers had declared.

However, following police warnings that Muslim extremists would attack, the ministry called off its graduation programme and tried to hold it in some “safer locations” outside Kota in Rajasthan.

The event, originally planned from February 23 through February 27, was rescheduled to be held in the areas of Angamali, Kerala and Anantpur, Andhra Pradesh, according to BosNewsLife reports.