Fuller Seminary Returns to Its Birthplace Church for 77th Commencement

Seventy-nine years ago, 39 students sat in child-sized chairs in the kindergarten rooms at Lake Avenue Church and formed the inaugural class of Fuller Theological Seminary. On Saturday, a new generation of graduates walked across a stage in that same church, earning master’s and doctoral degrees at the seminary’s 77th commencement.

Fuller’s annual ceremony, held June 13 at Lake Avenue Church, 393 North Lake Avenue, marked another chapter for one of Pasadena’s longest-standing graduate institutions. The seminary livestreamed the event in English, Spanish, and Korean at fuller.edu/watch for family and friends unable to attend in person.

The ceremony began at 10:00 a.m. with doors opening at 9:00 a.m. No tickets were required. Graduates from the seminary’s two schools — the School of Mission and Theology and the School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy — received their degrees under the leadership of President David Emmanuel Goatley, who has led the institution since January 2023.

“Congratulations to all our graduating students in the Class of 2026! We are so proud of you!” Fuller Seminary posted on Facebook on the day of the ceremony.

Goatley, the seminary’s sixth president and the first African American to hold the position, previously served at Duke Divinity School before coming to Pasadena. When he was appointed in 2022, he said he was “thrilled to follow the Spirit’s lead into a new era of teaching, learning, and serving the church and the world,” according to a seminary press release.

The commencement capped a week of celebrations at Fuller’s Pasadena campus at 135 North Oakland Avenue. Centro Latino hosted a gathering for graduating Latino and Latina students on Thursday, June 11. The School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy held a hooding ceremony for its graduates on Friday, June 12. A graduation banquet for Chinese graduates and their families was scheduled for Monday, June 15, at the campus.

Live translation in Spanish and Korean was offered during the main ceremony via headsets available in the lobby. GradImages provided professional photography as graduates crossed the stage.

Fuller Seminary was founded in 1947 by radio evangelist Charles E. Fuller and pastor Harold John Ockenga. The institution’s first students held classes at Lake Avenue Church before the seminary moved to its newly built Payton Hall on Oakland Avenue in 1953. The seminary has since grown to include campuses in Houston and Phoenix, with an enrollment of approximately 664 full-time equivalent students and more than 44,000 alumni worldwide, according to the seminary.

The commencement comes roughly 17 months after the January 2025 Eaton Fire, which impacted members of the Fuller community. The seminary’s Pasadena campus closed temporarily before resuming in-person operations on January 21, 2025. The seminary’s commencement page noted that some hotel discount codes for visiting families may be unavailable due to ongoing Eaton Fire recovery efforts.

Regional commencement ceremonies were also scheduled at Fuller’s Arizona campus at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley on June 13 at 6:00 p.m. and at the Houston campus on June 20 at 10:30 a.m.

Complimentary parking was available at 185 North Madison Avenue and at Gateway Plaza, with shuttle vans running to and from Lake Avenue Church. The Metro light rail Lake Avenue stop is a three-minute walk from the church.

A year before its 80th anniversary, Fuller continues to graduate the ministers, scholars, therapists, and leaders it has been training since those first 39 students found their chairs.