Dr. Jeffrey W. Carter ’92, president of Bethany Theological Seminary will serve as the Bridgewater College’s Commencement speaker for 2025.
The Rev. Carl Fike ’78, Church of the Brethren pastor will be Bridgewater’s Baccalaureate speaker.
Approximately 323 undergraduate students and 31 master’s students are expected to receive degrees at the Commencement exercises, which will be held Saturday, May 3, at 10 a.m. on the Campus Mall. Carter will deliver a speech entitled “Be Curious” to the new graduates.
The college’s Baccalaureate service will be held at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 2, in Cole Hall. Fike will deliver a speech entitled “Choices.”
Since 2013, Carter has been president of Bethany Theological Seminary.
Under Carter’s leadership, Bethany revitalized its residential program, developed technology rooms for synchronous learning, built a technology center for students in Africa, launched a graduate program for community engagement entitled Bethany BOLD, increased annual giving and realized increased enrollment for residential and distance learners. Carter teaches contextual leadership as part of Bethany’s graduate program.
A native of Westminster, Maryland, Carter graduated in 1992 from Bridgewater College with a bachelor’s in international studies. He earned a master of divinity degree from Bethany Theological Seminary in 1998 and was ordained in the Church of the Brethren. In 2006, he received a doctor of ministry degree with a focus in hermeneutics from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Prior to becoming Bethany’s president, he served the Manassas Church of the Brethren and the Florin Church of the Brethren, as well as serving in Brethren Volunteer Service at the Church of the Brethren Washington Office on Capitol Hill.
Carter was nominated by Sen. James Webb of Virginia to serve as guest chaplain for the United States Senate. He was the first member of the Church of the Brethren to do so. He currently serves on the World Council of Churches’ Commission of Churches for International Affairs, the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, is a member of a number of non-profit boards in the Richmond/Wayne County area, and is a regular speaker and consultant.
Carter and his wife, Kimberly Flora Carter ’94, live in Richmond, Indiana, and are the parents of three young adults.
The Rev. Carl Fike serves as the pastor of the Oak Park Church of the Brethren in Oakland, Maryland. He is retired from a career as an owner and executive selling residential building supplies and is a life trustee of Bridgewater College.
During his time as a student at Bridgewater, Fike was involved in Chorale and Pinion Players, the student-run theatre organization. He graduated from Bridgewater in 1978 with a degree in mathematics and embarked on a long career with his family’s business, Beachy Lumber Company. He also served as president of his local Chamber of Commerce, a founding Director and Treasurer of the Garrett County (Md.) Memorial Hospital Foundation and on the board of directors of banks in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York.
Missionary work has been important to Fike and his wife, Suzie, for much of their lives. Fike was a part of the Church of the Brethren’s Mission and Ministry Board, serving two years as its chairman. For the past 35 years, the couple have focused their work on residents of Sucre, Bolivia, an historic city in the southern foothills of the South American nation that has also experienced multi-generational poverty. Fike has been instrumental in fundraising, recruiting volunteers, organizing traveling construction teams and building the facilities for Unidad University, a Bible college and seminary; Prados, a residential drug and alcohol treatment center; and Shalom Is My Home, a Christian orphanage and school, all in Sucre. The orphanage provides homes for about 45 children and serves nearly 100 elementary students in its afterschool program.
Founded in 1880, Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Bridgewater College is home to approximately 1,450 students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergraduate majors and minors and four graduate programs housed within three distinct schools.
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Rebecca Barnabi
