B-CU Alumnus, Reverend Dr. Daran Mitchell to Serve as 2019 Consecration Speaker
Service of Consecration
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Gertrude Heyn Chapel
7 p.m.
DAYTONA BEACH, FL- Dr. Daran Hernandez Mitchell will serve as the Consecration speaker on Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 7 p.m. at Gertrude Heyn Chapel. He is a native of Tampa, Florida, where he received his Christian nurturing by way of the Hood Temple A.M.E. Zion Church. It was at Hood Temple, where Daran accepted Christ and his call to the ministry at age 15, preached his trial sermon at age 16, and now has been preaching the gospel for thirty 30 years.
Dr. Mitchell graduated Magna Cum Laude earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion/Philosophy-Liberal Studies from Bethune-Cookman College; a Master of Divinity degree from Hood Theological Seminary, Salisbury, North Carolina; and a Doctor of Ministry degree with an emphasis in Worship/Liturgy and the Black Church from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia.
Currently, Dr. Mitchell is the Senior Pastor of Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church, Greensboro, North Carolina (West Central North Carolina Annual Conference), and has served congregations in North and South Carolina, and New York. Additionally, he has served as an adjunct professor in religious subject areas such as: Christian Ethics and Introduction to Religion, Old and New Testaments, Pastoral Theology, and more.
Dr. Mitchell serves and leads several committees for the West Central North Carolina Annual Conference. He is also the President of the Greensboro Chapter of the Hood Theological Seminary Alumni Association; member of the Board of Directors of the Dorothy Walls Conference and Retreat Center; member of the Tau Omega Chapter, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.; Director of Religious Affairs for the Greensboro Branch of the NAACP; steering committee member of the Greensboro Faith Leaders’ Council; and President of the Pulpit Forum of Greensboro and Vicinity.
Dr. Mitchell has received numerous awards and honors including: recipient of the Clinton Wilcox Award, Hood Theological Seminary; the George Junius Leake Memorial Young Ministers’ Award from the Cape Fear Conference Lay Council of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; recipient of the Religious Leadership Award from the Brooklyn Branch of the NAACP; recipient of the Ecumenical Leadership Award from the Theta Chapter of the National Phi Delta Kappa Teaching Sorority; recipient of the Ecumenical Leadership Award from the Medgar Evers Community Council; the Prestigious Martin Luther King Board of Preachers at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia; the Livingstone College Leaders Hall of Fame, and the Teaching Excellence and Service Award, Hood Theological Seminary.
Dr. Mitchell is married to the Reverend Lorraine Lynn Kennedy-Mitchell and they are the proud parents of one son, Caylen.
About the Service of Consecration:
During the 1930s, deeply rooted in faith and history, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, established the Service of Consecration as a sacred time of recommitment. Originally, the religious service known as Baccalaureate served as the worship service for graduates. Over the years, Baccalaureate Service, which was intended to allow graduates to experience the power of God within a religious setting, became a service that more closely mirrored the academic protocol found in commencement programs. For many years, it was included among the scheduled Commencement activities.
Today, the Service of Consecration is a sacred worship experience for our graduates; a worship service designed to give graduating seniors the opportunity to recommit their lives and be consecrated for future service to God. The Consecration Service fulfills the motto, “Enter to Learn, Depart to Serve” in ways that are pleasing to God. It is the time we ask God to anoint and bless our graduates.
With its rich history and tradition, the service of consecration will close with a Candlelight Wreath Laying Ceremony win front of the burial site of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. For the complete spring commencement calendar, click here.